Motivational Interviewing in Academic Coaching: Empowering Writers Through Compassionate Support
What if we approached academic writing as a relationship?
Too many writers have internalized shame, self-criticism, and perfectionism from years of red-pen trauma. As an academic coach and editor, I’ve seen how this stifles creativity and stops progress cold.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) offers a different path—one rooted in empathy, collaboration, and a deep respect for autonomy. Originally developed for clinical settings, MI is a method of guiding rather than directing. It trusts that the client already holds the seeds of change within them. Our job is to create the conditions for those seeds to grow.
In academic coaching, this looks like:
Asking open-ended questions to help writers explore what they want—not what they think they “should” want.
Reflecting their strengths and affirming their values.
Supporting ambivalence without judgment.
Offering structure without pressure.
When I integrate MI into writing support, I watch students and scholars come alive again. They stop fighting themselves and start moving forward. The inner critic softens. The voice of curiosity gets louder.
And from that place, writing flows.
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