How can we accept our patient/client’s decisions not to change behavior when we think those changes are crucial? A very important idea in MI is that we must accept our client’s decisions about if, when and how they will change. This might include not making any changes, or not the ones we feel they must […]
How People Make Decisions about Change
How can we understand when patients or clients don’t change a behavior that we think is critical for them to change? For example, the person whose diabetes is out of control, the smoker who has emphysema, the person with high blood pressure who won’t take their medication. To understand this, I encourage you to think […]
Powerful Techniques for Positive Behavior Change: Basic Concepts in Motivational Interviewing
One of my favorite parts of at least one of the definitions of MI talks about “intrinsic motivation”. This refers to the patient or client’s reason for talking with you about a proposed change in behavior. You may often deal with patients who seem very resistant to the idea of change, and most clinicians find […]
