Responsive therapy and motivational interviewing: Postmodernist paradigms

Two counseling approaches of relatively recent origin, responsive therapy and motivational interviewing, are described and compared. Both operate through a series of stages and from a collaborative and postmodernist ethic. They involve prescriptive use of micro-skills at the beginning stage and progress to focused and active, intentional intervention strategies. Responsive therapy claims to allow integration of active interventions from a variety of theory bases, whereas motivational interviewing has a strongly cognitive-behavioral flavor. Both serve as viable alternatives to a traditional diagnose-and-prescribe mindset while maintaining efficient and effective dynamics appropriate to contemporary brief therapy and managed care contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)