The difference between motivational interviewing and a coercive approach

The aim of effective communication is to come to a place of shared understanding. However, there are many intrinsic factors that may make a person resistant or ambivalent towards the information that you are providing.

It is important to remember that your role as a community services worker is to empower the people who are receiving your care, and enable them to come to a place of understanding so that they can make their own informed decisions.

This means that no matter how much you believe a person in your care should change, you cannot force them to. They first need to understand why they need to make a change and secondly be motivated to do so.

A person-centred care approach requires that you empower people in their decision-making abilities through motivational interviewing and not through a coercive approach.

Motivational interviewing is a method that facilitates a person to engage with their own intrinsic motivation in order to change their behaviours. This approach helps people to explore and resolve their own uncertainties and indecision. The coercive approach involves using force or pressure in order to influence someone’s decision-making processes. The aim is to force the person to make the choice that the coercer feels is the best course of action. This method differs from motivational interviewing in that it applies external motivation to decision-making.