Overview
Watch this video and answer the following question:
Dr. Jonathan Fader Demonstrates Motivational Interviewing Skills (youtube.com)
Imagine that you are a clinical health psychologist. You are working in a clinic where a primary care provider (a medical doctor) refers you a patient who has been labeled medically “non-compliant” for therapy. The patient is is a 60 year old male diagnosed with diabetes and obesity. In the last 3 years, the patient has had significant weight gain (40 lbs) and one heart attack. He also reports experiencing chronic pain in several joints and mild depression symptoms.
You read in the patient's medical history that his brother and father died from heart attacks at age 55 and 51, respectively. The patient is married and has 3 children and 7 grandchildren. He was registered in 2 different nutrition education programs in the past 2 years, but he reports not being motivated to make long-term changes in his diet. His doctor also referred him to physical therapy, but the patient did not follow up on this referral.
- Based on the video you watched, would a strategy like Motivational Interviewing (MI) potentially help this patient? Why or why not?
- What are we listening carefully for, when applying MI? What are the "hooks"?