Three reasons why you should integrate MI and CBT in your alcohol and other drug practice
Change is rarely a straight line, especially in alcohol and other drug treatment. Some people may want to change but don’t know how. Others might not be sure they want to change.
Some degree of uncertainty and ambivalence during treatment is the norm, even in people who are ready and willing to engage. It’s not uncommon to see levels of motivation fluctuate as we progress.
That’s why integrating motivational interviewing (MI) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) just makes sense. It allows us to meet people exactly where they are and support them with both the why and the how of change.
Here’s three reasons why you should be integrating MI and CBT in your practice.
1. They complement each other perfectly
People in alcohol and other drug treatment sometimes don’t have the skills or motivation to change, or maybe they feel ambivalent about it.
MI addresses the motivational aspects by focusing on what’s important to clients and where they want to be in the future while CBT focuses on the skills to help them to get there.
Integrating a therapy that is specifically designed to address ambivalence and motivation with one that is designed for behavioural, emotional, and cognitive change makes perfect sense.
2. Motivation tends to fluctuate
We know that motivation doesn't follow along a nice smooth pathway and motivation levels tend to fluctuate in clients.
Being able to seamlessly blend and move between MI and CBT means that you can be more responsive to where your client is in the change process and drive positive change faster.
3. They're both supported by a strong evidence base
MI and CBT are two key evidence based approaches for alcohol and other drug treatment. They're widely used in practice and have decades of evidence behind them to support their effectiveness.
By integrating them, you’re combining two gold standard and effective therapies.
How do I integrate MI and CBT?
When it comes to integrating MI and CBT, treatment guidelines will often say to do a couple of MI sessions at the start followed by CBT. But we know that motivation doesn’t work that way.
That’s why with our interactive online workshop, Integrating MI and CBT, we look at how you can integrate MI with CBT throughout the full range of the change process, so that you can maximise outcomes by ensuring that your work with your clients is always connected to what matters to them.
Walk away with practical skills that you can implement immediately
- Understand motivation and why people change, and how this impacts treatment outcomes
- Describe how motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioural therapy can work in unison
- Seamlessly integrate cognitive behavioural therapy with motivational interviewing
- Apply motivational interviewing to improve outcomes from cognitive behavioural therapy
Learn more or book your place in Integrating MI and CBT here
