Fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing: Tips and Strategies for Addressing Common Clinical Challenges

by Julie A. Schumacher, Michael B. Madson

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based communication style that has applicability to diverse professions ranging from mental and physical healthcare to criminal justice. Professionals use MI to help patients/clients harness their own internal motivations for change and become active partners in developing plans for change. Using MI, a professional can guide patients/clients to make positive changes in life areas such as substance abuse, criminal activity, anxiety and mood problems, poor cardiovascular health, and more.

Fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing provides a straightforward, common-language, and user-friendly guide to key concepts in MI. The clinical challenges addressed are ubiquitous across helping professions, and this book is unique in its focus on providing practical guidance on what to do when confronted with each challenge. Based on the authors’ years of experience providing training and supervision in MI, this book answers one of the questions most frequently asked by those they have trained: “How can I use MI to address [insert clinical challenge]?”

Fundamentals of Motivational Interviewing is an accessible and easy-to-use resource organized and written with the busy provider in mind. It is appropriate for all skill levels ranging from the MI novice with no prior training, to the experienced MI provider seeking to gain new knowledge and skills. Throughout the book the authors use boxes and case examples to clearly illustrate and emphasize key points. The authors also provide clear examples of the sometimes subtle distinction between MI-consistent and MI-inconsistent use of the communication skills and strategies. Professionals from diverse disciplines including medicine, allied health, criminal justice, psychology, counseling, social work, marriage and family therapy, as well as MI trainers working with all of these disciplines will find this book a useful resource, and it would be an appropriate text for any class that seeks to build MI and other psychotherapeutic skills.

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