Motivational Interviewing and Meditation
I just sent the following to one of my primary meditation teachers. Anyone with an interest in this topic is welcome to contact me.
I hope this letter finds you well. I have come across something in my graduate studies that I think could be very valuable to your meditation students and, perhaps, to you as a meditation teacher. I suspect other meditation teachers would be interested as well.
One of the more exciting developments in research psychology in recent decades has been the refinement of a treatment modality known as motivational interviewing. It was developed and initially used for the treatment of addictions, but, as news of its effectiveness has spread, it has been successfully applied to other realms, such as medicine, psychotherapy, public health, and counseling.
A basic premise of motivational interviewing is that people often know what would be best for them, but don’t do it because of conflicting motivations. Alcoholics know, for example, that their health and general quality of life would improve if they stopped drinking, but their motivation to quit competes with their motivation to preserve the status quo. They derive some perceived benefits from drinking (social life, relaxation, escape from pain, etc.) and as long as these are perceived to be on par with the benefits of quitting, they’re unlikely to quit for very long.
The same is often true, of course, for meditating: Many people know that their health and quality of life would improve if they meditated regularly, but their motivation to meditate regularly competes with their motivation to preserve the status quo. They derive perceived benefits from not meditating (staying busy, pursuing cravings, avoiding insight) and as long as these benefits are perceived to be on par with the benefits of meditating, they’re unlikely to meditate regularly. Some people are able to resolve the conflict on their own, but many are not.
Motivational interviewing helps people resolve these internal conflicts by gently exploring their ambivalence and then more fully recognizing their own internal motivation to change. When this is combined with conventional treatments, groups of people who receive as little as 20 minutes of motivational interviewing show rates of change that are typically twice that of control groups receiving only conventional treatments.
So what is motivational interviewing? It’s basically a technique for gently removing mental blocks. It is roughly based on the therapeutic style of Carl Rogers, who was the founder of client-centered therapy in the 1960s. He’s known as the “unconditional positive regard” theorist, and he emphasized the importance of locating the client’s internal resources (rather than viewing the therapist as the expert or guru) and conducting your therapeutic work in an atmosphere of warmth, acceptance, and authenticity.
Within this framework, motivational interviewing essentially consists of encouraging the client to explore his or her ambivalence about a problem, and then � once their resistance to the process has been ameliorated � providing them with the opportunity to identify and strengthen their own inclinations toward positive change.
Observing a session of motivational interviewing can be eye-opening. I often feel there’s something very Buddhist about the process, encouraging a person to explore his or her internal experience, accept their ambivalence, and then carry out positive change � all in a spirit of compassion and acceptance. It’s a beautiful thing, and it works.
At first glance, it might seem like Buddhists already do this. But typical Rogerian therapy is not as effective as motivational interviewing, and there are many aspects of the conventional wisdom � and intuitive assumptions about what it means to help people or point them in the right direction � that conflict with, and even counteract, the positive effects of motivational interviewing. For example, we often unintentionally overlook people’s capacity for change and, even when we recognize it, don’t know how to activate it effectively.
So to realize the benefits of motivational interviewing for one’s clients (or students), one needs to explore the theory behind this approach, and practice the necessary skills, including the subtleties of its interactional style. Typically this is done in a one- or two-day workshop environment.
As a graduate student at UNM, I have some access to William R. Miller, the founder of motivational interviewing, who has become a highly-sought trainer throughout the world. So far I’ve attended three of his training seminars, and each time I have a greater appreciation for its power, in helping one person to facilitate positive change (of almost any kind) in another person.
I just finished a new seminar yesterday, and that’s when the parallels between addiction treatment and craving treatment struck me. I think that learning about motivational interviewing, and how it works, could be very useful for meditation teachers, whose job is to help students realize the liberation found through meditation.
Let me know what you think about the idea of exploring these links. If you’re interested in more information, I’m sure I can facilitate that, and I would be excited to see where it leads.
what do you think about using MI for motivating people to change with regards negative thourghts or paranoia
i think this is an interesting concept. i have encountered clients that seem to have some ambivalence about changing. I have never considered MI to assist these clients. In regards to negative thoughts i can see how MI could be effective. With paranoia I am not so easily convinced.
This connection with motivational interviewing and meditation seems profound. Yours was the only site I could find that really explored it. Do you know of any others who are looking at this in a systematic way? I noticed you studied with Tom Bien. Is he doing any work with people using mindfulness, motivational interviewing, and cognitive therapy. It seems like this could be a great way to work with populations in making health behavior change.
As an aside, I am also interested in the philosophy of Ayn Rand. It is rare to find someone with similiar interests.