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Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing is a focused, goal directed clientcentred counseling style for eliciting behaviour change by helping clients explore and resolve ambivalence.

Motivational Interviewing uses five principles or counseling techniques techniques to assess and create motivation within the client. The nurse should:

1. Express empathy
2. Avoid arguments
3. Develop discrepancy (dissonance)
4. Roll with resistance
5. Support self-efficacy

When using Motivational Interviewing there are six general skills that should be utilized.

1. Asking open-ended questions
2. Reflective listening
3. Affirmations
4. Summarizing or reframing
5. Self-motivational statements
6. Personalized feedback

See the guideline Appendix G for a detailed description of the motivational interviewing process.

 

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