Can Motivational Interviewing be used with clients with Borderline Personality Disorder? And what about depression? And health coaching? And parenting?

I trained a group of therapists last week, and there were lots of questions about what MI can be used for.

Can Motivational Interviewing be used for clients with depression? 

Can Motivational Interviewing be used for clients with anxiety?

Can Motivational Interviewing be used in working with domestic violence?

Can Motivational Interviewing be used with clients with neurodivergences such as ADHD and autism?

And another common question I get when training, can Motivational Interviewing be used with clients with personality disorders? 

The answer is YES! 

Yes, yes and yes.

The real question is, is my client experiencing ambivalence & feeling stuck about something that they would like to change? Are there behaviors or internal attitudinal shifts that are keeping them stuck? Are they needing support getting unstuck and creating movement toward changes that would be good for their health and mental health?

YES. Motivational Interviewing can be integrated into your conversation style with MANY different clientele around MANY different changes. 

To answer these questions, I filmed this video, where I talked more about applications of MI, as well as answered other Q&A from the Grow Therapy therapist group. 

Motivational Interviewing can be used to enhance, or in conjunction with, many therapeutic modalities and approaches. It works well with DBT, CBT, SFT and a whole bunch of other alphabet soup modality acronyms. 

And here’s another great free Motivational Interviewing resource!

One thing I appreciate about the Talking to Change MI podcast is that they have hour-long episodes on ALL of these topics, where they talk to experts in the field about the utilization of MI with these different populations. And here is the Talking to Change podcast topic list! Recent topics include Motivational Interviewing with couples, Motivational Interviewing with brain injury, Motivational Interviewing with non-suicidal self-injury, and more! (Here’s a podcast episode on Motivational Interviewing with Borderline Personality Disorder) 

I have a list of all of the Motivational Interviewing podcasts here if you want to check out the other ones! I love Lions & Tigers & Bears MI! And MI & Beyond (available on YouTube & Spotify) also do deep dives into Motivational Interviewing with specific populations. 

And here is the link to MotivationalInterviewing.org where all books related to MI are listed!

Enjoy!

MI Tip of the Week: If you are asking yourself, “Can Motivational Interviewing be used with_____?” The true question to be asking is, “Is my client stuck about _____ and wants to get unstuck?” Simplified, Motivational Interviewing is a conversation style used to help someone get unstuck around something they are stuck with. This could be a health behavior, an action, or an internal attitude shift they are seeking or needing. The focus of a Motivational Interviewing conversation is a collaborative one between you and the client, and is designed to help them move through their ambivalence around something that is in their best interest to change!

Watch my full video here!