Motivational Interviewing
If you are a practicing social worker or psychotherapist, I’m sure that you have come across this term at some point in your life. However, for those who have not seen this term before, please take some time to read through this to get a better understanding. At the end of this, you may realize that you may subconsciously employ this type of technique in your own life, even though you may not be a social worker or psychotherapist.
Any time I decide upon a specific term to discuss I always like to break it down using the definition of the individual words and then comparing it to the accepted definition of the full term. According to Dictionary.com, motivational is, “inspiring or seeking to inspire people to act a certain way, especially so as to overcome obstacles and achieve success, happiness, etc.”. Using the same resource, interview(ing) is the process of, “a formal meeting in which one or more persons question, consult, or evaluate another person”. Using the general definition of each of the words, one may conclude that motivational interviewing would be to use the process of an interview to assist aspiring people to act in a specific way. According to Psychology Today and Very Well Mind, motivational interviewing is a person-centered approach to therapy. It places the therapist alongside the client takes into account the difficulties and obstacles that they currently have in their path and allows them to be the principal member in their effort to change. During my tenure as a case manager, I often came across someone who may have very unhealthy behaviors that need to change. It’s very easy to tell someone that they need to change their behavior so they can be the best version of themselves. However, if we look back at my post from 2/25/21 about the stages of change, if a person is not ready to change, then no change will be made, at least not on your timeline. This technique can be used however to help push someone from the pre-contemplation stage into the next stages and eventually, the individual sees the benefit and is willing to make the change.
Some of the techniques that are used for this form of interviewing are the use of open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summaries. I will briefly discuss each technique. Open-ended questions are questions that are not the typical yes/no questions but questions that invoke thought and require a well-thought-out response. For example, instead of asking someone “Is the weather good today?” you would instead ask “How’s the weather?”. The first question only has two answers whereas the second question allows the person responding to provide an in-depth answer and possibly provide the person who asked the question more information that they could follow up on. In the concept of therapy this is very important. Imagine as a person seeking therapy, if your therapist only asked you yes/no questions. Eventually, you’ll be turned off by the conversation and you may mentally retreat and become cold towards the therapist. However, open-ended questions allow the therapist to build rapport and engage better with the client. The use of affirmations in this context is to identify the strengths of the individual despite the stressors that they are dealing with. For example, a person may experience PTSD from a traumatic experience. A good affirmation would be to identify their strength in deciding to seek therapy to deal with that issue. It may seem like a minor identification of their strength however that identification may provide that person with the strength to continue. Often we are very difficult on ourselves, especially because we deal with a lot in our individual lives daily. Even an acknowledgment of our strengths from someone who doesn’t necessarily have to do it can go a long way for someone. Lastly, we have reflective listening and summaries. I would argue that these two techniques go hand in hand. But before I explain what they are, I want to ask a question. Have you ever had a conversation with someone and it felt like they weren’t listening to you at all? They may be focused on something else entirely and always responding to you when you finish talking, “Huh? Say that again, I’m sorry”. Or you’re having a conversation and the person isn’t comprehending what you’re saying and it seems like they are speaking solely to respond? With reflective listening and summaries, the therapist actively listens to the information that is presented and asks questions to confirm what they think the client is saying. Now you may think this is a basic skill however take a look at the questions that I presented before the explanation. There are times when in a conversation you may drift off or when emotions are high you hear something opposite of what is being said. Reflective listening provides both the therapist and the client the opportunity to make sure that all the information presented is being understood and that there is no confusion. For example, using the same PTSD example. The client may provide a story of the traumatic experience. With reflective listening the therapist asks questions for clarification OR states the same information presented in another way (that may be more easily digestible depending on if the information is a bit convoluted) to ensure that what is being said is understood. This provides the client with the peace of mind that they are being heard and not that they are explaining their problems to someone who doesn’t care.
Now I will say that motivational interviewing may not be the best technique to use for every case. As a psychotherapist, it is important to get to know and understand your client so you know the best course of action moving forward. As always thank you for taking the time to read this post. If there are any suggestions for future posts please leave a comment or email me.
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