Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a client-centered, directive counseling approach aimed at promoting motivation in clients to change certain behaviors. Motivational interviewing focuses on client desires, thoughts and feelings as a way to encourage clients to express their own barriers to change and to explore and resolve ambivalence to behavioral change. Evidence from research has demonstrated that health care providers who engage in motivational interviewing techniques are more likely to reduce defensiveness of patients and promote behavioral changes that effectively improve health outcomes. Motivational interviewing is an evidenced-based counseling approach that health care providers can use to help patients adhere to treatment recommendations. There are four guiding principles in conducting motivational interviews which include expressing empathy, developing discrepancies, backing off when encountering resistance, and supporting self-efficacy. Motivational interviewing also uses techniques such as open-ended questions, reflective listening, affirmation, and summarization to help individuals express their concerns about change. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce the basic core concepts of motivational interviewing and its application in clinical practice to the health care provider.