Motivational Interviewing vs. Narrative Coaching
Core Distinction
Motivational Interviewing (MI) helps people resolve ambivalence and strengthen intrinsic motivation toward behavior change. Narrative Coaching (NC) helps people expand awareness and re-author the story that gives rise to their identity, beliefs, and behaviors.
In short:
MI works at the level of motivation and choice
NC works at the level of meaning and identity.
Intention: Behavior Change vs. Story Transformation
Motivational Interviewing Purpose: Increase motivation to act on a specific goal or change behavior. Motivational Interviewing Focus: “What will help you move toward this change?” Motivational Interviewing Underlying Logic: Psychological — based on cognitive dissonance, ambivalence, and readiness for change. Narrative Coaching Purpose: Evoke transformation in how a person sees and locates themselves in their story. Narrative Focus: “Who are you being in this story? Who do you want to become?” Narrative Underlying Logic: Ontological — rooted in narrative identity, paradox, and coherence across mind, body, and story.
At the MCC level, the Narrative Coach moves beyond helping clients “do differently” to helping them be differently — and through that, behavior naturally shifts.
Methodology: Structured Guidance vs. Emergent Dialogue
Motivational Interviewing Method: Follows a structured process: engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning.
Motivational Interviewing Approach: Uses reflective listening and scaling questions to move clients from ambivalence to commitment.
Motivational Interviewing Progress: Linear progression from
talk → insight → plan → action.
Narrative Coaching Method: Emergent and fluid — follows the client’s story logic and emotional resonance.
Narrative Approach: Uses inquiry, metaphor, embodiment, paradox, creativity and silence to surface the story beneath the story.
Narrative Progress: Nonlinear — story loops, contradictions, and paradoxes are part of the process.
The Narrative Coach dances inside the story without needing to control the choreography. Transformation happens in the client’s lived experience, not through directed steps.
Language: Guiding Awareness Without Inserting Ourselves
Motivational Interviewing (MI) Language Function: Designed to evoke self-persuasion. The coach reflects what they hear (“change talk”) to help clients resolve ambivalence and commit to action.
Motivational Interviewing Coach Role: Translator of ambivalence. The coach reflects and reframes client statements to highlight discrepancies and evoke motivation.
Motivational Interviewing Coach Language: Reflective and interpretive: “On one hand you want to quit, and on the other, you’re afraid of losing control.” Motivational Interviewing Philosophical Frame: Language is a tool for persuasion — helping clients articulate and reinforce desired behaviors.
Motivational Interviewing Transformation Source: Insight arises through guided reflection and reframing from the coach.
Narrative Coaching Language Function: Designed to expand self-awareness. The coach uses the client’s exact words, tone, and story rhythm to deepen exploration within their own narrative logic.
Narrative Coach Role: Facilitator of awareness. The coach invites reflection without introducing personal observations or interpretations, allowing the client’s own words to generate insight.
Narrative Coach Language: Inquisitive and story-centric: “What are the different roles control plays in your story? For what reasons? When does one role take over the others?”
Narrative Philosophical Frame: Language is a mirror for consciousness — helping clients hear how they construct reality through story, emotion, and embodied meaning.
Narrative Transformation Source: Insight arises through the client’s own language and the embodied awareness it awakens.
Coach Stance: Guide vs. Witness
Motivational Interviewing Coach Identity: Collaborative guide — evokes client’s own reasons for change.
Motivational Interviewing Presence: Empathic and directional (“Let’s look at what matters most to you.”)
Motivational Interviewing Power Dynamic: Subtly expert — coach helps organize motivation.
Narrative Coaching Coach Identity: Transformational witness — holds space for the client to encounter themselves. Narrative Coaching Presence: Spacious and embodied (“What feels most alive or true in this moment?”)
Narrative Coaching Power Dynamic: Wholly client-authored — the story reveals itself through their awareness, not our analysis.
At the MCC level, presence replaces process — the coach’s way of being is what catalyzes awareness.
Outcome: Action Plan vs. Narrative Coherence
Motivational Interviewing Result: Increased motivation and commitment to act. Behavior-level change.
Motivational Interviewing Marker of Success: “I’m ready to do it.” I'm still the same person-accepting the plan presented.
Narrative Coaching Result: Expanded awareness, coherence, and agency — which naturally lead to new actions. Identity-level transformation.
Narrative Coaching Marker of Success: is less about resolving ambivalence and more about reclaiming authorship — the client exits not with a plan, but with presence & commitment/belief in self. The plan will evolve as the person evolves.
In Summary:
Motivational Interviewing = “How do I motivate myself to act differently?”
Motivational Interviewing uses language to shape motivation.
Narrative Coaching = “What story am I living that keeps recreating this experience — and what story wants to be told through me next?”
Narrative Coaching uses language to reveal meaning.
With Narrative Coaching, the coach trusts that when the client fully hears themselves, transformation unfolds organically — no insertion, no interpretation, just awareness doing what it does best: awaken.
