What is Motivational Interviewing?
Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, person-centered communication strategy that strengthens the client’s own motivation to change.
Motivational Interviewing: The Focus
This therapeutic clinical approach is designed to fuel the personal commitment of a recovering individual to achieving a specific goal. The therapist seeks to accomplish this objective through the encouragement of the recovering individual to reveal his or her reasons for deciding to change and nurturing the client’s will to bring about the change in question.
Motivational interviewers nurture their clients’ willingness to express the need for change that the client wishes to bring about. The client is then encouraged to give their particular reasons for wanting this change. The primary job of the interviewer is to keep the conversation focused on the desired change and
Motivational Interviewing requires a give-and-take style of communication. For this reason, the interviewer must be mindful of the need to speak and listen to the client with complete sincerity. We understand that these are fundamental skills that successful care-coordinators and care-managers must be able to employ effectively. Therefore, we are always working to improve ours.
Motivational Interviewing: The Goal
What s all of this for? Through listening and reflecting the client’s thoughts back to the client, the Motivational Interviewer enables the client to objectively evaluate the conditions that the client seeks to change or overcome.
In this way, the client can then constructively assess their reasons and motivations for producing the desired result and try to obtain the desired outcome. Motivational interviewing is generally requires just one or two sessions, though it may also be blended into longer-term therapies.
