Child Welfare Practices, Laws, And Family Engagement Strategies Practice Test

Motivational Interviewing is the approach designed to explore and resolve ambivalence about change in a respectful, collaborative way. It treats the client as the expert on their own life and focuses on eliciting their own motivations for change rather than directing them. In practice, it uses open-ended questions, reflective listening, affirmations, and summaries to help the person articulate the pros and cons of changing versus staying the same. A key idea is to evoke “change talk”—statements that indicate desire, ability, reasons, and need for change—and to roll with resistance rather than confront it, guiding the person toward commitment and readiness to act. In child welfare, this helps engage families who may be unsure or resistant to services, safety planning, or parenting changes, by reducing defensiveness and increasing intrinsic motivation to take steps that promote child safety and well-being. Psychoanalysis focuses on deep, often long-term exploration of unconscious conflicts, which isn’t specifically aimed at changing current behaviors in the moment. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy targets changing thoughts and behaviors through structured skills and techniques, not primarily through eliciting motivation or resolving ambivalence. Talk therapy can be broad and nonspecific, lacking the targeted focus on ambivalence and motivation that MI provides.