MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING AS AN ADJUNCT TO COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY FOR ANXIETY

This thesis examined motivation in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) of anxiety disorders. Across five papers, this thesis examined the addition of motivation interviewing (MI) to CBT in prior studies, examined the role of motivational language within CBT for anxiety, assessed fluctuations in motivational language across treatment, and evaluated the efficacy of a novel integrated MI and CBT for anxiety. Findings indicated that pre-treatment MI augments the efficacy of CBT, but due to fluctuations in motivation throughout treatment, more integrated MI+CBT may enhance this augmented effect. Results from a small clinical trial suggested that integrated MI+CBT yielded superior effects than CBT-only.