On improving empathetic skills in motivational interview with Nonviolent Communication. A pedagogical material for physiotherapy students

Abstract

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” said Theodore Roosevelt. Physiotherapists are more and more aware of it, but how to practically implement the necessary patient-centred caring environment and still manage to provide a physiotherapy session is a real challenge. Motivational interviewing gives a framework to help patients ambivalent to change. It is a collaborative, person-centred form of guiding to elicit and strengthen motivation for change in an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion. The empathic skills are key factors which can be trained through Nonviolent Communication, also called empathic communication. It is a way of communicating which can help physiotherapists to connect to their own, and patients’, feelings and needs. The aim of this thesis was to introduce it to physiotherapy students and to show them how it can improve the necessary empathetic skills for the motivational interview. It was realized in the form of an independent study material included to the course “Clinical reasoning process”.