Motivational Interviewing: Case Study In Clinical Psychology

Motivational Interviewing
Katey Andersen
Bethany Degner
Jessica Fulton
Natalia Pitts
Chelsy Stadler

Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is a counseling approach developed by Professor William R. Miller, Ph.D and Professor Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D Miller is a professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico and received his Ph.D in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon in 1976. Stephan Rollnick completed his Masters in research in Strathclyde University in Glasgow and his professional clinical psychology training in Cardiff, Wales. Motivational interviewing was first thought of by Miller in 1983 in his article Behavioural Psychotherapy and was elaborated on
SAMHSA believes that by employing these, MI is a successful method for clients with co-occurring disorders. Motivational interviewing includes: assessing the client’s view of the issue and seeing if they understand their condition, finding out if the client wishes to pursue a treatment plan and, if so, having them attend sessions, and lastly, helping the client see that there are possibilities for them to change (SAMHSA). MI also assists clients in exploring their motivations for changing. It is important to remember that this approach isn’t about counselors telling clients what to do, but clients realizing their potential for change (Hall et al., 2012). Motivational interviewing is helpful for clients that are going through different stages of treatment, but it is thought that it is the most helpful in early treatment. This might be because clients have difficulties realizing the depth of their problems
We liked how it was a client-based process because the client has to want to change; Katey especially liked that Motivational Interviewing holds the client accountable. If the client is not following through with their goals and the planning (and counselors have tried to suggest those discrepancies), motivational interviewing is not right for the client. We also liked that this form of counseling is adaptable for different types of problems that a client could be experiencing such as substance abuse, health coaching, dual diagnosis, or gambling problems. There doesn’t seem to be limits to the help a client can receive with this process if they are willing. These different types of problems and addictions are difficult to change if the client doesn’t own up to them; which is critical with Motivational Interviewing. One thing that was more of a challenge for us (it could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing) was a lot of our sources had the same information. This means that it was good information and solid work, but it also made it harder to find fresher sources until we knew about the Riverland search engines. Once we knew how to log into that, there were an abundance of opportunities for more sources that were otherwise unknown about