The fight for sobriety doesn’t end after a successful alcohol rehab; it continues as an ongoing commitment to living a healthier life. It’s, therefore, important to recognize which recovery tools are still effective. If you’ve been using motivational interviewing as a complementary strategy to your alcohol abuse treatment, you can continue using it in your post-rehab journey.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a counselling technique to help you recognize and examine your ambivalence and strengthen your resolve to make positive changes. One of its main purposes in alcohol recovery is to make you realize the treatment you need to get. However, this article explores how MI can still support your journey to alcohol recovery and maintain its position as an important post-rehab strategy.
Resolving Post-Rehab Ambivalence
Post-rehab ambivalence can come in different forms, such as doubting your capability to stay sober despite wanting to. You may also find it hard to adapt to a new lifestyle without alcohol, especially when it means changing your daily routine and social habits. Also, living as a “changed person” might come with expectations that could put a lot of strain on you and your loved ones.
Motivational interviewing may be helpful in solving post-rehab ambivalence. You and the MI counsellor can work through your conflicting feelings so you can articulate, on your own, your motivations and strengthen your commitment for sobriety.
Setting Realistic Goals
Setting goals is highly valued in alcohol recovery because it builds self-esteem, enhances discipline, and promotes healthy living. However, it’s difficult to set realistic goals, much less achieve them. You may even have to alter them throughout your recovery. One study showed that 31% changed their drinking goals a few weeks after treatment.
Motivational interviewing is an effective way to set realistic goals because your therapists would help you every step of the way. They would ensure that your goals are meaningful, align with your motivations and values, and, most of all, achievable. By addressing your ambivalence about recovery, MI identifies potential barriers to achieving your goal and adjusts your plans accordingly to make them relevant and compelling.
Sustaining Motivation and Boosting Self-Efficacy
Your motivation might be at an all-time high after finishing a rehab program. However, that might change after encountering difficulties, like losing something valuable, feeling isolated, etc. The negative emotions brought forth by day-to-day challenges can ultimately lead to a relapse. According to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the addiction recovery rate of alcohol and substance use is 75%. The figure shows that not everyone succeeds.
Alcohol recovery often lasts for a lifetime; motivation doesn’t. Still, there are a few ways you can sustain your motivation for staying sober, one of which is through engaging in motivational interviewing. An MI practitioner can help you explore or remember the “whys” of your goals. They can also help you focus on your progress and strengths instead of your difficulties, reframing your negative self-perceptions and focusing on your achievements.
Motivational interviewing also helps boost self-efficacy by acknowledging your wins. It builds on your past successes by helping you reflect on them, showing tangible evidence of your capabilities related to alcohol recovery. MI also uses positive reinforcement to recognize and affirm your efforts and progress and help you celebrate milestones, no matter how small.
Developing a Plan to Achieve Your Goals
Planning is one of the fundamental processes of MI, and it can be useful after rehab. After discovering and understanding the driving force for staying sober, an MI counsellor can help you formulate a specific action plan that is accessible, acceptable, and appropriate. You can, however, create the plan on your own if you prefer.
You will be the one to devise solutions, although the MI counsellor can offer advice when necessary. Since you are the architect of your plan, you can be sure that your actions are for your own benefit and not just to comply with the therapist.
Enhancing Coping Strategies
Coping strategies are a vital part of post-rehab alcohol treatment. It can spell the difference between a close call and a total relapse when a challenge arises during the recovery process. That’s why it is important to ensure they are personalized, effective, and actionable. MI can help you discover positive coping strategies.
During motivational interviewing, counsellors direct the discourse to recognize your emotional response to specific stress and challenges, providing a better understanding of your triggers and stressors.
Motivational interviewing also builds on your strengths (e.g., resilience) and on your resources (e.g., support network). Additionally, it explores various possible coping options, like relaxation exercises and cognitive restructuring, for different situations. All these are taken into account to develop personalized and effective coping mechanisms with a higher chance of success.
Improving Communication and Relationships
Communication and relationship issues usually arise after going through alcohol rehab. For instance, your alcohol use may have damaged your relationships with families and friends, but going through the treatment has set your expectations astray, thinking all is forgiven. You might also struggle with emotional vulnerabilities, distancing from former social circles, rebuilding intimacy, or isolation.
At its core, motivational interviewing promotes honest and reflective listening, which can help improve your communication skills and make them more empathetic and supportive. It facilitates conflict resolution by teaching techniques such as active listening and collaborative ways of seeking mutual solutions.
MI also promotes self-awareness and self-reflection, making you more thoughtful and intentional in communicating. Motivational interviewing also helps you build stronger connections by engaging in supportive interactions and fostering mutual respect and validation.
Get Continued Professional Support After Rehab
The benefits of motivational interviewing extend beyond the initial phases of alcohol addiction treatments. It can be continually used as a complementary tool to other recovery strategies, such as the holistic approach offered by HARP, to ensure long-term sobriety.
At HARP, once you’re a client, we will support your recovery for life by offering post-rehab services and tools like our HARP+ Aftercare app. It lets you perform virtual check-ins with our AI counsellor, provides an online virtual booking system for psychologists, and offers emergency safety plans with 24/7 crisis calls.
Want to learn more? Schedule a guided virtual tour with an alcohol recovery specialist.
