Does motivational interviewing raise your motivation?

In this review of 20 mental health studies, it did not raise motivation more than the approaches it was compared with. Its clearer effect was on engagement, how involved people stayed in treatment. So its value may run through staying with the work, not through a bigger surge of drive.

Is engagement more important than motivation in therapy?

This research cannot rank them, but it does suggest engagement is where a change-focused conversation showed its edge. Motivation tends to rise and fall on its own. Staying involved in the work is something you can keep choosing, which may be why it mattered here.

Should I talk through my reasons for change before therapy?

Naming your own reasons is the heart of motivational interviewing, and this review found the approach helped people stay engaged. It did not prove the talk boosts motivation, so treat it as a way to stay involved and clear, not a sure lift in drive.

Intention

Does talking about change actually build your motivation?

Short answer

Not the way you might think. When researchers pooled 20 studies of motivational interviewing for mental health, the approach did not raise people's motivation more than other methods did. What it did improve was engagement, staying involved in the work. Talking about change seems to help you show up, not just want it.

The research

Romano, M., & Peters, L. (2015). Evaluating the mechanisms of change in motivational interviewing in the treatment of mental health problems: A review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, volume 38, pages 1 to 12.

Sample Twenty studies of motivational interviewing for mental health problems, in people with mood, anxiety, psychotic, and eating conditions and mixes of these. This page describes the review's design and direction, not exact pooled numbers, because the source could not be opened to confirm them this run.

Published 2015

Journal Clinical Psychology Review

In 2015, Mia Romano and Lorna Peters at Macquarie University set out to answer a question that sits underneath a lot of therapy. When a conversation about change seems to help, what is actually doing the work? They focused on motivational interviewing, a style of talking that is built to draw out a person's own reasons for change. They gathered the research on how it works for mental health, and 20 studies met their bar, covering people with mood, anxiety, psychotic, and eating conditions, and mixes of these. They looked at the parts the method is meant to move: a person's motivation and confidence, their resistance or pushback, and their engagement, meaning how involved they stayed in the work. The result was honest and a little surprising. Motivational interviewing did not raise people's motivation more than the approaches it was compared against. Where it did show an edge was engagement. People given this style tended to stay more involved in their treatment. The authors were careful to call this an early read. The studies were few and varied, so the pattern is a lead worth following, not a settled account of why talking about change helps.

Read the paper

What does this mean for you?

One honest note to start. This was a review of motivational interviewing, a specific way of running a conversation about change. It is not the same as any chat you have before a session, and the studies were done with people already in care for mental health problems. So read it as a clue about how talking about change works, not a rule for every situation.

What it suggests is worth sitting with. The obvious story is that talking about change fires up your motivation, and that the extra drive is what carries you forward. This review did not find that. Compared with other approaches, motivational interviewing did not leave people more motivated. The part that moved was quieter. People stayed more engaged, more involved in the work itself.

That is a kinder and more useful picture than the willpower story. It means the value of naming what you want may be less about manufacturing a burst of motivation and more about staying in the room, coming back, and keeping your hand on the work. Motivation goes up and down. Engagement is something you can keep choosing, even on the days the drive is thin.

It also fits what a lot of people notice. You do not always leave a good conversation about change feeling fired up. Sometimes you just feel a little more willing to keep going. This research points to that willingness to stay involved, rather than a spike of motivation, as where the quiet benefit may live. And because it rests on a small and mixed set of studies, hold it lightly.

The takeaway

Do not wait to feel motivated. The steadier lever is engagement, staying involved even when the drive is low.
Name what you want, then put your attention on showing up for the work rather than on how motivated you feel that day.
Treat a flat day as normal. Motivation rises and falls, and staying engaged is the part you can keep choosing.

Terms in this page

Intention setting Mental readiness

This is the work Asendar™ was built for: helping you stay engaged with your care between sessions, on the days you feel driven and the days you do not. If you want a simple read on where you are starting from today, take your Mental Readiness Score.

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