What is Motivational Interviewing Therapy?

Making significant positive change doesn’t happen overnight. However, change is achievable with consistent motivation and guidance. Overcoming addiction and maintaining sobriety isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight. However, several treatment options, like motivational interviewing therapy, offer clients the care and support to break free of their addiction for good. In this article, you’ll learn about what is motivational interviewing, the purpose of motivational interviewing, and more.

At Rise in Malibu, we are committed to providing a range of treatment programs to treat the mind, body, and spirit so clients can not just overcome their addiction but achieve their most significant potential in life. If you are struggling with addiction, you don’t have to fight your disease alone. Contact us to learn how we can help you on your road to recovery today.

What Are Alternative Addiction Treatment Programs?

When you think about “traditional” addiction treatment programs, you may instantly think of group therapy, one-on-one therapy, or even medication management to help you overcome your addiction and prevent you from relapsing. However, alternative addiction treatment programs offer even more ways to treat addiction. More treatment programs mean that clients can receive more customized support and care to treat their addiction best.

Common examples of alternative addiction treatment programs include:

Yoga and mindfulness-based therapies
Equine therapy
Art therapy
Adventure therapy

What is Motivational Interviewing Therapy?

You may be wondering: “What is motivational interviewing, anyways?” Motivational interviewing (MI) therapy is a counseling method that helps people overcome mixed feelings and insecurities to discover the motivation they need to make impactful changes to their behavior. In essence, motivational interviewing therapy is based on a person-centric approach that helps people learn to commit and feel motivated to make lasting positive changes.

Motivational interviewing can be an effective alternative therapy program used in addiction treatment because it motivates people to want to change their lives and make healthier choices rather than falling back into old, unhealthy habits.

There are four main processes in motivational interviewing therapy, which include:

Partnership: Both provider and client work together where the client expresses their concerns, and the provider shows genuine curiosity and empathy for the client.
Acceptance: The provider shows acceptance or respect for the client and their concerns. This shows empathy for the client’s concerns.
Compassion: Provider prioritizing the client’s needs.
Evocation: Exploring a client’s existing motivations, values, strengths, and resources.

These four components show just how critical it is to have a compassionate, empathetic provider and an open and honest client both willing to work together to improve the life of the client for the better.

How is Motivational Interviewing Therapy Used in Rehab?

Overcoming addiction and maintaining life-long sobriety are the two primary goals when it comes to receiving addiction treatment. Therefore, motivational interviewing therapy keeps these two main goals or changes in mind to align their treatment with making these healthy changes to improve the client’s life.

Making lasting change doesn’t happen overnight. That’s why motivational interviewing therapy uses a framework of 5 stages to essentially prepare, act, and maintain the positive change in a client’s life.

The 5 stages of motivational interviewing therapy include:

Precontemplation
Contemplation
Preparation
Action
Maintenance

These stages show that significant, positive change is possible with motivational interviewing therapy as long as the client is adequately prepared to make the change, acts on their desire for change, and maintains this new healthy change (i.e., maintaining long-term sobriety).

How to Find Motivational Interviewing Programs in Malibu

Now that you know more about what is motivational interviewing and the purpose of motivational interviewing, consider using this treatment in your recovery journey. A motivational interviewing program can be an effective alternative treatment that helps clients make significant changes in their life and overcome their addiction for good. While change, especially major change, isn’t easy, motivation interviewing therapy includes various stages to prep, act, and maintain the healthy change (overcoming addiction) in the client’s life.

Rise in Malibu is a luxury drug rehab in Malibu that provides a range of treatment programs so clients can receive the exact care they need to overcome their addiction. At Rise in Malibu, we offer a range of treatment methods aimed at treating the whole person, not just your disease, so you can live a long-lasting life of sobriety.