"The technique involves asking a person open-ended questions, listening to and repeating the interviewee's answers, and ideally helping a person to realize on their own what is holding them back from taking action to improve their health. A key feature of this approach is to avoid confrontations or arguments. "

"Dr. Sue J. Channon of the Cardiff and Vale National Health Service Trust in Cardiff and her colleagues randomly assigned 66 diabetic teens to motivational interviewing or support visits, which acted as the comparison, over the course of a year. Individuals in the motivational group had an average of four visits with a counselor, while those in the control group averaged six meetings. Sixty subjects completed the trial."

"After one year, the researchers found that teens in the intervention group had significantly lower levels of hemoglobin A1C, a measure of long-term blood glucose control, compared with the other group. This difference remained when the researchers retested the study participants one year later."

"Teens who participated in motivational interviewing also had higher levels of satisfaction with their lives and a greater sense of well being, along with less anxiety and worry. They also had stronger beliefs in their ability to head
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