Welcome to my Motivational Interviewing books and resources blog. Everything from my old resource page is here, along with all my book reviews. And, you can add your own comments on any post. Use the categories, tags, or search box on the left to find what you’re looking for. Check back often to find out what’s new.
Building Motivational Interviewing Skills is a remarkable achievement: author and founding MINT member David Rosengren has translated the interactive process of clinical training into an independent study format.
Each chapter includes an opening clinical vignette that provides context. Then, the author provides a brief and readable introduction to the concepts underlying the skill or strategy under discussion, followed by a quiz and annotated transcripts illustrating the skill in practice. The explanatory and illustrative material is followed by a set of practice opportunities, most of which can be done individually and some of which involve a training partner. Concepts, skills, and strategies are presented in roughly the same order as in a trainer-led workshop.
Novice to advanced MI practitioners in almost any clinical setting can benefit from the diverse selection of practice exercises. This excellent workbook can serve as an individual introduction to MI, a resource for translating workshop training into practice, or a guide for an MI learning group.
Tags: essentials, MI, training, treatment manual
Educating Physicians on Controversies and Challenges in Health is a series of brief informational Web streaming programs—developed by the AMA—targeting primary care physicians. The objective of these programs is to inform physicians about the challenges and controversies at the interface of clinical medicine and public health and to offer possible strategies to address these issues in their practices. The video on MI presents basic information in physician-friendly terms, but unfortunately, does not include any case examples.
AMA – Educating Physicians on Controversies & Challenges in Health.
Or, go directly to the 12-minute video introducing MI to physicians in primary care.
Tags: brief intervention, free, medical settings, MI, primary care, videos
Help your patients quit smoking
The Office of the Surgeon General’s tobacco cessation website includes materials for clinicians and consumers, including a “quick” reference guide to recommended treatments for tobacco use and dependence. Of most interest to MI clinicians will be the recommended motivational strategies for smokers unwilling to make a quit attempt. They fall short of a true MI approach, but the 5A’s-5R’s counseling model is a good starting point for health care providers looking for a way to have a brief conversation about tobacco use with their patients.
Tags: 5 A's, free, medical settings, smoking cessation, tobacco, treatment manual, websites
Published in 2007, this free publication “provides probation and parole officers and other correctional professionals with both a solid grounding in the principles behind MI and a practical guide for applying these principles in their everyday dealings with offenders” (p.2). Seven chapters are contained in this guide: how MI fits in with evidence-based practice; how and why people change; the motivational interviewing style; preparing for change; building motivation for change; navigating through tough times–working with deception, violations, and sanctions; and from start to finish–putting MI into practice. Detailed examples take into account the practical realities of working with offenders.
National Institute of Corrections Library: Motivating Offenders to Change: A Guide for Probation and Parole. (free; PDF download)
Tags: corrections, free, MI, parole, probation, treatment manual
MI founder Bill Miller, recently retired from the University of New Mexico, has posted work spanning his entire career on his new website. It’s a nice way to view the development and testing of MI into a personal and professional context.
This is old news by now, but Motivational Interviewing and Motivational Enhancement Therapy have received the NREPP seal of approval as evidence-based practices in substance abuse treatment.
The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is a searchable online registry of mental health and substance abuse interventions that have been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers. The purpose of the registry is to assist the public in identifying approaches to preventing and treating mental and/or substance use disorders that have been scientifically tested and that can be readily disseminated to the field. NREPP is a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
NREPP review of Motivational Interviewing
NREPP review of Motivational Enhancement Therapy
Tags: addiction, MET, MI, research, treatment retention, websites
This treatment manual is one of a series published by the Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University. All the TCU counseling manuals are based on Mapping-Enhanced Counseling, a graphic representation strategy used to visually enhance the counseling process. Even though the materials are not explicitly MI-based, both the concepts and the process presented in the manual are MI-consistent. The manual includes detailed group leader materials and client handouts for the following 4 topics: Motivation 101, The Art of Self-Motivation, Staying Motivated, and Making it Second Nature. A version of the manual for criminal justice settings is also available.
Tags: addiction, corrections, free, groups, treatment manual
The Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions at the University of New Mexico is currently conducting a randomized control trial funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in which they will be providing free motivational interviewing (MI) training to providers (counselors, psychologists, medical doctors, social workers, nurses) who work in the field of substance abuse. They are recruiting providers who have minimal experience with motivational interviewing and work in a not-for-profit setting.
One person per agency or setting will be able to participate in this study. Eligible clinicians will participate (with grant support) in a two-day MI training in Albuquerque, NM, which will be held November 17 – 18, 2009. For more information, see the Project Elicit web page.
The journal Addiction recently published a career-retrospective interview with MI founder Bill Miller, giving a uniquely personal view of the history of MI. The published version is substantially shorter than the full interview archived on the CASAA website.