It’s no secret that one of the most challenging problems that primary healthcare practitioners attempt to solve is helping their clients change longstanding behaviors that increase significant risks to their overall health. This is true for physical and psychological healthcare professionals — for example, your primary healthcare provider may keep asking you to eat healthier and exercise daily.
Research into health-related behavior change highlights the importance of ambivalence, motivation, and resistance. Motivational interviewing is often successful because it’s a method that involves enhancing a client’s motivation to change. Searching for an online motivational interviewing program in California? Reach out to Clear Recovery Center Virtual Program today. You can call 866.680.0969 or contact our team online.
What Is a Motivational Interviewing Program?
A motivational interviewing approach is often guided by four principles, represented by the acronym RULE:
- Resist the righting reflex
- Understand the client’s motivations
- Listen with empathy
- Empower the client
Motivational interviewing techniques are client-centered and directive and often designed to encourage client motivation for changing their behavior. In other words, these strategies focus on exploring and resolving ambivalence as they increase a client’s motivation to change.
Motivational interviewing programs are particularly effective in decreasing alcohol and drug use in clients, as well as improving adherence to treatment and medication. Using motivational interviewing strategies, a professional healthcare team can tailor their treatment approach to a client’s stage of behavioral change.
What Are Some Motivational Interviewing Techniques That Clients Can Expect?
The essential dimensions of an online motivational interviewing program include the following:
- The importance of the behavioral change
- The confidence that the behavioral change can be accomplished
Because the term “motivational interviewing” brings to mind asking questions, most people think asking questions is a motivational interviewing technique — and they’re correct. The inclusion of open-ended questions that encourage clients to talk about the circumstances surrounding their referral for evaluation in receiving this particular form of treatment is a significant change from the standard of asking close-ended queries. For example, clients can be asked: What worries you about your current condition? What kinds of things would need to happen to make you consider changing your negative behaviors?
The goal is to evoke from clients their own abilities, desires, needs, and reasons to change. The utilization of reflecting listening statements that focus on the language around change that clients use is essential in programs like this.
When Should You Consider an Online Motivational Interviewing Program?
A motivational interviewing program should be supported by a collaborative therapeutic relationship in which the autonomy of the client is respected, and the therapist elicits the client’s intrinsic resources for change. In a program like this, the therapist is actually viewed as a facilitator rather than an expert. They must adopt a non-confrontational approach to guide the client toward change. If you need to change some behaviors and you’ve been referred to a motivational interviewing program, you should definitely consider undergoing the treatment. After all, it’s not only collaborative but often evocative and seeks to honor a client’s autonomy.
Motivational interviewing is an important approach that broadly applies to many healthcare settings. Possible applications include the following and may be reasons for client referrals:
- Completion of recommended screening, diagnostic tests, or healthcare referrals
- Participating in prevention or management programs for diabetes or cardiovascular health
- Management of risk-taking behaviors
- Management of substance abuse problems
- Management of the smoking, nutrition, alcohol, and physical activity (SNAP)
- Medication adherence
- Pain management
- Stress management
Ready To Learn More About Clear Recovery Virtual Program’s Online Motivational Interviewing Program?
If you’re looking for an online motivational interviewing program in California, contact Clear Recovery Center Virtual Program today. You can call 866.680.0969 or reach out to our team online.
