Ep 45 – Effective Psychotherapists with Bill Miller & Terri Moyers
Effective Psychotherapists with Bill Miller & Terri Moyers Glenn and Sebastian were honored to have Drs. William R. Miller and Theresa B. Moyers, authors of “Effective Psychotherapists”, on Talking to Change. Dr. Miller is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico where he served as Director of Clinical Training for the doctoral program in clinical psychology and as a Founder and Co-Director of the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions (CASAA). Miller’s publications include over 60 books and 400 articles and chapters. Fundamentally interested in the psychology of change, he has focused in particular on the development, testing, and dissemination of behavioral treatments for addictions. He introduced the method of motivational interviewing (MI) in 1983 and with Dr. Stephen Rollnick has authored three editions of the primary textbook on MI. With 45 years of experience in addiction research and treatment, he has served as principal investigator for numerous research grants and contracts, founded a private practice group, directed a large public treatment program, and served as a consultant to many organizations including the United States Senate, the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Institutes of Health. In recognition of his research contributions, Dr. Miller is a recipient of the international Jellinek Memorial Award, two career achievement awards from the American Psychological Association, and an Innovators in Combating Substance Abuse award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He maintains an active interest in the interface of spirituality and psychology. His books have been translated into 28 languages, and the Institute for Scientific Information has listed him as one of the world’s most cited scientists. Dr. Moyers is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico where she specializes in the treatment of addictive behaviors. Her research program focuses on teaching clinicians to use evidence-based treatments including motivational interviewing in the addictions field as well as identifying active ingredients in motivational interviewing. Dr. Moyers has published more than 30 peer-reviewed publications related to motivational interviewing and has presented it at conferences and workshops in 42 States and 16 countries. Dr. Moyers also trains and competes with her Border Collie in dog agility. She finds it a natural fit and uses motivational interviewing to help dog trainers warm up to positive training methods. 0:00 – Opening/introduction 5:37 – Bill’s early MI story: The Norway sabbatical and beyond 11:00 – Bill and Terri’s story of collaboration through research and writing 14:45 – Predicting therapy outcomes beyond techniques 19:40 – Bill and Terri’s most important skill to learn: Empathy and Genuineness 23:47 – The internal experience and the external skill: How therapists develop both 30:20 – What not to do and how you can tell 33:30 – Belief in others matters, both for clients and for therapists 39:28 – Learning the core characteristics through doing and through feedback 51:00 – What Bill and Terri learned from writing the book 58:20 – How MI changed Bill and Terri and what’s on their horizons 1:06:29 – End of recording Links and contact information: Email for Bill: wrmiller@unm.edu Email for Terri: tmoyers@unm.edu Recent Books: Miller, W. R., & Moyers, T. B. (2021). Effective psychotherapists: Clinical skills that improve client outcomes. New York: Guilford Press. Miller, W. R., Forcehimes, A. A., & Zweben, A. (2019).