Motivational Interviewing Techniques
From FOCUS Psychological Strategies
By: Katie Hall, Tania Gibbie, and Dan I Lubman
Background
One of the biggest challenges that primary care practitioners face is helping people change longstanding behaviours that pose significant health risks.
Objective
To explore current understanding regarding how and why people change, and the potential role of motivational interviewing in facilitating behaviour change in the general practice setting.
Discussion
Research into health related behavior change highlights the importance of motivation, ambivalence and resistance. Motivational interviewing is a counseling method that involves enhancing a patient’s motivation to change by means of four guiding principles, represented in the acronym RULE: Resist the righting reflex; Understanding the patient’s own motivations; Listen with empathy; and Empower the patient. Recent meta-analyses show that motivational interviewing is effective for decreasing alcohol and drug use in adults and adolescents and evidence is accumulating in others area of health including smoking cessation, reducing sexual risk behaviours, improving adherence to treatment and medication and diabetes management.
Keywords
communication; doctor-patient relations; patient centered care; psychotherapy; brief; motivation
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