At many points, we may feel stuck in a contemplative state of change. In these states, we may lack insight into our coping mechanisms, feel pressured by others to change, and even develop ways to resist change even when those changes can produce positive outcomes. At Dr. Alan Berlin’s practice, our focus for helping patients with behavioral and emotional problems is to produce a safer environment to explore their thoughts and emotions. Motivational interviewing can create an open-minded place for self-reflection, allowing patients to self-direct themselves towards healthier outcomes.
Our Approach To Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing is recommended as an evidence-based approach towards behavioral changes. This collaborative communication style helps change the language patients view themselves through to strengthen personal motivation and commitment to specific goals. Through this form of communication, patients can explore their reasons and change the atmosphere of their emotional world into a place of compassion and acceptance.
Our psychologists engage with our patients as equal partners throughout these sessions, allowing our patients to explore their self-awareness. By doing so, we remove ourselves from providing instruction and direction to our patients to provide a place for our patients to self-examine their motivations, goals, and desires. As an empathetic and short-term process, it is most often used to help those:
- Unmotivated/Unprepared For Change: Some mental health conditions can cause resistance to changes, such as emotional anxiety
- Have Unmanaged Emotions (Anger, Depression, Etc): Unmanaged emotions can often lead to a distortion of life’s experiences, destroying relationships and sense of self.
- Physical Health Management (Heart Disease, Diabetes, Asthma): In managing physical conditions, motivational interviewing can provide a sense of motivation for physical activity, medication management, and long-term health planning.
- Addressing Addiction (Drugs, Tobacco, Alcohol): Because of the long-standing effects of addiction, individuals lacking motivation may experience help through this method by addressing their addiction through their methods.
Most of all, motivational interviewing uses techniques to validate the individual’s thoughts and feelings of resistance to change. In a supportive manner, our psychologists act as interviewers, encouraging our patients to talk about their desires for change, their reasons for wanting those changes, and help evoke conversations without attempting to dissuade or argue with their emotional state. Motivational interviewing focuses on allowing the client to become self-motivated rather than feel pressured to take action.
Motivational Interviewing Through Aspire Psychological LLC
As a research-based treatment, it can be combined with our other forms of treatment, including one-on-one counseling, parenting support, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Through this method, our psychologists focus on collaborative and comprehensive mental care, creating a meaningful improvement to the effects of anxiety, trauma, and other disorders. We incorporate different learning tools to help our clients better handle the challenges they face and help confront problematic or negative behaviors that are at odds with their goals and values. Through our therapists, we can help our clients talk about their fears, face them, and have a better sense of confidence while gaining more self-awareness about their thoughts and behaviors.