Free Therapist Training›Motivational Interviewing Toolkit›Treatment Plan Example
Last updated: November 11, 2026
A motivational interviewing treatment plan records the client's goals in the client's own words, the reasons behind them and the client's readiness, and for each goal it sets measurable objectives, the MI strategies the clinician will use and the way progress will be measured. The template covers each of those parts, and a completed motivational interviewing treatment plan example, a 12-week plan with two goals for a counseling client who is unsure whether to quit drinking or cut back, shows how to turn motivational interviewing treatment plan goals into measurable objectives, including objectives for a client who is not yet ready to change.
The template comes from Sentio's free motivational interviewing toolkit, and MI is one of the core therapy models taught in the Sentio MFT program. It pairs with the change plan worksheet, which a client fills in once ready to plan and which a treatment plan objective can name as a step.
This is an optional aid from Sentio's motivational interviewing toolkit, free to adapt to your setting.
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Plan details
| Item | What to record |
|---|---|
| Client and dates | Client name or initials, clinician, setting, the date the plan was written and the period it covers. |
| The concern in the client's words | A short quote of how the client describes the concern, plus any diagnosis or presenting problem the setting requires. |
| What the client wants | Each goal as the client states it, in the client's words. |
| Why it matters | The values and reasons the client gives for the goals. |
| Readiness at the start | Importance and confidence ratings (0 to 10) with the client's reasons, and the ambivalence in brief: what draws the client toward change and what draws the client toward keeping things as they are. |
For each goal
| Item | What to record |
|---|---|
| Goal | The goal in the client's words. |
| Measurable objectives with target dates | One to three objectives, each an observable action or result with a number and a target date. When the client is not yet ready to change, use process objectives, such as naming personal reasons for change or completing a change plan when ready. |
| MI strategies | The strategies the clinician will use toward this goal, such as reflections and summaries, evoking change talk, importance and confidence rulers, exploring values, information and advice offered with permission, and support for the client's own choices. |
| How progress will be measured | The measure for each objective (a client log, ratings, attendance, or a screening score or lab result the setting uses) and when it will be checked. |
Supports, safety and review
| Item | What to record |
|---|---|
| Strengths and supports | The client's strengths and past successes, and the people and resources the client wants involved. |
| Risk and safety | Risks screened, safety planning and referrals, as the setting and the client's situation require. |
| Review dates | When the plan will be reviewed, as the setting requires, and a note to review it whenever the client's goals change. |
| How the client took part | How the client helped write the plan: the goals and wording the client chose, the measures the client picked, changes the client made, and whether the client has a copy. |
What Does a Motivational Interviewing Treatment Plan Example Look Like?
In this fictional example, Marcus, 46, has been drinking most evenings since a layoff eight months ago, and he and his counselor, D.O., write a 12-week plan with two goals at his second session.
Plan details
| Item | Plan |
|---|---|
| Client and dates | Marcus, 46. Counselor: D.O. Outpatient counseling, community clinic. Written November 10, 2026 (session 2); covers 12 weeks, November 10, 2026, to February 2, 2027. |
| The concern in the client's words | "Since the layoff I've been drinking most nights, more than I want to. My wife's worried, and I'm not happy about it either." Diagnosis as recorded in the intake assessment of November 3, 2026. |
| What the client wants | Goal 1: "Get back in control of my drinking." Goal 2: "Get some structure back in my days and get back to work." |
| Why it matters | Being someone his family can count on: "I've always been the steady one." Being the one who decides how his evenings go. Sleeping better and having energy for the job search. |
| Readiness at the start | At intake, importance 6: "It's not wrecking my life, but it's more than I want." Confidence 4: "I've cut back before, and it lasted about two weeks." Ambivalence: beer helps him "shut my brain off" at night and is part of Saturdays with his brother; he dislikes how much he drinks, sleeps poorly and wants his wife to stop worrying. Quitting entirely does not feel right to him yet: "Never drinking again feels like a lot." |
Goal 1
| Item | Plan |
|---|---|
| Goal | "Get back in control of my drinking." |
| Measurable objectives with target dates | 1a. By November 24, 2026, Marcus will log his drinks daily for two weeks and bring the log to session. 1b. By December 8, 2026, Marcus will name at least three personal reasons for change and choose a drinking goal ("a limit or a break, my choice"), recorded on a change plan worksheet. 1c. From December 8, 2026, to February 2, 2027, Marcus will meet his chosen drinking goal on at least five of seven days each week, by his log. |
| MI strategies | Open questions and reflections about what drinking gives him and what it costs him; double-sided reflections for his uncertainty about quitting; importance and confidence rulers each session, asking why he chose his number and not a lower one; exploring his values ("the steady one"); information about alcohol, sleep and low-risk drinking, offered with permission; support for the goal he chooses; a change plan worksheet when he is ready. |
| How progress will be measured | Daily drink log on his phone (drinking days per week, drinks per drinking day), reviewed each session. Importance and confidence ratings each session. His own 0 to 10 rating of feeling "in control" (3 on November 10), at each review. |
Goal 2
| Item | Plan |
|---|---|
| Goal | "Get some structure back in my days and get back to work." |
| Measurable objectives with target dates | 2a. By December 1, 2026, Marcus will set a weekday schedule with job search time on at least three mornings a week. 2b. By January 5, 2027, Marcus will send at least eight job applications or contact at least four people in his field, his choice. 2c. By February 2, 2027, Marcus will plan at least three evenings a week around something other than drinking. |
| MI strategies | Affirming his work history and skills; evoking his own ideas for structuring his days; summaries that connect his evenings, his sleep and his mornings; small steps he chooses, with a confidence check for each; information about the local workforce center, offered with permission. |
| How progress will be measured | A weekly calendar he brings to session (job search mornings, applications and contacts, planned evenings). His own 0 to 10 rating of how much his days "feel like mine again," at each review. |
Supports, safety and review
| Item | Plan |
|---|---|
| Strengths and supports | Nineteen years of steady work before the layoff. Has cut back before (two weeks last spring). His wife, who wants to help and is open to a joint session if Marcus asks her. His brother, who "would back me up if I asked." |
| Risk and safety | At intake, Marcus reported no thoughts of suicide, no drinking and driving and no past withdrawal symptoms. D.O. will screen again at each review and if his drinking increases. If Marcus chooses a break from alcohol, D.O. will suggest he check in with his primary care provider first. |
| Review dates | December 8, 2026 (week 4), January 5, 2027 (week 8) and February 2, 2027 (week 12), and whenever Marcus's goals change. |
| How the client took part | Marcus chose both goals and their wording; he preferred "get back in control" to "cut down." He picked a phone log over a paper one. On reading the draft, he asked that objective 1b say "a limit or a break, my choice," and D.O. revised it. Marcus signed the plan and took a copy. |
How Do You Write Motivational Interviewing Treatment Plan Goals?
Write each goal the way the client says it, then attach objectives that anyone reading the plan could check. A goal such as "get back in control of my drinking" records what the client wants in the client's own words, which keeps later sessions tied to the client's purpose and makes the plan easy for the client to recognize as their own. Objectives turn the goal into observable steps: each names an action or result, a number and a target date, and the plan states how each one will be measured.
| The client's words | A measurable objective | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| "Get back in control of my drinking." | By week 4, choose a drinking goal (a limit or a break) and record it on a change plan worksheet. | Completed worksheet; daily drink log. |
| "Get my sugar under control." | Take the evening medication on at least six of seven nights for four weeks. | Pill organizer check at each visit. |
| "Stop fighting with my son every morning." | On at least four of five school days each week, use the morning routine the parent and son agreed on. | Parent's weekly log. |
| "Finish probation without another violation." | Attend every scheduled probation meeting through the plan period. | Probation attendance record, shared with the client's written consent. |
| "Feel less on edge." | Practice the breathing exercise the client chose on at least four days a week for six weeks. | Client's practice log and a 0 to 10 rating of feeling "on edge" at each session. |
Two kinds of objectives are hard to measure. One describes the clinician's work ("client will receive MI"), which belongs in the strategies row. The other names a state no one can observe ("client will be motivated"), which the ratings and the client's own words track better. An objective written as an action the client takes, with a number and a date, avoids both problems.
What Objectives Fit a Client Who Is Not Ready to Change?
Process objectives fit a client who has not decided to change, because they describe steps in the work itself, which the client can agree to without committing to a change. They still give the plan a direction and a way to measure progress:
- Track the behavior for two weeks, with no commitment to change it.
- Name at least three personal reasons for change, in the client's words.
- Rate importance and confidence at each session and say what would move each rating a point higher.
- Name the values that matter most and describe how the behavior fits with them.
- Hear information about the concern, offered with permission (Ask-Offer-Ask), and say what the client makes of it.
- Complete a change plan worksheet when the client is ready.
In Marcus's plan, objective 1a and the first half of 1b are process objectives: he can keep a log and name his reasons before he has chosen between cutting back and taking a break. The second half of 1b asks him to make that choice by week 4, on his own terms, and objective 1c measures an outcome whose target is whatever goal Marcus chooses. The MI strategies for a client at this point center on engaging and evoking, two of the four tasks of MI (Miller & Rollnick, 2023), and the plan is revised when the client chooses a change goal, which may happen well before the next scheduled review.
How Does Motivational Interviewing Combine with Other Treatments?
MI combines with other treatments in the same plan, and the plan can show the combination goal by goal. TIP 35 describes MI as compatible with counseling approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (SAMHSA, 2019), and the fourth edition of Miller and Rollnick's text presents MI as useful throughout the process of change, not only while a person prepares for it (Miller & Rollnick, n.d., 2023). In a plan, MI shows up in three places:
- MI is the approach for goals the client is still deciding about. Marcus's first goal stays with MI strategies until he chooses between a limit and a break.
- MI is the style in which other treatments are offered. A coping skills exercise, a referral for medication or a family session is offered with permission and tied to the client's own reasons.
- MI strategies can sit beside another treatment's interventions for the same goal. Once Marcus chooses a drinking goal, the plan could add a coping skills objective for Saturday evenings, with MI strategies listed beside it for the moments when his commitment wavers.
A treatment plan usually follows a case formulation, and Alexandre Vaz's webinar on case formulation and treatment planning covers both steps.
Practice the Skill Behind This Template
The skill behind a plan for an ambivalent client is the double-sided reflection, which puts the client's reasons for change and reasons for keeping things as they are into one statement, so the client can weigh both sides without being pushed toward a goal. Rehearse it with the motivational interviewing practice scenarios, watch Episode 9 on Practice Time, and use the exercises in Deliberate Practice in Motivational Interviewing (Manuel et al., 2022).
Keep reading
Motivational Interviewing Progress Note Template, a session note in MI terms with a SOAP version and two completed examples.
Change Plan Worksheet, the client's own plan for a change, with a completed example.
Readiness Ruler Worksheet, importance and confidence rulers for the readiness section of the plan and for each review.
Free Motivational Interviewing Toolkit, every template in the set, each with a completed example and a PDF.
Deliberate Practice in Motivational Interviewing, a free webinar with Robert Scholz, LMFT, LPCC, a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), with Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are examples of motivational interviewing treatment plan goals?
MI treatment plan goals are written in the client's words, such as "get back in control of my drinking," "get my sugar under control" or "stop fighting with my son every morning." Each goal then gets one to three measurable objectives with target dates, such as choosing a drinking goal by week 4 or taking an evening medication on at least six of seven nights.
How do you write a motivational interviewing treatment plan for a client who is not ready to change?
Use process objectives, which the client can agree to without deciding to change: tracking the behavior for two weeks, naming personal reasons for change, rating importance and confidence at each session, or completing a change plan when ready. The MI strategies center on engaging and evoking, and the plan is revised when the client chooses a change goal.
How often should a motivational interviewing treatment plan be reviewed?
Review it as your setting requires, and whenever the client's goals change. A client who chooses a new goal, or steps back from one, is a reason to review the plan before the scheduled date so that it stays in the client's words.
Where does motivational interviewing fit in a treatment plan?
MI fits in the strategies listed under each goal, as the main approach while the client is still deciding, and as the style in which other treatments are offered. TIP 35 describes MI as compatible with approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy (SAMHSA, 2019), so one goal can list MI strategies beside another treatment's interventions.
Is there a free motivational interviewing treatment plan example?
Sentio's free motivational interviewing toolkit includes a treatment plan template and a completed 12-week example for Marcus, a fictional counseling client who is unsure whether to quit drinking or cut back. The template can be copied as a Google Doc or downloaded as a PDF and adapted to any setting's documentation rules.
References
Manuel, J. K., Ernst, D., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2022). Deliberate practice in motivational interviewing. American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-4338-3618-3. https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/deliberate-practice-motivational-interviewing
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (n.d.). What's new (and not new) in the 4th edition of Motivational Interviewing. Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. https://motivationalinterviewing.org/sites/default/files/what_new_in_mi-4.pdf
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2023). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change and grow (4th ed.). Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-5279-5. https://www.guilford.com/books/Motivational-Interviewing/Miller-Rollnick/9781462552795
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2019). Enhancing motivation for change in substance use disorder treatment (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series No. 35, SAMHSA Publication No. PEP19-02-01-003). https://library.samhsa.gov/product/tip-35-enhancing-motivation-change-substance-use-disorder-treatment/pep19-02-01-003
