Recovery-Oriented Communication and Relationship Building
This domain tests the conversation skills that make peer support work: reflective listening, evoking the person's own reasons for change, and language that conveys respect. Items draw on motivational interviewing, the stages of change model, and person-first language.
Motivational interviewing, in brief
The spirit is partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation - not persuasion. Core skills are OARS: open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries. Complex reflections name the feeling or the meaning underneath ("you're exhausted from holding it together for everyone else"). Elicit–provide–elicit for information: ask what the person already knows, offer briefly, ask what they make of it. Ambivalence is normal and is not resistance to be overcome. Avoid the righting reflex - the urge to fix, warn, and lecture - which reliably produces more sustain talk.
Change talk
The four processes are engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. Listen for change talk (DARN: desire, ability, reasons, need) and strengthen it with reflections and affirmations; commitment talk (CAT: commitment, activation, taking steps) signals readiness to plan. Reflect sustain talk without arguing, and avoid the expert trap.
Stages of change
Precontemplation (not considering change), contemplation (thinking about it), preparation (planning), action, and maintenance, with lapses common. Match the task to the stage: raising awareness and building trust early; exploring options and confidence in contemplation and preparation; supporting what the person has already chosen in action.
Worked example
Participant: "I don't know why you bother. I'll never stay sober." Poor: "You have to want it. Everyone relapses once." (arguing and minimizing) Better: "You're discouraged, and part of you isn't sure anything will be different this time." Then evoke: "What's helped you get through hard stretches before, even briefly?" The reflection lowers defensiveness; the open question draws out experience the person already owns.
Language and traps
Use person-first language: "person with a substance use disorder," "person in recovery." Avoid "addict," "junkie," "clean/dirty," "noncompliant," "manipulative," "enabling," and "tough love." Other traps: premature problem-solving, cheerleading instead of affirming specific strengths, rapid-fire closed questions, ignoring change talk when it appears, and treating a lapse as failure.