Creating a Therapeutic Alliance with Caregivers: An Introduction to Motivational Interviewing

The training of behavior analysts emphasizes scientific knowledge and expertise in implementing the principles of behavior analysis. Although knowledge of and skills in the implementation of behavior analysis are important, we argue that the way in which behavior analysis is practiced may be equally important. In many other helping professions (e.g., psychology, medicine), trainees are explicitly taught the skills needed to build a therapeutic alliance and a frequently used training modality is motivational interviewing. Originally developed for, and still used as an intervention component to facilitate client engagement in intervention, motivational interviewing has been demonstrated to be both highly effective in enhancing intervention outcomes and for strengthening rapport between a clinician and a client. We argue that motivational interviewing has relevance to the practice of behavior analysis and should be adopted within training programs.