January 2016
Dear Friend,
In December, my husband Barry and I had the very good fortune to visit Cuba on an educational tour. It was the trip of a lifetime!
The country is so very interesting and exciting. I had a chance to meet and talk with a number of health care providers, who told me about the world class health care system in Cuba. The sad part is that the people of Cuba are not free, economically or politically. Most can not decide how much they can earn, nor can they leave the country when they wish. Housing is a huge issue, so most families live with 3 or 4 generations in one house.
Here’s a pic of me and Barry in Vinales, the tobacco growing region.
Life is Good!
Feature Article
Can You Use MI on the Phone?
I’m frequently asked if MI works well in telephone consultations with clients. The answer is emphatically, yes. As a matter of fact, there are often advantages to the phone. It’s important, though to minimize the distractions in your environment so you can focus fully on the conversation.
When we speak by phone, there’s no bias because of aspects of the client that you see. When you are face to face with someone, you cannot help but respond to their appearance, which almost always leads to sub-conscious (or conscious) judgment and bias. While it might not seem like a benefit, on the phone you must focus more fully on just what the person is saying and the tone in their voice. Your ears can become very finely tuned to listening for changes in volume, energy, mood, etc. Surprisingly, if you are really paying attention, you can really hear when someone is smiling and can actually pick up a wide range of facial expressions, just by listening with your ears and your heart. Of course, this requires that you have minimal distraction in your own environment, and that you have very finely tuned listening skills. I say this often, but it takes time and practice to develop this sort of listening.
The client also benefits from not having their own visual biases activated in response to you. When you can engage the other person by asking good questions and demonstrating that you are listening, really listening using reflective statements, the client will be more likely to feel that you are engaged, and interested in their thoughts, ideas and goals. I think the power of language is perhaps amplified on the phone, since in the absence of visual input, language is the main way we communicate.
For most people, a fairly high level of skill with MI is needed for effectively using MI on the phone. Without the visual input, your listening skills must be finely honed. If you work with clients on the phone, that’s a great reason to brush up on your MI.
