Motivational interviewing - am I doing it right?

alcohol
communication
#1

Is this the right way to use motivational interviewing to relate to motivate my husband to drink less in social anxiety provoking situations?

I get frustrated with my husband’s use of alcohol to cope with social anxiety, as I’ve posted about before. I might try and find the downside (eg. not being able to hang out with friends / leave the party because he get’s too drunk) and ask questions to dig into his thoughts about that outcome. That way I might tap into his motivation to consider the behavior and altering it.

@erica let me know how this sounds - what am I missing or not quite getting or is this a right way to use motivational interviewing?

#2

Motivational interviewing can be hard, I think there are ways that are more effective than others but you really wont know until you try.
Try asking yourself these questions, (obviously fix the wording depending who its directed towards) and if he’s open to it ask him them as well.

Activating event - What is the Activating event?—What happened? What did I
do? What did others do? What idea occurred to me? What emotions was I feeling?

Consequence - Am I feeling anger, depression, anxiety, frustrated, self-pity,
etc.? Am I behaving in a way that doesn’t work for me? (drinking, attacking,
moping, etc.)

Beliefs - Beliefs (dysfunctional)—What do I believe about the Activating event?
Which of my beliefs are my helpful/self-enhancing beliefs and which are my
dysfunctional/self-defeating beliefs?

Dispute - Dispute the Beliefs to find which are dysfunctional—What is the
evidence that my belief is true? In what ways is my belief helpful or unhelpful?
What helpful/self-enhancing belief can I use to replace each self-defeating or
dysfunctional belief?

Effective New Belief and Emotional Consequence - What
helpful/self-enhancing new belief can I use to replace each self-defeating or
dysfunctional belief? What are my new feelings?