ture-oriented (goal) and action-based (What will you do? ). Coaching com- bines insight with a practical plan to act on that insight. Coaching is based on the belief that the person being coached is the expert on their own life and has many of the resources and abilities needed to achieve their goals. Coaching is a relationship with a purpose, focused on facilitating change. Coaching is about change—better, faster, deeper change. There are a whole host of coaching approaches and techniques available to fit the needs and circumstances of the person being coached, but the heart of coaching is asking helpful and powerful questions to surface the coachee’s awareness, motivation, and confidence. Motivational Interviewing. Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an approach and technique for encouraging, enhancing, and accelerating behavioral change in individuals. Like the broader field of coaching, motivational inter- viewing involves deep listening, surfacing the individual’s inner motivation to change, and asking powerful questions to help the person successfully change certain behaviors. MI recognizes that we all tend to be somewhat ambivalent about change. The key is to amplify and encourage the person’s motivation to change while rolling with their natural resistance. In studies, this approach has shown great success in improving outcomes in health care, substance abuse recovery, and other areas, including reentry. Mentoring is different. Mentors draw upon their personal experience and knowledge to give guidance and advice to their mentees. Mentors can help returning citizens restore and rebuild social capital that was depleted during incarceration. They can open doors, broker introductions, provide references, and give encouragement. When the fit is right, mentors can be effective and inspiring role models, especially if the mentor is a returning citizen. The men- tee can take encouragement that “If he did it, maybe I can too!” Coaching and motivational interviewing are perfect for people who know they need help but who don’t want to be told what to do. Mentoring is per- fect for people who are looking for a longer-term relationship with a more experienced role model. Both can be used in group settings but are more frequently done one-on-one. To give you a sense of how that might work, a typical coaching relationship with a returning citizen might develop like this: 1. An initial coaching session where you explain how coaching works, lay out the ground rules, and begin to explore what changes the person wants to make. 2. A series of 30- to 60-minute coaching sessions, held from a few weeks to a month apart. A popular coaching model, the G.R.O.W. model, explores the person’s most motivating Goal, their current Reality, their Options/
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