Motivational Interviewing with Adolescents and Young Adults

Applications of Motivational Interviewing

by Sylvie Naar, Mariann Suarez

This pragmatic guide spells out how to use motivational interviewing (MI) to have productive conversations about behavior change with adolescents and young adults in any clinical context. Filled with vivid examples, sample dialogues, and "dos and don'ts," the book shows how conducting MI from a developmentally informed standpoint can help practitioners quickly build rapport with young patients, enhance their motivation to make healthy changes, and overcome ambivalence. Experts on specific adolescent problems describe MI applications in such key areas as substance abuse, smoking, sexual risk taking, eating disorders and obesity, chronic illness management, and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems.

Genres: Psychology, Social Work, Nonfiction, Counselling, Mental Health, School

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

See also Sylvie Naar-King

Reviews

[Amanda Torres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical for the work I do. It focused on the practice of MI in the context of young people's development both physiologically and socially, and the challenge of autonomy when supporting complex mental health/addiction issues with youth and their guardians. Balancing family/support intervention and individual work is critical when working with young people.

[Danielle]

To read about MI, or any therapeutic technique, is going to be a bit boring and tedious. However, I believe the authors did a good job of keeping the language accessible, the skills attainable, and added helpful examples and practice in each chapter. By taking this book, one chapter at a time, I felt like it helped to keep a good pace without being too dry. Given I’m new to MI this book was very helpful and insightful in the practice but I recognize for those skilled in MI that this might not be as helpful.

No rating because I read this for work and probably wouldn’t have read it otherwise.

[Brianna Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my professor’s recommended this book to gain more insight on group counseling/theories techniques. This is one of the best counseling books I’ve read!

[Laura]

I read this for work.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books does a really nice job of explaining the process and modifications of MI with younger people. Younger people present unique challenges for the therapist, which are taken into account in this book.

[MsChris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book that explains the basics of MI and how to utilize it with young adults. A lot of it is very basic information, so if you're familiar with MI it may not be as beneficial though it does give unique insight it to many different scenarios with which MI could be used.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapters 1-8 are worth reading. Pick and choose from the remaining chapters for specific applications.

[Marci Suelzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some valuable insights, but little new information for those who are already familiar with motivational interviewing.