Motivational Interviewing in Social Work Practice

Motivational interviewing (MI) offers powerful tools for helping social work clients draw on their strengths to make desired changes in their lives. This reader-friendly book introduces practitioners and students to MI and demonstrates how to integrate this evidence-based method into direct practice. Melinda Hohman and her associates describe innovative applications for diverse clients and practice areas, including substance abuse treatment, mental health, child welfare, community organizing, and others. Extensive sample dialogues illustrate MI skills in action with individuals and groups. The book also presents best practices for MI training, teaching, and agency-wide integration.

This book is in the Applications of Motivational Interviewing series, edited by Stephen Rollnick, William R. Miller, and Theresa B. Moyers.

Melinda Hohman, PhD, MSW, is Professor in the School of Social Work at San Diego State University, where she has taught since 1995. She teaches courses in social work practice, substance abuse treatment, and motivational interviewing, both at the graduate and undergraduate level. Dr. Hohman’s research interests include substance abuse assessment and treatment services and the overlap of substance abuse treatment and child welfare services. She has been a trainer in motivational interviewing since 1999, training community social workers, child welfare workers, probation officers, and addiction counselors across the United States.

1. Why Social Work and Motivational Interviewing? 2. The Heart of Motivational Interviewing 3. Motivational Interviewing and the Engagement and Assessment Process, with Hilda Loughran and Sally Mathiesen 4. Supporting Self-Efficacy, or What If They Don’t Think They Can Do It?, with Stéphanie Wahab and Katie Slack 5. Expressing Empathy: Communicating Understanding (Even When It’s Hard) 6. Developing Discrepancy: Using Motivational Interviewing in a Group Setting to Increase Ambivalence 7. Rolling with Resistance: Motivational Interviewing with Adolescents, or, "You Can’t Make Me," with Elizabeth Barnett and Audrey M. Shillington 8. Building Collaboration: Motivational Interviewing in Community Organization Work, with Mike Eichler 9. Integrating Motivational Interviewing into Social Work Practice, with Rhoda Emlyn-Jones, Bill James, and Cristine Urquhart 10. Final Thoughts: Lessons Learned from Training and Teaching Motivational Interviewing