The four guiding principles of Motivational Interviewing guide the clinician in a technique designed to create greater behavior change with clients. Successfully empowering individuals to create lasting healthy behavioral changes means establishing a trusting rapport and empathetically listening to their needs while maintaining a clear agenda that sets the stage for progressive “change speech” (Matulich, 2013). According to Matulich (2013), when a client expresses more and greater intent to change the more likely they are to initiate actions that mirror their intentional spoken wishes. The acronym, RULE stands for the four guiding principles of Motivational Interviewing: Resist, Understand, Listen, and Empower. When used strategically throughout a client interview they will guide a …show more content…
440). This attitude is inevitable in most individuals struggling to address unhealthy lifestyles and the behaviors that led to undesirable outcomes. Motivational Interviewing is different from other approaches when dealing with a client’s ambivalence towards change in that it emphasizes ambivalence issues through the use of reflective and summative dialog (Matulich, 2013). Instead of presenting reasonable and logical arguments as to why behavioral change is necessary for the client which could create more resistance or discord between the clinician and patient, MI techniques draw out “change talk” from the clients themselves thereby firmly seating the impetus for change as their own rather than simply being told to change (Matulich, 2013). Furthermore, through the use of strategic open-ended questions exploring “discrepancies between [client] values and goals”, this will prompt the individual to realign their thinking and therefore their actions towards promoting positive, healthier outcomes (Matulich, 2013, p.