Motivational Interviewing
Learning Objectives
After considering this resource, you should understand the main principles underlying Motivational Interviewing and be able to recognise its advantages and disadvantages.
This resource, written by Peter Beven, is an introduction to Motivational interviewing (MI) and its potential in social work practice. MI aims to help individuals to explore and resolve ambivalence about changing behaviour. The approach originates from research and practice undertaken working with people with alcohol and substance misuse issues. Motivational Interviewing is now considered to have a much wider application with applicability to many different social work interactions.
The piece begins by considering the idea of behaviour change and how practitioners can recognise stages of readiness to change. The resource then describes the principles of MI together with their connection with social work values. Finally implications for social work practice are discussed.
Reflective Questions
- What might be the benefits of using Motivational Interviewing (MI) within social work practice?
- How far do you identify with the values explicit in MI practice?
- What challenges to you are posed by trying to incorporate MI into your practice?
- Are there situations where you believe MI would not be helpful?