 | This articlerelies excessively onreferences toprimary sources. Please improve this article by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "William Richard Miller" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
William Richard Miller (born June 27, 1947) is an Americanclinical psychologist, an emeritus distinguished professor of psychology and psychiatry at theUniversity of New Mexico inAlbuquerque. Miller andStephen Rollnick are the co-founders ofmotivational interviewing.[1]
Miller received hisPh.D. in clinical psychology from theUniversity of Oregon in 1976.[2]
Miller is emeritus distinguished professor ofpsychology andpsychiatry and affiliated with the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions (CASAA) at theUniversity of New Mexico (UNM).[3] He joined the UNM faculty in 1976. He has taught a wide range of subjects, including courses onalcoholism andabnormal psychology, and seminars onpositive psychology and onself-fulfilling prophecies. His primary scientific interest is in the psychology of change, but his research spans the treatment of addictive behaviors, self-regulation, spirituality and psychology, motivation for change, and pastoral psychology. He has been a visiting scholar at theOregon Health & Science University, the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, Stanford University, and theUniversity of Bergen and the Hjellestad Clinic in Norway.
Miller has changed the way clinicians think about the nature ofsubstance use disorders, their treatment and the means to effect change in patients. Early in his career, he emphasized that not all alcohol problems are severe and tested briefer interventions for mid-range problem drinkers. Hismeta-analysis of the research on treatments of alcohol problems shows a rank ordering of those treatments with the most effective being active and empathic (brief interventions and motivational enhancement), while the least effective are passive (films, lectures) or confrontational.[4] He also demonstrated through controlled experiment that confrontation leads to states of resistance and denial, which many in the addiction field attribute to traits of those withaddiction.Motivational interviewing, or motivational enhancement therapy, avoids creating such resistance by avoiding confrontation and eliciting motivation with open-ended questions and empathy.[4]
