The Power of Acceptance
Motivational Interviewing for AddictionThings are changing a lot in the addiction field. You will still find programs that have this kind of personality disorder model that something sick about the person, and they're incapable of understanding, and you have to even scream at them. And and confront them and get in their face. You know, never been any good science to that. It really is rooted in that old kind of 1950-'60s way of thinking about this. But it still happens. I mean, we had American programs where patients literally had a toilet seat placed around their head.
And they had to wear that around for several days because they were told they're they're in denial. You know? I mean, that kind of shaming there's never been any reason to think that it's helpful. But there is this kind of persistent idea that if you can just make people feel bad enough, about themselves, then they will change. Never been any science to that. And motivational interviewing in a way an opposite course, and so did Carl Rogers.
That really, it's helping people to feel and experience acceptance as they are that makes it possible to change. Now isn't that a lovely paradox? When you feel unacceptable, it's very difficult to change. It's paralyzing. When you experience from a therapist, from your family, from god, acceptance, then it becomes possible to change. I don't know why we're wired that way, but it seems to be true.