Best Way to Evoke Change in Others: Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a counseling style used to help a client uncover his or her ambivalence toward maladaptive behaviors and to evoke change.

This evidence based interviewing style reminds me of a popular philosophical method that Francis Schaeffer used, "taking the roof off." When you remove the roof off of the house, Shaeffer states that, "each man must stand naked and wounded before the truth of what is."  The reality of one's worldview that which someone lives comes flooding in.  Therefore, the roof must be carefully deconstructed so the house can be reconstructed.  Apply that same concept to behavioral change and you have the crux of Motivational Interviewing.

Initiators of MI in the 80's, Miller and Rollnick (2013), in their book entitled Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change, stated, "If someone else voices an argument for change, people are likely to respond by expressing a counter-change argument from the other side of their ambivalence.  By continuing to express the arguments against change, people can literally talk themselves out of changing.  Similarly, people can talk themselves into change by continuing to voice prochange arguments" (See source here).

Unless there is a direct intent to harm self or others, it is up to the client to make his own life choices (you can't make someone else's choices for them).  What I love about motivational interviewing is that the counselor explores with the client and helps him expose his own destructive path and the consequences of that path.  Then the counselor can process with the client how to hold himself accountable by using his own values, goals, strengths, and morals.  Typically, people have the resources from within to make better decisions; it's up to the counselor to help pull these out.  If this happends, then the client can take ownership and build confidence in changing her behavior.

As the client uncovers his own values, he may see that drinking excessive amounts of alcohol at work or other maladaptive behaviors might cause his life to come flooding in on him (losing his job, income, house, hobbies, license, ability to support his family, prison, etc.).  Seeing this new reality or truth will help motivate the client to change.

A research journal article reported that MI helps clients change their behavior and that it trumps traditional advice giving in approximately 80% of the cases (See full study here). 

Tony Nichols

 --I find joy in helping other's experience hope and peace in their life. 

Looking for a Satisfying Career?

Are you thinking about changing careers or jobs?  There are many career paths that a person can choose after high school.  There are also several transition points a person can experience in life that will take him from one career to another.  Happenstance, unplanned connections with people or events, will be a reason why a person will move from one job or career to another.  One of the major competencies in counseling is Career Counseling.  An interesting career theory that stuck out to me through my research was Krumboltz's Happenstance Learning Theory:


Which roads lead to your dream job?

"(1) The goal of career counseling is to help clients learn to take actions to achieve more satisfying career and personal lives—not to make a single career decision. 

(2) Assessments are used to stimulate learning, not to match personal characteristics with occupational characteristics. 

(3) Clients learn to engage in exploratory actions as a way of generating beneficial unplanned events. 

(4) The success of counseling is assessed by what the client accomplishes in the real world outside the counseling session." Link to research article

Longevity, stability, growing roots, etc. are principles that many people hold in high regard (for many good reasons) but those traditional practices wont necessarily bring personal satisfaction to everyone.  Continuing to learn about life, seeking new interests, and growing relationships with others can bring many new career or job opportunities.  Some will even happen upon you by meeting those new people or exploring those new adventures.

           

A Forbes article reported that The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that people change jobs every 4.4 years.  A 2012 survey by Net Impact uncovered that 88% of employees considered "positive culture" important or essential to their dream job, and 86% reported that there dream job must be "interesting" as well.  The Forbes article also expressed that "Job -hopping helps workers reach both goals, because it means trying out a variety of roles and workplaces while learning new skills along the way."Forbes Article

Finding a new job or career doesn't have to just include signing up for indeed.com or looking through the newspaper.  Seek out a career counselor or coach, take a career assessment to create more self-awareness, learn new skills, and get involved in different activities.  You might just happen to find your dream job!

     

Tony Nichols

 --I find joy in helping other's experience hope and peace in their life. 

I'm Done! But, still stretching!

I just completed my last project and class last night!!!  I feel a lot of weight lifted off of my shoulders now that this counseling degree is finished.  I didn't feel this way after my bachelor's degree because I was already enrolled in graduate school and I didn't experience relief after the M.Div. because I was still taking courses for the counseling degree.  I defintely didn't feel this way after high school because I was still like a disoriented looking chicken cracking out of the egg shell.  But, at the age of 34, it's like I am finally an adult now and I can move on with life in the real world.  But my desire to grow is still strong.  Experiencing an achievement or goal doesn't mean as much if I can't defend it or continue to live out that success. Leadership guru, John Maxwell, said, “Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.”     
     
My last course was in Test and Measures and my class had to take a battery of tests to gain the experience of administering, scoring, and interpreting tests so that we can make better assessments when we are in a therapist position.  One of the common patterns that surfaced in my tests was anxiety.  This has been a tough year with some experiences positive and some negative, but all causing stress (a lot of material for stretching) with moving into a new home, having an adorable healthy baby boy, working an internship and a full-time job (days and nights), troubles with our rental in Kansas, and finding time to spend with family and friends.  Even though I have a great wife and awesome/squirly boys at home, raising a family brings its own kind of stress as well.

I look forward to having a more balanced life; though, I haven't experienced what that's like without being enrolled in class since I was four (save for a year in-between HS and college).  Am I going to fill the void with something else and continue to manage a high level of stress/anxiety or am I going to relax for a period of time?  What is life like without having deadlines to complete projects, papers, and other assignments alongside all the other demands/opportunities in life?
I enjoy the product of what God has blessed me with; can't wait to see what else is going to stretch me!

Success is best achieved in community.  Thank you- Family, friends, professors, and colleagues that have spotted me on some of these life stretches!  Honorable mention- My wife, Shanda!    

Tony Nichols

 --I find joy in helping other's experience hope and peace in their life.