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The definition below gives us an all-encompassing overview of Motivational Interviewing. And at the same time, it can be overwhelming to implement without fully understanding all of the components.

Motivational Interviewing is a person-centered counseling style for addressing the common problem of ambivalence about change. It is designed to strengthen an individual’s motivation for and movement toward a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person‘s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance, collaboration, and compassion.

Let’s begin by focusing on the counseling style used in Motivational Interviewing. When we see this particular counseling style, person-centered, it could mean a lot of things…mostly though, this style provides a particular atmosphere, where we attempt to accept the client where they are at the present time, and where we, as the clinician, are building rapport with the client by:

• Collaborating and creating a partnership
• Asking permission to give information
• Using silence to allow the client time to come up with their own responses and to normalize short or long pauses in a session
• Staying neutral to whatever the client may share
• Allowing yourself to be curious about how the client may go about creating the change they want in their lives
• Using a menu of options to ensure the client is guiding the direction of the session
• Being attentive to nonverbal cues and how the client may be feeling
• Asking open-ended questions for exploration of a topic and more understanding

If these aspects of a person-centered counseling style are being practiced, it makes for a genuine connection between you and the client. As well, it allows for more authentic information to be shared with the hope of moving the client towards the behavior change they want to experience.

Next month, we will talk about ambivalence and what needs to be explored or worked through in order for behavior change to occur.

For more information about Motivational Interviewing or related services, contact Eunice Akinyi Okumu, by phone (919) 843-2532, or by email, eunice_okumu@med.unc.edu