What it Really Takes to Learn the Foundational Best- Practice for Motivation & Change: Myth-Busting the Motivational Interviewing Learning Process

By John Gilbert, MS, RD, RHC-III, ACSM-CEP® john.gilbert@ifioc.com

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Intention: The intention of the information below is to provide evidence-based clarity in achieving the outcomes found with the best-practice foundation in motivation and behavior change—Motivational Interviewing (MI). Much confusion, misperception and strong opinion exist regarding MI, at least in part to its fast and wide spread popularity and perceived prevalence of fidelity. Below is an attempt at capturing as much of the research and relevant quotes from such studies that this author could find in the allotted time of its creation. If you think it would benefit from further information, amendments, etc…, then your feedback would gratefully be considered if you send it to john.gilbert@ifioc.com. With the information below, you can make a more evidence-informed choice for you and/or your organization depending on whether you want to:

A. Be able to do and provide MI with likely outcome improvements seen in fidelity studies

OR

B. Know about MI with concepts/acronyms and likely without skill transfer to achieve associated outcomes and return on investment (be it time, money, effort, or otherwise)

This document is focused on informing you on the prior (A.), with the answer to the latter (B.), being much more basic given it’s virtually any training in MI that you receive that does not include the components below. The content below is relevant to all working environments for which MI has been studied (many as you will see), with a special emphasis within the health care field for the initial intended audience of Functional and Lifestyle Medicine professionals.