Abstract
Along with reaching saturation in the fieldof psychotherapy modalities which currently includes more than 400 models that areproven to be effective, common factors approach has started to become one ofthe hot topics of the psychotherapy debate in the last ten years. While thereis a growing literature taking a common factors proponent stance, there arealso criticisms including the common factors approach being speculative and nothaving a scientific ground. In this conceptual paper, first we will outline thecommon factors approach and motivational interviewing framework. Then, we will discussthe overlapping between common factors perspective and motivationalinterviewing framework and propose motivational interviewing as an evidence-basedresearch tool and empirically based theoretical framework for the commonfactors research and theory. Finally, we will discuss the implications andlimitations of taking such a stance.