Abstract
Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based counselling technique that is used by psychologists, doctors, nurses, midwives and social workers as an effective intervention aimed at behavioural change. Despite its efficacy, it is not commonly used in South Africa. Our aim was to explore the barriers that social and health practitioners who were trained in administering MI experienced in implementing MI in their work with clients. We used a qualitative approach to explore these barriers and a phenomenological research design to explore the research question. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 MI practitioners (social workers, registered counsellors, an educational psychologist, a life coach and an addiction counsellor) who were living and working in the Western Cape and deemed competent in MI. Our thematic analysis resulted in four broad areas being identified. These were practitioner-related factors, client-related factors, lack of continuous training and supervision, and workplace-related factors.
Highlights
Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based counselling technique that is used by social workers, psychologists, doctors, nurses and midwives as an effective intervention aimed at behavioural change (Barnes & Ivezaj, 2015; Cascaes, Bielemann, Clark & Barros, 2014; VanBuskirk & Wetherell, 2014)
Our findings are organised in four overarching themes, with each containing a number of sub-themes that represent the barriers to implementing MI
Several barriers that prevented practitioners’ from using motivational interviewing effectively as a counselling approach with their clients were identified in the current study
Summary
Motivational interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based counselling technique that is used by social workers, psychologists, doctors, nurses and midwives as an effective intervention aimed at behavioural change (Barnes & Ivezaj, 2015; Cascaes, Bielemann, Clark & Barros, 2014; VanBuskirk & Wetherell, 2014). MI is built on the theoretical foundation of Carl Rogers’s person-centred counselling approach (Miller, 1983), but incorporates an explicitly directive style (Westra & Aviram, 2013). The underlying principle of MI is a non-judgmental partnership between client and practitioner, where the counsellor shows respect for the client’s perspectives and ideas, and fosters collaboration and power sharing. MI consists of four processes, namely (1) engaging with the client, (2) focusing by finding and keeping useful direction, (3) evoking change, and (4) planning and support (Miller & Rollnick, 2009)
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