This course is chapters 1-3 of the TIP titled “Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Use Disorder Treatment” produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), updated in 2019. This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) reflects a fundamental rethinking of the concept of motivation as a dynamic process, not a static client trait. Motivation relates to the probability that a person will enter into, continue, and adhere to a specific change strategy.

This course presents an overview of motivational counseling approaches, including screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment and contains an explanation of the nature of motivation and its link to changing substance use behaviors. The course concludes with a review of the spirit of MI, the principles of person-centered counseling, the core counseling skills of MI, and the four processes of MI giving the student a concrete basis and multiple processes to use in the practice of MI.