Michelle Taylor - That MAKES SENSE

28/08/2026

Introduction to Motivational Interviewing for Occupational Therapy Practice begins on the 4th September.
If you're an OT and you've been thinking about developing skills in Motivational Interviewing, this is a great way to begin.
If you're an OT working in any area of healthcare and social wellbeing, you'll be having conversations to help people change and grow.
MI is an evidence-based way of having these conversations to support our clients through the struggles, and often hard work, of change.
MI can also support our teams, our organisations, our communities and carers, and importantly, ourselves, through the processes of change.
You'll also learn to apply Occupational Approaches to Motivational Interviewing to meet the unique needs of your practice and clients.
This is a small group where we devote plenty of time to practice and application.
I love delivering this training, partnering with
Occupational Therapy Australia, and hope to see some of you there. Let me know if you have any questions. To learn more and register see the link in comments.

PS If you can't make this training, we have another course in February 2027.

23/06/2026

If you're an Occupational Therapist wanting to develop your skills in Sensory Approaches, here's an opportunity for you!

https://www.otaus.com.au/event/cf2325f7-c3b7-ed11-947a-005056be13b5

Hello Occupational Therapists! There's still time to learn about Sensory Approaches for your practice before the end of financial year! Regardless of your area of work, this practical online course provides over 9 hours of CPD to help you integrate Sensory Approaches into your practice. You will be....

24/03/2026

What do I have to offer?

Occupational Therapy Australia's Occupational Rehab and Work Interest Group invited me to support OTs from across Australia in a one hour session.

I know virtually nothing about Occupational Rehab and supporting return to work! 🫣

I chose to take my career in another direction - that of mental health and wellbeing.

The organisers and participants told me they were interested in Motivational Interviewing, pacing and the stages of change.

So I leant into Motivational Interviewing.

I aimed to model the spirit of MI - to partner, to empower.
I used ASK OFFER ASK as a framework for our session.
I offered choices.
I evoked participants' experiences, needs, questions.
We explored how MI is integrated with Occupational Approaches.
We had an exchange rather than a presentation.

We had an hour that hopefully felt meaningful and tailored around the group's needs.

It resonated as a model - to help in our clinical work with its complexities and time constraints.

Occupational Therapy Australia

It reminded us MI can support change in many ways.

Would love to hear if you are using MI to support professional development and training.

16/03/2026

A week ago I had the real pleasure of delivering Introduction to Motivational Interviewing for Occupational Therapy Practice to a wonderful group of OTs for Occupational Therapy Australia

In typical fashion, my desk is scattered with exciting resources!

Occupational Approaches help us to promote access to Motivational Interviewing.

When there is a lot of thinking and talking involved, it can be harder for some of our clients to participate.

How will we adapt MI so that people can participate in conversations and interactions that support change?

If you want to learn the skills of Motivational Interviewing and integrate these with your current OT practice, I will be delivering training again in April.

Here is the link. I would love to see you there!

https://otaus.com.au/event/241ed541-7ba9-f011-9a4d-005056ac276b

27/02/2026

There's still time to join us for INTRODUCTION TO MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING! Book using this link. https://www.trybooking.com/DHUHQ

You will learn🌱

● The spirit of MI - Partnership, Acceptance, Compassion, Empowerment
● The four tasks of MI - Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, Planning
● The core skills - Open questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries
● Strengthening Change Talk
● Softening Sustain Talk
● Ways of working with ambivalence
● Responding to discord
● The stages of change model and how MI fits here
● Offering advice and information in an MI consistent way
● Supporting Importance, Confidence and Readiness to change

I will also show you ways to use MI that support access for folks with diverse needs. Here I am with a stone - rather than always talking, one option is to write down values on objects! This is also a great memory aid! 🌟

This is a fun and practical workshop where you'll leave with plenty of opportunities to have practised MI.

I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Scan the QR Code to learn more and book your spot before next Friday!

23/02/2026

What are your clients struggling with?

The way they eat
Mood or anxiety
Habits that aren’t always helping
Quality of relationships
Sleep patterns
The activities or exercise they do
Reaching for new goals
School, work, parenting
Managing symptoms of pain, trauma, mental or physical health
Participating to their fullest in life

Many of us support people to achieve personal behaviour change.

And we know this can be some of the most important and hardest work we and our clients do together.

Motivational Interviewing may help people to change and to thrive.

MI can help us too, preventing burnout, promoting hope and fostering partnerships with our clients.

I'm offering INTRODUCTION TO MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING training online in March.

This aims to be a fun and practical course with lots of resources and tools for everyday use. You'll walk away with the knowledge, skills and confidence to use MI straight away.

To say thank you for your support, I am offering a discount of 30%. Use the discount of FBMARMI

Not sure what Motivational Interviewing is, and what skills you'll develop?

You can read more and book using this link
https://www.trybooking.com/DHUHQ

Or scan the QR code below

Would love to hear what your clients struggle with most?

For me, it's confidence to participate in meaningful activities, and managing habits and symptoms that feel overwhelming and beyond personal control.

20/02/2026

I want to tell you about the INFORMATION SANDWICH!

As someone who is daily telling people a range of things, this has changed my life and work for the better.

What can go wrong providing your expert advice to the people you support?

Defensiveness
Rebelling
No change
Even more of the current behaviour
Lost confidence
Breakdown in the relationship
Lowered motivation

(And these can show up in us too!)

ASK OFFER ASK is a framework for giving information and advice. It comes from Motivational Interviewing.

I like to call it the INFORMATION SANDWICH!

We sandwich our advice with helpful questions.

Here's one example of questions I can use.

What do you know about this?
INFORMATION offered
How might those ideas work for you?

Imagine someone walks into your sandwich shop. It's wise not to start making the sandwich without checking in, even if they liked a certain filling last time, even if we have a popular filling.

Rather than a one way conversation, think of this as an exchange, to tailor the ‘filling’ of the sandwich, or the advice, to someone's unique needs.

With Motivational Interviewing, we don’t lose our expertise, we simply share it in a different way that is more likely to bring about change.

I'm really happy to offer opportunities to develop your skills in Motivational Interviewing, including how we do one of our core tasks - giving information.

My training in March is open for registration. Learn more and book your spot for INTRODUCTION TO MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING by going to the comments or use this link.

https://www.trybooking.com/DHUHQ

PS My sandwich in the photo is awfully big! It's easy to overestimate how much information people need in order to change. So another tip is, avoid giving too much information at once!

19/02/2026

Motivational Interviewing Workshop with Michelle Taylor
www.michelleataylor.com

Do you help people to change?
Do you want to use evidence-based ways to do this?

Join me for INTRODUCTION TO MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING - a practical online training in March.

As a Member of MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers) and an Occupational Therapist with over 30 years experience using MI to support people with complex needs, alongside their families, communities and teams, I have helped thousands of people to learn MI.

MI can support people working in health care, coaching and wellbeing, leadership, education, social services, corrective services, disabilities, families and paediatrics.

Walk away from this training with the knowledge, skills and resources to use MI straight away.

🌱 For a limited time, I am offering a discount of 30% off the workshop price of $895. Use the code FBMARMI.

Find out more and book!
Use this link https://www.trybooking.com/DHUHQ
Or scan the QR Code in the comments

13/02/2026

What if...

Helping people to change felt easier!

We saw ambivalence as the norm, and a good thing!

Our advice was heard, and landed with meaning and interest!

What if...

We welcomed people's lapses!

We didn't have to fix everything!

We didn't have to know all the answers!

Personal behaviour change can be very hard. People may lose motivation and confidence.

These feelings can spread to us and others in that person's life.

It's important that we have evidence-based ways to support people if we are going to continue to do the work that matters and bring about meaningful change.

What if ...

🌤️ We had a partner in this change process!

🌤️ We looked forward to these kinds of conversations!

🌤️ We could bring our unique contributions, and value add to these!

Motivational Interviewing may help you and those you work with. Anyone can learn the skills, spirit and strategies of MI.

This is a photo of myself and Professor Bill Miller (creator of MI) and Dr Theresa Moyers at the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers Forum in Minneapolis last year.

They are both legends of the MI world and I have learnt so much from them over the past 30 plus years!

Testimony too, to the fact that MI has helped me to not only do the work, but to love the work I do!

If that shift interests you and you'd like to learn more

🌟 Check out the training in March with this link
https://www.trybooking.com/DHUHQ

Scan the QR code in the comments

For a limited time, use the code FBMARMI for a 30% discount.

🌟 Check out my website and sign up for resources www.michelleataylor.com

12/02/2026

I'm excited to be offering this training in 3 weeks.

This will be a fun and practical series of workshops, and there will be resources to take away for you and your clients!

If you're looking for ways to have conversations to help people change and thrive, Motivational Interviewing can support you.

There are still some places available.

Sign up here https://www.trybooking.com/DHUHQ