"Motivational Interviewing for Health Care Professionals" begins by identifying the classic distinction in therapy between content and relational dimensions in messages which the author matched with issue resistance, "I don't like taking drugs because of the side effects", and relational issues, "Don't you tell me how to take drugs." As an alcohol addiction therapist I think this most insightful, and reminds me of Carl Rogers' famous words:

“In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth?”

The authors later confirm that MI is indeed influenced by Carl Rogers and write, "Miller embraced the client-centred counseling of Carl Rogers."

As a keen supporter of a Rogerian perspective in therapy, I found the relational insights contained in "Motivational Interviewing for Health Care Professionals" very helpful in enhancing my practice as an alcohol addiction counsellor. For example, they write, "MI views the patient as a collaborative partner with expertise every bit as valuable as our own." In this way, they explain, the health care professional becomes a resource for patients to make better decisions about their health.

Although, it may be pertinent here to explain that the authors are not really targeting therapists, who already have training to be supportive and caring, and allowing the patient to make decisions for themselves, but rather Health Care Professionals (HCPs) who may be taught that they have the authority and are "the experts" and may have more difficulty with a patient-centred approach, and therefore more to gain from this book, in recognising and acknowledging the expertise of patients, equally.

"Motivational Interviewing for Health Care Professionals" is well researched and referenced and takes a new direction in Motivational Interviewing by focusing on resistance, as mentioned in terms of issue resistance and relational issues, rather than ambivalence. For example, they write, "Miller and Rollnick have refocused the theory of MI on how to work with ambivalence in the patient.. We have taken the opposite direction... by highlighting resistance over ambivalence." Although, later in the book they take pains to explain that Miller and Rollnick, "stressed that resistance and ambivalence are quite normal reactions to the prospect of change."

Atypically, though, the example given can be somewhat trite and contrived. For example, when illustrating the need to respect that patients make their own decisions, under the bold quote, "I just need to tell my patients what to do," rather than explain the inadequacy of this thinking from a psychological viewpoint, they invoke the analogy of the garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve refusing to follow God's instructions not to eat from the tree: "Why would we as HCPs believe that patients will do whatever we tell them to do when Adam and Eve would not even listen to God?" Do you see what I mean? Dare I call this patronising not only to the patient, but the reader? But this, as I said, is not typical.

Although I agree with the authors when they write, "Patients will do what they think is necessary, not necessarily what is healthiest." And the authors dispel the popular misconception that Motivational Interviewing is about motivating patients, "MI is not about motivating patients. It is concerned with assessing patients' motivation and exploring their ambivalence or resistance so that they are better equipped to make their own decisions." They support this by explaining that trying to motivate patients would be an "impossible job". And explain that it is not for the HCP to fix and save the patient, but rather than patients have to fix and save themselves.

Chapters contain "Questions for reflection" and references at the end, which are helpful, and it may also have been useful to have bullet-pointed goals at the start of each chapter, rather than explaining what they will be doing in each chapter in full sentence paragraphs, but this is merely a stylistic observation, and possibly just personal bias because I do this in my book!

They quote Bill Miller, himself an Alcohol Addiction Counsellor, in the short history of Motivational Interviewing saying, "A simple principal that emerged from our earliest discussions was to have the client, not the counsellor, voice the reasons for change." This supports the notion of Motivational Interviewing as "thoroughly patient-centred therapy."

They carefully explain Rollnick, Miller and Butler's (2008) six major themes of change summarised by the DARN acronym (Dare, Ability, Reason and Need) and two more factors (commitment and taking steps) which is very useful.

The book shines with real-life observations captured beautifully. For example, "Seldom in everyday talk do we slow down enough to explicitly check the other person's understanding of what we have said, much less to check our own understanding of what the other person has said to us."

They confirm the efficacy of telephone interventions for Motivational Interviewing in research, "In a study of interventions to encourage weight loss, the percentage of participants who lost 5% or more of their initial weight was was not significantly different between the remote (telephone, email, website) intervention group (38.2%) and the group receiving in-person support (41.4%). Weight loss was sustained throughout the study period in both intervention groups." (P.204) This is particularly relevant for HCPs who often use telephone interventions and reassuring for my own online therapy practice.

In conclusion they explain the four benefits of using MI are: 1) "patients feel more respect, cared for understood", so they are, "more likely to consider what you have to say"; 2) Health systems more likely to see improved patient outcomes and reduced Heathcare costs; 3) Improved self-perception as provider of heath care; and 4) If you use MI techniques outside professional work you are likely to see social benefits.

An authoritative, well-written and insightful professional manual for Health Care Professionals, rather than Counsellors or Therapists, which will inevitably improve practice and outcomes.