Motivational interviewing for social anxiety disorder: An examination of the technical hypothesis.

ABSTRACTBackground and objective: Motivational interviewing (MI) was originally developed to treat problematic drinking but is increasingly integrated into treatment for anxiety disorders. A causal model has been proposed which suggests technical and relational factors may account for the efficacy of MI. The technical hypothesis suggests that therapist MI-consistent behaviours are related to client change talk, and change talk is linked to treatment outcome. Research examining the technical hypothesis has typically been conducted in MI for substance use; therefore, the current study aimed to explore the technical hypothesis in MI for social anxiety disorder (SAD). Method: Participants diagnosed with SAD (n = 85) each received MI prior to receiving group cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). MI sessions were coded for behaviours relevant to the MI technical hypothesis.

Results

The proportion of MI-consistent therapist behaviours and reflections of change language significantly predicted the proportion of change talk by the client during MI sessions; however, therapist and client behaviours did not predict treatment outcome.

Conclusion

The findings support one path of the MI causal model in the context of social anxiety, though indicate that the occurrence of these behaviours during an MI pre-treatment may not extend to predict treatment outcome following CBT.