Pain Core Curriculum Module 10: Integrating Motivational Interviewing and its Application as a Pain Management Strategy-Presentation

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Pat Brockenthal’s presentation on "Integrating Motivational Interviewing (MI) and its Application as a Pain Management Strategy" highlights MI as a client-centered, directive counseling style designed to elicit behavior change by resolving ambivalence. Originating in the late 1970s for alcohol use disorder, MI's evidence base now spans over 1,900 trials across various conditions, including chronic pain management. Many lifestyle behaviors—smoking, obesity, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and alcohol misuse—are modifiable factors linked to chronic pain.<br /><br />Traditional clinician-led advice often fails because motivation is internal and patients vary in readiness to change. MI emphasizes empathy, collaboration, autonomy, and compassion, employing four key processes: engaging (building rapport via open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, summaries), focusing (identifying importance and discrepancies), evoking (eliciting change talk), and planning (setting SMART goals). Reflective listening techniques and tools like importance rulers and menus of options help strengthen motivation.<br /><br />A brief action planning model fosters quicker goal setting within clinical encounters. The approach acknowledges relapse as normal and encourages provider flexibility to meet patients where they are. The presentation’s practical case study illustrates applying MI for a patient ambivalent about opioid cessation, using strategies to evoke change talk and collaborative planning.<br /><br />Overall, MI offers an effective, empathetic framework to enhance motivation and support sustainable behavioral change in pain management.

Keywords

Motivational Interviewing

Pain Management

Behavior Change

Chronic Pain

Client-Centered Counseling

Reflective Listening

SMART Goals

Relapse Prevention

Opioid Cessation