Understanding Motivational Interviewing Concepts

Sep 15, 2024

Introduction to Motivational Interviewing (MI)

Overview

  • Presenter: Dr. Bill Matulak, Clinical Psychologist and MI Trainer
  • Purpose: Introduction to motivational interviewing concepts
  • Definition: MI is an effective method of discussing change with individuals, evidence-based with over 1,200 publications.

Importance of MI

  • People may not naturally change even with information and advice.
  • Change is often slow, difficult, and involves various life decisions across different stages.

Challenges in Change

  • Difficulty is not merely due to lack of information, laziness, or resistance.
  • Ambivalence is a key issue: wanting and not wanting change simultaneously.
  • Ambivalence causes anxiety and procrastination.
  • Misinterpreted as resistance by counselors.

How MI Helps

  • Resolves ambivalence.
  • Elicits a person's own motivation and reasons for change.

Spirit of Motivational Interviewing

  • Partnership: Collaboration between counselor and client.
  • Acceptance: Respecting client's autonomy, potential, strengths, and perspective.
  • Compassion: Keeping the client's best interests in mind.
  • Evocation: Best change ideas come from the client.

Core Skills of MI (OARS)

  1. Open Questions
    • Encourage extended responses rather than yes/no answers.
  2. Affirmations
    • Highlight client's positives and achievements.
  3. Reflections
    • Reflect client’s thoughts and feelings, crucial for empathy.
  4. Summarizing
    • Long reflections of client’s statements, helps guide towards change.

Processes of MI

  1. Engaging
    • Building a trusting, respectful relationship.
    • Avoid assessment trap, quick fixes, power differentials, and labeling.
  2. Focusing
    • Setting and maintaining a direction, aligning goals.
  3. Evoking
    • Eliciting client's motivation and change talk.
    • Questions to elicit change talk: reasons, benefits, methods.
  4. Planning
    • Developing a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) change plan.

Conclusion

  • MI is about guiding clients towards self-motivated change.
  • For more information: website

Note: These notes summarize the key points from Dr. Matulak’s introduction to motivational interviewing, focusing on its importance, core principles, and processes.