Addiction Treatment: 4 Things You Should Know About Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)

Are you struggling with addiction, or is someone you care about? If so, you'll know how hard it is to make changes, and how easily an addict is pulled back whenever they try. One therapeutic approach, called Motivational Enhancement Therapy, seeks to help addicts get a better picture of what's needed to reach abstinence and how they can get there. 

What do you need to know?

1. What purpose does Motivational Enhancement Therapy serve?

Read about Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET for short) and you'll soon be hit in the face with a whole heap of psychological jargon that makes it hard to understand what this treatment is all about.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy has many potential applications. It's been studied in the context of eating disorders and chronic pain as well as helping veterans with multiple problems, but is most popular in addiction treatment. People suffering from both substance and behavioral addictions may benefit from MET because the treatment approach can:

• Help them realize what circumstances and triggers stand in the way of working on reaching remission, including often their own fears. 
• Help them understand that change is possible and their own motivation plays a large role in that. 
• Help them see why recovering from addiction is important and what the disadvantages of continued addiction are.
• Help them set smaller and larger goals to get there — such as reducing their substance use gradually or incorporating better nutrition and exercise into their lives. 
• Help them commit to participating in further addiction treatment. 

2. What can an addict expect from Motivational Enhancement Therapy?

The details will vary greatly, because this approach is very patient-centered — a therapist specifically trained in MET will help you uncover what your own immediate and long-term life goals are and guide you as you gather the motivation you need to make the changes you want to make. MET is not a long-term therapy, however.

Since the sessions, which generally last an hour, are designed to essentially help you help yourself, the therapist plays the role of "guidance counselor". They ask questions that are meant to give you clarity about your own goals, and you find the answers. Because of this, you'll be the one doing most of the talking during the therapy. 

3. Is Motivational Enhancement Therapy effective?

Maybe. Some proponents will describe MET as a therapy in its own right, pointing to the fact that drawn-out therapeutic approaches to addiction treatment often have low success rates. The approach is partly rooted in the now largely debunked "Stages of Change" model of addiction treatment, which places a lot of personal responsibility on an addict's shoulders. This is a problem, because addiction is now well-recognized to be a chronic disease that fundamentally changes brain chemistry — being fully committed to the goal of reaching remission and staying abstinent is important for individual addicts, but it may not be enough. Though built on a shaky scientific foundation, MET may still benefit addicts.

Motivational Enhancement Therapy seems to be more successful in helping people addicted to alcohol and marijuana than some other substances. Its individual approach may solidify a person's resolve to get and stay clean and sober. Research suggests that it does more to get people into other forms of treatment — a very worthy milestone in itself! — than it does to actually reduce substance abuse on its own, though.

In short, MET may be for you if:

• You're not sure you're ready to battle your addiction, but are considering your options. 
• You're afraid of the process of recovery that lies ahead and want to work through the challenges that await and turn them into more manageable, bite-sized, chunks with a professional. 
• You are committed to getting clean and sober but aren't sure how. MET could help you determine your goals and steps. 

4. Attending Motivational Enhancement Therapy doesn't close any other doors

This therapy can be part of many settings — inpatient rehab, outpatient rehab, community centers, Veterans Affairs, and many more. While MET will, for some addicts, be the only therapy they attend, it's just the first step on the path towards other treatments like detoxification, cognitive behavioral therapy, 12-step programs, and so on, for many others.

Research has shown that participating in a course of Motivational Enhancement Therapy increases the odds that addicts, particularly alcoholics, later go on to attend and complete other programs. Because of its short duration, this therapy may just be a matter of "if it doesn't help, it can't harm much, either".