Motivational Interviewing with a Precontemplative Client

[@AliceStoll]

Good words. Thank you!🌞

[@jeromevet1]

I love this video and your words of wisdom. My problem is I sometimes deal with clients (adolescents) who are kind of on a timeline--either change or go to jail! As a recovering addict myself, it took a sufficient amount of pain and a sufficient amount of hope to get me to change. Pain = the unacceptable consequences of continued drug use (prison). Hope = life will be better when I am clean and sober, and I know I can do it. But, I meet these kids who are forced into treatment and who don't want to change. Many are in group homes, and they face pain and misery on a daily basis, so substance abuse is their escape. And, the consequences of their substance use/abuse hasn't been as severe...yet. I find myself going in circles with them using MI and even a little CBT, and I wind up "preaching" to them which does not work because they already get a ton of that.
What keeps me grounded is my recognition that I am a helper, not a fixer. If I wanted to be a fixer, I should have become a mechanic!