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School counselors can use motivational interviewing to support students with anxiety or depression about school by listening deeply to their experience, validating their feelings, and gently helping them explore what matters to them and what small changes feel possible. Motivational interviewing in schools does not replace therapy, but it gives counselors and other educators a collaborative way to talk about change that supports both mental health and school success.

In motivational interviewing in schools, “stage‑matching” means adjusting how you talk with a student based on how ready they are to change a specific behavior, like attendance, engagement, working with AI or a specific behavior.

The stages of change describe how ready a person is to change a specific behavior, and motivational interviewing is a way of talking that meets them where they are and helps them move forward.