Motivational Interviewing

Psychologists William Miller, PhD. and Stephen Rollnick, PhD. developed the counseling approach known as Motivational Interviewing (MI). Motivational Interviewing evolved out of experience in the treatment of persons who were problem drinkers, and was first described by Miller in 1983. In 1991 Miller and Rollnick provided these techniques as a method that promotes and engages intrinsic motivation within the client in order to change behavior. MI is a client-centered counseling style that is goal -directed and brings about behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. Traditional Rogerian client-centered therapy does not guide or direct or focus in the way that MI therapists do to influence individuals to consider making changes, instead of non-directively explore themselves.

There are various kinds of interventions for the treatment of substance use disorder, and different interventions have their own characteristics. After reviewing some articles, both Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) are evidenced-based interventions, and some researches support them. Therefore, this paper will contrast these two interventions and illustrate how the effectiveness of the interventions is.

McCabe C. (2004) Nurse-patient communication: an exploration of patients’ experiences. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 13, 41-49.

The process of motivational interviewing is essentially about creating "intrinsic motivation to change" within the client (Moyers, 1998). The choice to change must originate with the client and the process for helping this occur begins with motivational interviewing. There are two phases within motivational interviewing, the first focuses on increasing the client’s motivation to change and the second phase is negotiating a plan and consolidating commitment. It is important to understand the traps that can be encountered within this process, such as the question/answer trap. In this trap the client is led by the counselor with little chance to have free speech to explain themselves because the counselor is just focused on the next question instead of focusing on where the client is leading them. This trap is very similar to the expert trap in the fact that the client is left to believe they cannot find answers for themselves; they instead must listen to the expert who is giving them the answers. This is most definitely not the way to motivate a client to make changes for themselves. Other traps include premature focus, denial, labeling, and blaming; all of which can prevent the client from opening up in the treatment process.

Combined Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with Older Adult Drug and Alcohol Abusers is an article written by Lyle Cooper concerning the abuse or misuse of illicit drugs, prescription medications, and alcohol in older populations. Due to lack of knowledge or resources, elderly individuals are falling victim to substance use problems and the numbers are projected to rise. Therefore, an assistance program called HeLP was created to provide evidence-based treatment to the specific cohort of 50 and up age range. Motivational interviewing is used to eliminate internal uncertainties clients may have concerning their treatment; hence, opening themselves up to behavioral changes. Clients who decide to move on to the next stage and if HeLP workers deem it necessary, cognitive-behavioral therapy is implemented to promote changes in thoughts, behaviors, and prevention of future relapse.

Changing is something that someone has to want to do, if there is no motivation things will stay the same. The first step to change is knowing and accepting the wrong that has been done and trying to figure out a way to change. There are numerous of practices that are used to help an offender bring their mistake to the light. These types of methods are called Evidence Based Practices and are used to help both the offender and probation officer learn to communicate on a different level. Evidence based practices are cognitive behavioral training, vocational education and training programs and treatment oriented intensive supervision program. They are used to reintegrate offender s back into the community successfully. The type of evidence based practice that I am going to talk about is motivational interviewing, the pro and cons and if it helps the offenders learn from their mistakes and if it is going to help in the future.

Motivational interviewing is an approach, focusing on the patient, to change a behavior. It was started in the realm of addiction, but has been steadily moving in to the mainstream of healthcare for the past few years. Motivational interviewing (MI) uses different techniques to build a rapport between the provider and the client. Techniques used include empathy, collaboration, and encouragement of autonomy. The concept of motivational interviewing allows the provider to be seen more as a person and less as an authority figure.

According to page 225, substance abuse is a maladaptive pattern of substance use that results in recurrent and significant negative consequences of substance use. What the Elyn Saks’ and Joanna Hari’s perspective add to my conceptualization of psychiatric conditions and substance abuse and treatment implications is that it has helped me recognize the link between substance abuse and psychiatric conditions. It can be difficult to diagnose certain types of substance abuse and mental illness. I found the video on motivational interviewing to be educational. Much of health care today involves client-provider relationships with providers helping the client. The motivational interview is a structured intervention designed to motivate the patient.

How Addiction Happens, How Change Happens, and What Social Workers Need to Know to Be Effective Facilitators of Change is an article written by Jill Littrell. Littrell addresses the complexity of underlying physiological demands made on patients throughout the addiction and treatment process. Even if a patient has whole heartedly committed themselves to their sobriety , physiological components of the brain can unknowingly trigger the need to use. Therefore, the trans-theoretical theory with the motivational interviewing approach are believed to help clients experience less resistance and be more open to change by learning why they want or need to make changes. Hence, using more direct or confrontational methods in addiction treatment could

Substance abuse and addictions counseling is a newer counseling field. Although it is fairly new, there is so much research and so many guidelines to help someone make it through as a substance abuse and addictions counselor. It holds a great importance and people should be aware of the severity of substance abuse and addiction. This field has several aspects and themes that help an addict or substance abuser gain a new lifestyle without substances. Reasons for use, assessment, diagnosis, treatment/recovery/rehabilitation, and sober living are extremely important topics in the

Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach that was studied and understood as an applicable theory of practice that would be beneficial in the environment where I currently work which is an alcohol treatment facility. Whereas, it is understood that clinical and applied aspects of Motivational Interviewing (MI) have shown effective as a relatively brief intervention (Levensky, Cavasos, & Brooks, 2008), especially those dealing with an alcohol dependency. According to Miller and Roderick, MI, has been defined mostly as a directive, client centered counseling approach for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence. In addition, with its goal-orientated approach it can help break down resistance to change (Corey, 2013, pp. 191-194). This theoretical approach is the most favored for the environment in my profession of choice, in addition, integrating it with the practice of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which is already in use.

Addictive substances and behaviors are becoming a growing concern in the United States. Millions of Americans are affected by addiction in some way. While these substances and behaviors are becoming a growing concern, there is always a demand for more efficacious and cost-effective treatment methods. There are many different beliefs and options about how addictions develop, how change occurs, and what treatment methods are best to use in practice. This paper aims to explore my personal theory of addiction in regards to these specific areas of addiction. A biological and social explanation for addiction is examined, various methods and conditions for change are investigated, and an integrated treatment approach of motivational interviewing,

Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. (Eds.). (2012). Foundations of addiction counseling (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.

The person that I interviewed for this project was my nineteen-year-old brothers girlfriend Liv Postl. Liv is 18 years old and is a senior this year. Some extra curricular school activities that she is active that may influence her motivation with school work include she is in dance and dance team, plays volleyball, and she works at a daycare when she gets out of school. These activities might influence her motivation because after school she either goes right to practice or work, then on the weekends, she also has dance classes at the studio that she is a part of and she also has dance team practice on the weekends.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) refers to a client centred counselling approach, which is directed to enhance motivation in an individual for behaviour change Miller & Rollnick (as cited in Christopher & Dougher, 2009). MI as a method understands and accepts that the clients are at different levels of readiness to change their behavior. It consistently focuses on goals to prepare the client for transformation by providing motivation for commitment to change (Bricker & Tollison, 2011) in the domains of substance abuse, addiction and risky health problems. It proceeds to make the client aware of the causes, consequences and risks that could be a result of the behavior. Through this, the client foresees the possibilities of enhancement and becomes motivated to achieve it (Jenson, Cushing, Aylward, Craig, Sorell & Steel, 2011). MI is coherent with the