Is There an Association Between Empathic Speech and Change Talk in Motivational Interviewing Sessions?

Although empathy is identified as an important component of effective Motivational Interviewing, there is little research that explores clinician in-session empathic expressions and the relationship that these expressions have with other theoretically important behaviors, particularly client change language. This study identified empathic speech at the level of clinician utterances and explored the association of such speech with client change language, finding that the frequency of empathic speech was positively associated with client change talk and client sustain talk. This correlation between empathic speech and change talk was mediated by clinician reflections of client change talk. Similarly, the relationship between empathic speech and sustain talk was mediated by clinician reflections of it. Clinical implications and further directions for research are discussed.