Psychologist, Trainer,
Mentor & Advisor.
Stephen Rollnick, PhD
About Stephen
Stephen Rollnick, BSc (Hons), MSc, Dip Clin Psych, PhD.
I’ve been on a journey through clinical service, training people and doing research on helpful conversations, in many settings and countries. I now have twin interests in sport and healthcare, and how to help people flourish. My work is informed by motivational interviewing, with a keen eye on how relationship-building helps all involved to thrive, and prevent burnout. I take on projects that have a focus on improving wellbeing, togetherness and performance.
Stephen Rollnick, PhD is a clinical psychologist and Honorary Distinguished Professor in the School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK, and a co-founder of motivational interviewing.
He grew up in Cape Town, South Africa and lives in Cardiff, Wales. He was a practising psychologist in the UK National Health Service for 16 years, and then became a teacher and researcher on the subject of communication and behaviour change.
He has authored and co-authored books on motivational interviewing (Miller & Rollnick, 1991; 2001; 2012), and on applications in health care (Rollnick, Mason & Butler, 1999; Rollnick, Miller & Butler, 2007; 2022), schools (Rollnick, Kaplan & Rutschman, 2016) and sport (Rollnick, Fader, Breckon & Moyers, 2019).
He has published widely in scientific journals and has taught practitioners in many countries and continents. He has retired from his academic career and now focuses on projects in elite sport and healthcare.
Stephen In Sport
My last ten years in sport – as a consultant, trainer and mentor, with coaches, athletes and teams – has raised some key questions:
Can a coach develop self-awareness and help athletes to feel safe and open to new ideas that bring the best out of them? In team meetings too? What are the skills needed for doing this?
Can a player or athlete find better personal balance, become more self-aware and use their energy to best effect?
Can a squad learn to be open, listen to each other and unite around shared decisions?
Steve has worked in football, rugby and currently part-time in a cricket club as wellbeing mentor to players and staff.
One of his motivational interviewing books was written specifically for sports coaches you can find it Here!
Excellence and joyous sporting performance are inescapably driven by quality relationships. Being friendly helps, as does being authentic, consistent and honest.
Then there are relationship skills and methods like motivational interviewing that go a step further, deepen connections and help athletes to be brave, feel safe, clarify their priorities.
In one-to-one and group exchanges, formal and informal.
The wider culture and social environment in sport can be improved by developing relationships that improve both human and sporting outcomes.
Focus of work includes:
Recent Work
Aston Villa F.C. (advisor to academy coach), Glamorgan Cricket (mentor to players and staff), Manchester United F.C. (mentor to senior academy leader), Crystal Palace F.C. (seminar, academy staff), West Ham United F.C. (seminars for women’s first team and coaches), Cardiff Rugby (seminars for coaches).
Research interviews for coach development books conducted in UK, Sweden (AIK Stockholm) and USA (NY Jets; NY Mets; Chicago Cubs).
Stephen In Healthcare
Steve is a co-founder of motivational interviewing, developed over 35 years to help people make decisions about change.
This is used in diverse settings like mental health, health care, criminal justice, education and sport. Over 2,300 randomised trials have been conducted, and the books Steve has authored or co-authored have been translated into dozens of languages.
Steve continues to work in healthcare as a trainer.
Training and workshops
Online courses and resources for learning more about motivational interviewing are featured on the Psychwire website.
Information about training workshops with Stephen Rollnick is available from the Cardiff Motivational Interviewing Workshops website.
How do you:
Have tough conversations that make a difference to well-being and outcome?
Improve that feeling of belonging in a group?
Deliver feedback to people?
Conduct meetings that galvanise the group?