Author(s): Sylvie Naar-King and Mariann Suarez

Children & Adolescents

This pragmatic guide spells out how to use motivational interviewing (MI) to have productive conversations about behavior change with adolescents and young adults in any clinical context. Filled with vivid examples, sample dialogues, and "dos and don'ts," the book shows how conducting MI from a developmentally informed standpoint can help practitioners quickly build rapport with young patients, enhance their motivation to make healthy changes, and overcome ambivalence. Experts on specific adolescent problems describe MI applications in such key areas as substance abuse, smoking, sexual risk taking, eating disorders and obesity, chronic illness management, and externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. This book will be important reading for clinical psychologists, addictions treatment specialists, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists; also of interest to pediatricians, nurses, and other health care providers who treat adolescents. It may also serve as a supplemental text in graduate-level courses.

About the author:
Sylvie Naar-King, PhD, Pediatric Prevention Research Center and Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, USA and Mariann Suarez, PhD, ABPP, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, University of South Florida College of Medicine, USA