How Motivational Interviewing Augments Your Trauma-Informed Work

We know that the two most important concerns of a traumatized person are safety and control, and M.I. provides this. Motivational Interviewing as a communication approach that is non-confrontational, non-judgmental, non-argumentative, and non-adversarial automatically helps set a tone of emotional safety, trustworthiness, and calm  – which are of particular importance to a client who has experienced trauma. And the highly evocative, collaborative, autonomy-acknowledging aspects of M.I. allow a sense of agency and control for the client. The Core Skills of M.I. – open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective statements, and summarizations – are all highly evocative, and they assist in building an effective rapport with even guarded, untrusting clients. Motivational Interviewing conveys a genuine desire to not only invite , but utilize a client’s perspectives, ideas, preferences, values, and needs to design a way forward; it is decidedly client-centered, and the collaborative nature of it tends to provide a sense of self-efficacy and agency, which are often difficult issues for a traumatized client who may feel they are stuck, even irrevocably damaged. The acceptance, empathy, and respect that Motivational Interviewing promotes as principles are conducive to earning a client’s trust – which is often difficult with a client who has experienced trauma and is unhealed from it as yet. The clear avoidance of any kind of forceful language is another crucial benefit: M.I. seeks to ensure clients that no one is trying to force them to change – and that the helper knows that no one could anyway. Instead, we focus on client choice, and seek to illuminate the risks and consequences for them of certain choices, as well as all the potential benefits of change. It is clearly the client “in the driver’s seat” as we work with them to recognize choices that will bring them more peace, more healing, and more life satisfaction.