People seeking to enhance their health or well-being are finding that one of the best-researched, safest and most effective paths to positive health behavior change is Motivational Interviewing, also known as MI. According to an article in The Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, MI is an evidence-based practice that can help anyone to sustain changes in their health, whether those changes involve eating differently, getting enough exercise or sleep, stress reduction, reducing alcohol or other substance use, or improving medication adherence.

MI is different from traditional forms of counseling because it is based on the thinking that everyone has the capacity to succeed in any change they desire; it also sees each person as being the only one who should decide what, why, how and when to change a health behavior. This person-centered approach is very different from counseling and self-help methods that tend to be directive or rigid. MI may be applied in coaching and counseling relationships; coaching for health behavior change is a process that unlike counseling does not necessarily involve a diagnosis of an illness, need not require medical insurance, and often can be effective in just a few brief sessions. Members of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), a global nonprofit organization, have met certain requirements and subscribe to standards for quality and ethics in the application of MI.

Learn more at Motivationalinterviewing.org.  MINT is practiced locally by Harry S. Zerler, MA, LCADC, NJDRCC of GoodPath LLC. 908-852-5536.