ArticleJournal of substance abuse treatment2016
Which Individual Therapist Behaviors Elicit Client Change Talk and Sustain Talk in Motivational Interviewing?
Article in Journal of substance abuse treatment, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- A multivariate meta-analysis of motivational interviewing process and outcome.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2017Pooled it
- Impact of Computer-Mediated Versus Face-to-Face Motivational-Type Interviews on Participants' Language and Subsequent Cannabis Use: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- The role of the relational context and therapists' technical behaviors in brief motivational interviewing sessions for heavy alcohol consumption: Findings from a sample of Latinx adults.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2023Trial
- Can chatbots help to motivate smoking cessation? A study on the effectiveness of motivational interviewing on engagement and therapeutic alliance.BMC public health · 2022Trial
- What can clients tell us about whether to use motivational interviewing? An analysis of early-session ambivalent language.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2022Trial
- A sequential analysis of motivational interviewing technical skills and client responses.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2018Trial
- Trajectories of in-session change language in brief motivational interventions with mandated college students.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2018Trial
- Understanding Mechanisms of Change for Brief Alcohol Interventions Among Youth: Examination of Within-Session Interactions.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2017Trial
- Motivational interviewing training for community mental health providers: Findings and lessons learned from three related studies.PEC innovation · 2026Article
- Use of the Dynamic Systems Development Method to Inform Technology-Assisted Motivational Interviewing (TAMI) for Tobacco Cessation: Qualitative Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- A Need for Strategies to Reduce Alcohol Use After Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery: Technology-Based Intervention and Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Learning & motivational talk in smoking cessation interventions: An examination of session language in two randomized trials.Patient education and counseling · 2025Article
- Novel motivational interviewing-based intervention improves engagement in physical activity and readiness to change among adolescents with chronic pain.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024Article
- Development and refinement of a corner-based injury prevention programme for Latino day labourers.Health education journal · 2023Article
- Psychologically Informed Practice: The Importance of Communication in Clinical Implementation.Physical therapy · 2023Review
- You never know what you are going to get: Large-scale assessment of therapists' supportive counseling skill use.Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.) · 2023Article
- Examining the Impact of Race on Motivational Interviewing Implementation and Outcomes with HIV+ Heavy Drinking Men Who Have Sex with Men.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Exploring client messages in a therapist-guided internet intervention for alcohol use disorders - A content analysis.Internet interventions · 2021Article
- Where there's a will, there's a way? Strategies to reduce or abstain from alcohol use developed by Northern Plains American Indian women participating in a brief, alcohol-exposed pregnancy preconceptual intervention.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Article
- Leveraging Motivational Interviewing to Coach Teachers in the Implementation of Preventive Evidence-Based Practices: A Sequential Analysis of the Motivational Interviewing Process.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo identify individual therapist behaviors which elicit client change talk or sustain talk in motivational interviewing sessions.
methodMotivational interviewing sessions from a single-session alcohol intervention delivered to college students were audio-taped, transcribed, and coded using the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code (MISC), a therapy process coding system. Participants included 92 college students and eight therapists who provided their treatment. The MISC was used to code 17 therapist behaviors related to the use of motivational interviewing, and client language reflecting movement toward behavior change (change talk), away from behavior change (sustain talk), or unrelated to the target behavior (follow/neutral).
resultsClient change talk was significantly more likely to immediately follow individual therapist behaviors [affirm (p=.013), open question (p<.001), simple reflection (p<.001), and complex reflection (p<.001)], but significantly less likely to immediately follow others (giving information (p<.001) and closed question (p<.001)]. Sustain talk was significantly more likely to follow therapist use of open questions (p<.001), simple reflections (p<.001), and complex reflections (p<.001), and significantly less likely to occur following therapist use of therapist affirm (p=.012), giving information (p<.001), and closed questions (p<.001).
conclusionsCertain individual therapist behaviors within motivational interviewing can either elicit both client change talk and sustain talk or suppress both types of client language. Affirm was the only therapist behavior that both increased change talk and also reduced sustain talk.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.