Motivational Interviewing in Adolescent Treatment

Motivational interviewing is a client-center method of counseling that is used to explore a client's motivation to change a problem behavior. Often used in the treatment of addictive behaviors, motivational interviewing helps a client resolve possible mixed feelings they might have regarding his problem behavior. Clinicians often use Motivational Interviewing as a an intervention strategy with adolescents who are engaging in harmful behaviors.

Function

• Motivational interviewing is a technique used by counselors and therapists to help an individual asses his readiness to change a problem behavior. This process includes repeated interactions in which the clinician helps the client explore his feelings and goals regarding a problem behavior. In adolescent treatment, this method is used to help a teen client reflect on the causes and effects of problem behavior such as drinking or drug abuse.

Time Frame

• According to one report from the National Institute of Health, motivational interviewing techniques seem to be more effective as brief one-to-one treatments, rather than standard courses of longer term care. In 29 percent of the findings, there was an advantage to using brief courses of motivational interviewing.

Features

• The key component of motivational interviewing is the rapport built between the client and therapist. Empathy is a critical part of this technique, and clinicians must also lead sessions in a non-directive and non-confrontational style. The goal of motivational interviewing is to help a teen client reflect on his own behaviors and his motivation to change and improve those behaviors.

Benefits

• The benefits of motivational interviewing are still being studied, but several findings by the NIH indicate that this method of counseling has the potential to help teens identify what they do and do not like about a problem behavior. One program for teen smoking cessation had a 21.8 percent success rate upon six month follow-up. Participants reported that they understood what they did and did not enjoy about smoking and were more motivated to quit after the counseling.

Expert Insight

• Experts from the NIH found that programs with a proactive approach were more successful. Targeting general groups of teens who drink or smoke to offer interventions seemed more successful that targeting teens only after crisis. Experts also report that a high level of confidentiality and flexibility makes this treatment more successful because teens feel they have more control over the process.