Motivational Interviewing in New York

If you’re feeling constantly stuck in second gear, you’re not alone. Millions of people struggle with ditching unproductive habits or building better ones. The good news is, there are ways to assist you in improving your life and moving forward.

Motivational interviewing is an effective client-based approach to help individuals in making significant changes in their lives. People struggling with weight loss, chronic disease management, or smoke cessation can benefit from this method. 

In this article, we’ll explore the implementation of motivational interviewing in New York.

What Is Motivational Interviewing?

Motivational interviewing is a client-centered counseling style. It’s a collaborative process where the practitioner and client work together to amplify the client’s internal motivation to change.

This method is an evidence-based approach devised by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick in the early 80s. Miller and Rollnick found that people are more likely to commit to long-term changes if they are self-motivated.

This method favors encouraging clients to go on a self-exploration journey over implementing harsh interventions for achieving positive behavior change. Practitioners use an OARS technique to communicate effectively with their clients.

The OARS model of communication during motivational interviewing sessions consists of open-ended questions, affirmations,  reflective listening, and summaries. These are all methods to help patients in overcoming their ambivalence through change talk.     

How Does Motivational Interviewing Work?

Motivational interviewing is the closest thing to a mirror; it reflects an individual’s feelings and thoughts. This provides more clarity and a better understanding of internal motivation. An empowered person with intrinsic motivation is more capable of making decisions and following through with them.

This is how motivational interviewing works:

• MI a conversation rather than a lecture.
• The psychotherapy clinician, or practitioner, acts more like a guide.
• The whole MI session is a collaboration to support self-efficacy.
• MI builds self-confidence through affirmations.
• MI evokes the person’s own reasons for change

It’s worth noting here that motivational interviewing isn’t a quick fix. Reaching the desired outcomes takes time and effort. It’s a flexible process though, and it can be implemented in various settings for optimizing an individual’s performance and mental health.   

What Are the Benefits of Motivational Interviewing?

Motivational interviewing goes well beyond increasing a person’s intrinsic motivation. Here are some of the key advantages of implementing MI.

Increased Self-Efficacy and Confidence

Psychotherapy often focuses on weaknesses and mental health issues as a foundation for treatment. In contrast, MI emphasizes strengths. Pointing out previous successes and positive traits boosts an individual’s self-confidence and self-efficacy.

Believing in the capability to initiate and sustain change is important for long-term goal achievement. 

Better Communication in a Safe Space

MI practitioners use active listening and observe the client’s verbal and nonverbal cues closely. This makes their clients feel visible and understood. Creating safe spaces for clients to express themselves without any fear of being judged or misunderstood is conducive to getting favorable outcomes. 

Additionally, MI practitioners use reflective listening in reframing and redirecting the client’s thoughts. This makes for better communication and ensures that both parties are on the same page. 

Enhanced Motivation for Change

Traditional psychotherapy tells patients what to do, and there’s little room for hearing the patient’s views on their treatment protocol. In sharp contrast, motivational interviewing evokes “change talk” from the client.

Self-exploration leads clients to better understand what drives them forward and what’s their Kryptonite. Once they reach a full understanding of their own internal motivation, they become more willing to initiate change. 

Reduced Ambivalence and Resistance

Trying to push someone to do something often creates friction and significant resistance to change. Any kind of manipulation leads to the same point of ambivalence. The best way to encourage a person to make changes is to address their fears and insecurities.

Validating a person’s concerns and anxieties is key to gaining their trust. Then, the conversation can proceed toward the pain points and causes of resistance. The practitioner should still refrain from intervening in the client’s self-exploration journey.

Active listening and redirection should bring the clients to the point where they need to compare their current states and their coveted outcomes. Having visualized the discrepancies, they should also assess the pros and cons of change. 

Achieving Sustainable Change

MI works on reinforcing self-efficacy and facilitating self-discovery. Both are crucial for initiating behavioral change and maintaining that momentum in the short and long term.

Confident individuals can translate their willingness to improve their lives into tangible actions. They commit to a game plan and stick to it through thick and thin. Challenges are inevitable, but they are more likely to navigate these rough waters and remain positive.  

Who Would Benefit From Motivational Interviewing in New York? 

Motivational interviewing is a versatile method that can be used in a wide variety of ways. Skilled practitioners can assist people with different kinds of challenges to overcome their ambivalence.

• Here are some common examples of who could benefit from motivational interviewing.
• People suffering from substance abuse
• Individuals with harmful drug addiction habits
• Patients with mental health concerns like depression and anxiety
• People who have eating disorders
• Individuals who want to manage their excessive gaming
• Obese people who need to commit to a weight management program
• People struggling with smoking cessation
• Patients with chronic diseases like diabetes
• Individuals unable to stick to a treatment plan
• People with social anxiety     

The state of New York is rife with people who could benefit from motivational interviewing, particularly in treating substance abuse, obesity, and diabetes. That’s why addiction recovery centers in New York are quite important.

According to NYC Health, someone dies every three hours from a drug overdose. Governmental data shows that half of New York’s population is either overweight or obese.

Obesity and metabolic disorders often lead to type II diabetes. Currently, there are one million New Yorkers diagnosed with diabetes, plus 200,000 undiagnosed. 

What Are the Four Processes of Motivational Interviewing?

The OARS method describes the core elements of motivational interviewing. There’s another way of viewing how MI is done, and what the practitioners should focus on. It’s known as the four processes of motivational interviewing, and this is its framework:

Engage

This is the first encounter with the client/patient. The practitioner needs to build rapport, gain the client’s trust, and establish a collaborative dynamic from the get-go. Expressing empathy and understanding goes a long way toward that end. Using active listening is an essential skill to engage the client sufficiently.

Focus

The practitioner focuses on a specific area that needs changing but does that in a subtle manner. Asking open-ended questions, reframing, and redirecting should keep the conversation on track.

Evoke

Motivational interviewing relies on the fact that change has to be intrinsically motivated, and the client should come up with a game plan. The practitioner’s role is to highlight the “change talk” through reflective listening and summaries.

Additionally, the practitioner needs to boost the client’s self-efficacy through affirmations. 

Plan 

This stage is more doing and less talking. Like the previous processes, it’s a collaborative effort. The planning part should include:

• Developing a change plan
• Setting manageable/achievable goals
• Identifying available resources
• Devising strategies to overcome resistance

Being specific and realistic increases the odds that this plan would lead to sustainable change. The plan should be treated as a road map that the client and practitioner can revisit regularly to monitor progress or correct course.

What Is the Stages of Change Model?

The stages of change model is often used alongside motivational interviewing. It provides a framework for understanding and monitoring how clients/patients implement the desired changes.

The stages of change model follows individuals’ progress in six distinct milestones.

1. Precontemplation: A person is not feeling well, and knows that he needs to make some changes, but can’t commit to that. He might believe that change isn’t even possible.
2. Contemplation: The individual is aware of the issue and pain points. There’s plenty of hesitation and resistance at this stage, plus, a reluctance to disrupt normal living conditions.
3. Preparation: The person struggling with an annoying issue finally decides to make some changes. This is a stage of gathering information, setting goals, or looking for accessible care.
4. Action: At this stage, the individual starts to take solid steps toward achieving the desired goals.
5. Maintenance: This follows achieving success, so the individual wants to maintain the changes he’d made so far, and he tries not to fall back into old habits.
6. Relapse: This step doesn’t necessarily mean total failure to reach the preplanned goals. It’s an acknowledgment that setbacks can happen, and it’s not the end of the world. There are ways to address these challenges.    

Conclusion

Motivational interviewing is an evidence-based, powerful, and effective tool that helps individuals who need to make changes in their lives but can’t quite commit to that.

The setting of MI is more of a safe space, where the client or patient can take a journey of self-exploration. MI practitioners use a variety of techniques to evoke an intrinsic willingness to change from their clients.

People who find the willpower within themselves, and believe that they can reach their goals, often do.