Thursday, February 26, 2009

The First Steps

In order to really help my friend Andrea out with her topic of motivational interviewing as it is used to decrease substance abuse behavior in co-occurring disorders (i.e., dual-diagnoses such as bipolar disorder and alcoholism), I first needed to find out more on the topic.

Step 1. Enter "motivational interviewing" into Google.

Result 1. The top result (other than an ad) was for "Motivational Interviewing Page," a site designed for clinicians, researchers, and trainers of the technique. Not bad for the first try!

The best part about this site is that it has a Library, fully stocked with resources on the topic!

What I learned was that this is a relatively new technique, having been applied to problem drinkers since the early 1980s.

New terms to apply to the search:

client-centered counseling style

resolve ambivalence

stimulate behavioral change

Now, I'm going to send Andrea the link and ask her to use the comments field below to tell me how I'm doing!