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Examining motivational interviewing from a client agency perspective
Author(s) -
Faris Alexander S.,
Cavell Timothy A.,
Fishburne John W.,
Britton Peter C.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20599
Subject(s) - motivational interviewing , ambivalence , psychology , perspective (graphical) , creativity , agency (philosophy) , psychotherapist , function (biology) , psychological intervention , interview , social psychology , applied psychology , epistemology , sociology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , evolutionary biology , computer science , anthropology , biology
Although empirical investigations strongly support the use of motivational interviewing (MI), there is no theory to clearly explain how or why MI works. The authors propose that MI is efficacious because it mobilizes clients' inherent resources for motivation, learning, creativity, problem solving, and goal‐driven activity. Examining MI from a client agency perspective reveals new ways of conceptualizing several critical issues, including MI's fundamental “spirit,” the function of resolving ambivalence, the importance of change talk, MI's ability to combine well with other approaches, and the success of brief MI interventions. Implications for the science and practice of MI are discussed from the standpoint that clients are primarily responsible for driving therapeutic gains. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 65: 1–16, 2009.