WHAT IS MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING?
Motivational Interviewing is a ‘method’ in which both parties may make sense of behaviour, its meanings and consequences - whether or not the practitioner has prior formal counselling training. It assists in making one more attentive to the delicate processes involved in discussing and promoting behaviour change, and it increases one's curiosity about the client's values and goals - the keys to change – and the ways in which they may be inconsistent with the focus behaviour/s. Most importantly, MI enables practitioners to become more effective in guiding constructive conversations, particularly by helping them recognise where they may be eliciting and strengthening resistance. Above all, motivational interviewing is about learning to dance rather than wrestle with one's clients.
"We define motivational interviewing as a client-centred, directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence."
"We emphasise that MI is a method of communication rather than a set of techniques. It is not a bag of tricks for getting people to do what they don't want to do. It is not something that one does to people; rather, it is a fundamental way of being with and for people - a facilitative approach to communication that evokes natural change."
Miller & Rollnick (2002)
Principal texts:
William R. Miller & Stephen Rollnick (2002) Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change Guilford Press: New York
Stephen Rollnick, William R Miller & Christopher Butler (in press) Motivational Interviewing in Healthcare Guildford Press: New York
Other key texts:
Gillian Tober & Duncan Raistrick (eds) (2007) Motivational Dialogue: Preparing addiction professionals for motivational inverviewing practice Routledge: London & New York
Stephen Rollnick, Pip Mason & Chris Butler (1999) Health Behaviour Change: A Guide for Practitioners Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh