Therapeutic Aproaches - Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing: Finding Your Own Reasons to Change
Change is hard, especially when part of you wants it and part of you really doesn’t. Motivational Interviewing meets you in that tension without pushing you anywhere you’re not ready to go. It’s a conversation, not a lecture.
What This Can Feel Like
You might come in knowing something needs to shift but feeling stuck on actually doing it. Some common places people find themselves:
- You’ve told yourself you’ll quit, cut back, or start fresh a hundred times, and nothing sticks
- You genuinely can’t tell if you want to change or just feel like you should
- Well-meaning people keep telling you what to do, and it makes you dig in harder
- You start strong, then talk yourself right back out of it within days
- You feel defensive the moment someone brings up the thing you already know is a problem
- You’re exhausted by the gap between who you are and who you want to be
- You’ve tried before, it didn’t work, and now doubt is louder than motivation
Why This Happens
Ambivalence, feeling pulled in two directions at once, is not a character flaw or a lack of willpower. It’s a completely normal part of how people relate to change, especially when something has been serving a purpose even while causing harm.
How Motivational Interviewing Can Help
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, evidence-based approach that helps people explore their own values and reasons for change rather than being told what to do [American Psychological Association, 2023]. Instead of confronting resistance, your therapist works with it.
- Untangling the part of you that wants change from the part that’s afraid of it
- Finding your own reasons to move forward, ones that actually mean something to you
- Reducing the shame spiral that shuts down progress before it starts
- Building confidence in your ability to follow through, not just your intention to
- Working through specific sticking points like past failed attempts or fear of losing something familiar
- Making sense of patterns in substance use, health behaviors, or relationships that feel hard to shift
How Ellie Makes Support More Accessible
- Ellie’s therapist matching process takes your specific concerns and preferences into account so you’re connected with someone trained in MI and the right fit for you.
- Most Ellie locations work with a wide range of insurance plans, and flexible scheduling means you can find a time that actually fits your life.
- If it doesn’t feel like the right match after your first session, Ellie makes it easy to try someone else, because the relationship matters as much as the modality.
Frequently Asked Questions for Motivational Interviewing
Not sure what to expect? These are the questions people ask us before they get started.
MI is used across a wide range of situations where someone feels stuck or ambivalent about change. It’s commonly used for substance issues, health behavior changes, eating patterns, relationship habits, and any situation where part of you wants to move forward and part of you isn’t sure. It’s not limited to one type of problem.
MI is specifically focused on the decision to change, not the change itself. A therapist trained in MI won’t tell you what to do or push you toward a particular outcome. Instead, they help you explore your own values and reasons so that motivation, if it comes, comes from you.
Yes. That ambivalence is actually the starting point for MI, not a barrier to it. The whole approach is built around sitting with mixed feelings about change without forcing resolution before you’re ready. Many people find that having that space, without pressure, is what finally helps things shift.
MI can be effective in a relatively short timeframe, sometimes just a few sessions, though it depends on what you’re working on. It’s also often used alongside other therapy approaches rather than as a standalone treatment. Your therapist will work with you to figure out what makes sense.
No. While MI was originally developed in the context of addiction treatment, it’s now widely used for health behavior change, medication adherence, mental health treatment engagement, eating patterns, and any area where ambivalence about change is getting in the way.