Motivational enhancement therapy in the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial

Growing numbers of practitioners in the UK who offer treatment to people with alcohol, drug and smoking dependence and related disorders have been trained to deliver motivational interviewing as a treatment. Motivational interviewing grew in popularity for a number of reasons: it was consistent in principle with the 'person-centered' style of counseling taught on many British counseling courses, it suited the more liberal approach to client self-determination of goals that had become standard practice with the widespread acceptance of controlled drinking and harm reduction as legitimate aims of treatment and, probably more universally, it relieved practitioners of the frequently experienced problem of getting into conflict with clients over drinking or drug using self-report and intention to change which, as described in Chapter 1, is likely to be the product of a more confrontational approach. However, by the 1990s there was still no study demonstrating the quality and outcome of motivational interviewing practice in the UK compared to other approaches. This chapter begins by looking at the evidence base in the UK. It then discusses training staff to practice Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET). The remainder of this chapter deals with training for the MET arm of the UK Alcohol Treatment Trial. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)