In short, the primary goal of any motivational interviewing (MI) therapy session should be to assist clients in resolving ambivalence, while strengthening their motivation towards changing a specific behavior or action negatively impacting their lives.
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But what are some practical techniques and strategies a therapist or counselor can utilise for effective motivational interviewing therapy? Read on to find out...
Motivational Interviewing for Treating Addiction:
Motivational interviewing is not one of the more known therapy modalities in the mental health space. It can often get lost in the mix of more common and popular therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
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So, what is motivational interviewing?
Motivational interviewing is a proven and effective counselling method, developed with the goal of enhancing motivation through the resolution of ambivalence to change.
The method was developed originally in relation to alcohol and substance use treatment but is today used for a variety of presentations. The core concept of motivational interviewing is providing client-centred support and to move away from a confrontational style of communication.
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The Primary Goal of Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing, at its core, is a client-centred counseling approach, which aims to encourage the clients’ autonomy in decision making. When using motivational interviewing the clinician acts as a guide rather than a source of answers and authority, with the primary goal of helping the client discover their own motivations and reasons for change. It also empowers the client to take charge of their own treatment and support (with you right there beside them of course!)
This is achieved by, clarifying the client’s strengths and aspirations, listening to their concerns, providing validation, boosting confidence in their ability to change, and eventually collaborating with them on a plan for change.
Motivational Interviewing in Clinical Practice
When using motivational interviewing in clinical practice, we focus on the use of our “OARS”. The acronym OARS stand for:
Open-ended questions in MI therapy:
Open-ended questions encourage a wider range of responses and keeps the conversation flowing more freely. This also helps make the conversation more collaborative.
Affirming language in motivational interviewing:
Affirming language is used to build rapport and highlight the client’s capacity and strengths, while also validating the clients’ emotions.
Reflective listening in MI therapy:
Reflective listening involves truly hearing and understanding, while letting the client know they have been heard and understood.
Summarising in motivational interviewing:
Being able to effectively summarise and actively relay back to the client what you have heard. This shows a deeper understanding and allows space for the client to make corrections to your statements where needed.
You can find our MI for addiction worksheets available here:
Getting Started With Motivational Interviewing
If you are new to motivational interviewing, you are probably wondering, where do I start? A set of questions and statements for each category of OARS is a great place to begin.
You can use these questions when interacting with your clients to tap into the motivational interviewing side of therapy. I’ve included some example questions and statements below that I find helpful to use in my own clinical practice:
- How can I help you with...?
- Help me understand...
- What do you think you will lose if you give up...?
- It seems like you have some great skills and resources available to you.
- That’s a good suggestion.
- So, you feel...
- It sounds like you...
- Let me see if I understand so far...
If you're interested in using these types of resources in your own practice, we have created comprehensive and professional worksheet bundles based on many proven and effective therapy modalities to help you get started. You can find these via the shop section of our website.
And if you're a therapist or counselor onboarding new clients in a private practice or clinical setting, you can find our professionally designed and fully editable therapy client intake bundles via the links below:
Get our intake forms for therapy client bundle here:
Our intake forms for therapy bundle has been developed to streamline the intake process of new clients for therapists and counselors. It includes everything required for efficient therapy intake including client detail forms, consent forms and therapy progress notes.
Find our intake questions for therapy bundle here:
Our intake questions for therapy bundle has been developed to streamline the intake process of new clients for therapists and counselors. It includes everything required for efficient therapy intake including client detail forms, consent forms and mental status exam.
