Motivational Interviewing at Alpha Behavioral Health: Empowering Young Adults to Achieve Recovery
Motivational interviewing is a key feature of addiction and substance abuse recovery. This is because motivation is a key aspect of decision-making, including the decision to work towards recovery. Those who are demotivated or struggle with self-motivation often have trouble committing to the changes needed to accomplish this. Although a person can get outside motivation from others, they still need that inner drive to make lasting and meaningful change.
This motivation isn’t just important for making average day decisions and changes. It’s also essential for those in treatment for substance use disorder and drug addiction. Treatment is not effective unless there exists an inner want and desire for change. Once this desire is properly nurtured, this drive can easily facilitate changes that can increase their quality of life.
That’s why motivational Interviewing is an important tool for lasting change at Alpha Behavioral Health. With the assistance of compassionate and expert therapists and counselors, clients have access to comprehensive and quality drug addiction treatment and rehab. Rehab is not just a way to overcome drug abuse and addiction. It’s also a way for young adults to get the head start in life they need to succeed. All of this is helped by motivational interviewing, a therapeutic tool rarely discussed but still vitally important.
What Is Motivational Interviewing?
Motivational interviewing is part of a psychotherapy known as motivational enhancement therapy. Motivational enhancement therapy as a whole helps people confront their ambivalent feelings around change, set obtainable goals, and then make meaningful positive behavioral changes. Motivational Interviewing deals with self-motivation and the ambivalent feelings that can prevent change. It’s a practical and short-term process that is empathetic to how difficult making changes can be.
Motivational Interviewing and motivational enhancement therapy are mainly used to assist clients with chronic and life-long health conditions. Such conditions include substance abuse, addiction, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. The unifying factor is that these conditions can get worse or even result in serious consequences if ignored. Clients must adhere to strict health guidelines and make positive life changes if they wish to see improvements in their health. However, these changes can be difficult, especially when they involve giving up something that feels good or is enjoyable.
Change is accomplished with the help of a safe place to explore their feelings. These feelings and life experiences are examined to see how they impact the client’s ability to self-motivate. Once this is addressed, the client is taught goal-setting and confidence-building skills. Then, they are shown that they can make meaningful behavior changes by starting small and working their way up to bigger changes. Over time, it becomes easier for clients to believe in themselves and examine what in their lives can further benefit from change.
Why Motivation Matters for Teens and Young Adults in Recovery
Recovering from substance use disorder and addiction can be difficult. For disorders like opioid use disorder, recovery can be especially painful. It takes a lot of time and adherence to a treatment plan to recover successfully. Teens and young adults are also at that stage in their lives when they want to be independent. They often don’t like being told what to do by a therapist or counselor, which can stall the recovery process. To progress, they must discover the ability to self-motivate.
Motivation is also essential for life outside of initial treatment. Alumni still need to be aware of dangers, such as relapse, and utilize proper management for conditions requiring life-long care. Substance use disorder, addiction, and their co-occurring disorders need constant monitoring and assistance to prevent relapse. Much like how healthy habits are essential for health care, so too are self-motivational techniques for lasting recovery.
For clients living with demotivating conditions like depression or anxiety, learning how to regain their ability to inspire themselves simply makes them feel better. Having choices robbed from them by conditions beyond their control can make them feel as though nothing matters. Finding motivation or learning how to self-motivate gives them back the power they feel they have lost, allowing them to accomplish meaningful change because they know they have the strength to do so.
Motivational Interviewing in Addiction Recovery
In the treatment of substance use disorder and addiction, motivational interviewing is used to assist clients in making meaningful behavior changes. The goals of motivational interviewing are to:
- Identify what is preventing the client from making behavior changes and goals
- Provide a safe place to build up self-confidence and self-efficacy
- Establish a rapport of listening and feedback
- Assist the client in finding ways to motivate themselves to make needed changes
Much of motivational interviewing in addiction treatment is allowing the client to speak in a way that helps them stumble into self-discovery. The role of the counselor here is not to tell the client what to do. Instead, the counselor walks the client through what they spoke about and helps them examine what needs to change about them. For example, a client struggling with learned helplessness may discover that this is the reason for their inability to practice self-efficacy. A counselor, in this instance, will help the client address this issue, working with them until they can make the behavior changes to overcome it.
Overcoming substance abuse and drug addiction requires a person to be truly ready to make changes. Treatment is not effective if the client deep down doesn’t believe that there is a problem or is in deep denial. Motivational interviewing also helps by guiding clients into understanding that true change happens from within. Though they are helped by therapists and counselors, their success relies on the adherence to making deep, personal changes.
Alpha Behavioral Health’s Approach to Motivational Interviewing
At Alpha Behavioral Health, we believe that our clients must unlock their true potential to succeed not just in recovery but in life itself. As a result, we utilize motivational interviewing sensitively to assist young adults in making the lasting changes they need.
The Therapeutic Relationship: Building Trust and Empowerment
Healing cannot happen if a client mistrusts their treatment providers. Time is always taken to make clients feel understood and seen. With young adults often being dismissed in society, it’s important to validate their real and often powerful emotions. Clients are never forced to talk, and each client is given time to adjust to the motivational interviewing process. The professionals at Alpha Behavioral Health Care are deeply concerned about their clients and work hard to establish mutual trust and understanding throughout the entire therapeutic process.
Creating a Safe, Inclusive Space for Growth
A safe place is important for young adults. Without this space, it’s difficult to open up and be honest about their feelings. To further aid in the recovery process, we are committed to providing inclusive and safe spaces for young adults from all walks of life. Here, they are not judged but encouraged to grow and become the successful people we believe they can be.
Motivational Interviewing in Transitional Living Programs
Aftercare is just as important as the treatment itself. Our transitional living program for young men utilizes motivational interviewing in daily life. Adults must make goals and practice self-efficacy to be successful. Having professionals help with goal setting and motivation allows clients to practice these skills in an encouraging environment. Motivational interviewing is commonly used to help those in transitional living prepare for sober living at work, school, and home.
Core Principles of Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is only effective when applied by a capable counselor or therapist. These mental health care professionals utilize core principles to help clients complete rehab and achieve recovery while also understanding themselves.
The Spirit of MI: Collaboration, Compassion, and Curiosity
Motivational interviewing is a collaborative process. Clients must be able to trust their mental health care provider, or they cannot achieve the reflection they need to inspire change. Much of this process is listening to and validating the client’s experiences. Compassion allows clients to understand that they deserve to be helped, as sometimes learning that you are a human being worthy of care and understanding can be enough to inspire change.
Finally, the client must be inspired to be curious about themselves and their future. They must be willing to dig deep within their own experiences to learn the cause of their inability to change. On the other hand, they must also be curious about the good that the future can hold for them. Understanding both these aspects allows for meaningful behavioral changes to occur.
Using Reflective Listening to Empower Change
Much of the motivational interviewing process is client-driven. The therapist or counselor assisting the client spends most of their time listening. This allows for direct and understanding conversations that allow clients to reflect on their own words. Sometimes, we speak without truly understanding what we mean. Utilizing reflective listening forces one to slow down and truly understand what was just said. Once a client can reflect, they can make internal changes needed for lasting change.
Motivational Interviewing Techniques at Alpha Behavioral Health
Alpha Behavioral Health utilizes specialized techniques to help clients make meaningful changes without feeling trapped, disrespected, or shamed.
Eliciting Change Talk: Turning Motivation Into Action
Change talk refers to statements that suggest that an opportunity for change can take place. It’s a practice that uses reflections and open-ended questions to acquire new information to help clients be open to change. The goal is to keep the conversation going without shutting it down or causing a client to get defensive. Over time, the client will realize that they can make a change, effectively changing motivational feelings into the desire for action.
Affirmations for Confidence and Resilience
We all need to be reminded that we matter. Without these reminders, it can be easy to give up. Affirmations are helpful for this problem, as they are repeated positive phrases that, over time, become truths in a person’s mind. Telling yourself daily affirmations such as “I have the power to make changes to my life” or “I deserve to not struggle with addiction” can make a difference over time. With affirmations comes confidence and resilience, increasing mental health, and increasing quality of life.
Providing Feedback to Build Confidence and Empower Decision-Making
Clients work with their mental health care providers to help them overcome mental health conditions that can be frightening and difficult. It’s hard to know if you are doing the right thing when you are struggling. Kind, compassionate, and comprehensive feedback reassures clients that they will be okay. They are either on the right track or need a little more help, and knowing that help is freely given can make even the most nervous of individuals comfortable. It’s a safe space that helps clients feel nurtured and inspired. With the right provider in their corner, clients can feel as though they can meet any goal they set.
Supporting Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Through MI
Motivational interviewing does more than just treat addiction. It can address fear, anxiety, and stress that may be holding young adults back from achieving their true potential. It’s scary to be a young adult, especially when living with a serious addiction like opioid use disorder. Motivational interviewing can assist clients in managing addictive behaviors, as well as address other self-destructive and harmful behaviors. Overall, motivational interviewing is a tool to address both addiction and overall mental health problems.
It may not feel like it now, but meaningful change is possible for anyone. For those who are struggling, help is readily available. All you have to do is take the first step towards change and reach out for help.
One key therapeutic technique utilized for addiction recovery at Alpha Behavioral Health is motivational interviewing. To learn how this technique can help your loved one recover from addiction, call (833) 257-4218 today.