On-Site Training

Motivational Interviewing: A Direct Practice Series to Increase Outcomes

The CSBS offers two 2-day trainings (4 days total) in Motivational Interviewing.  Descriptions of these two curriculums are provided in the following links:

Session 1
Motivational Interviewing: MI-1 Fundamentals 
Increasing the Readiness to Change

How one understands motivation with clients will directly affect what one does (or doesn't do) to increase it. Join this workshop for an in-depth look at the questions, "Why do people change?" "How do people change?" What is motivation and how can staff raise motivation with those they work with? This two-day institute is a skill-based training that focuses on skill-building ("how to's") for staff working with challenging populations. Seven (7) modules will be presented over the two days, utilizing multimedia presentations, interactive lecture and facilitated small and large group exercises. A mixture of small group discussions, actual videos of staff/client sessions, case scenarios and full room exercises keep the training pace lively and engaging. Stop the arguing—learn how to bypass resistance to start clients moving toward healthy outcomes.

Module highlights include:

  • Motivational Interviewing: The Science of Human Behavior Change
  • Change conversations and the Spirit of MI
  • Resistance Examined: Resistance-lowering techniques
  • Engagement: Creating the partnership so critical for change
  • Focus: What is the horizon? Setting up change targets, especially when your target is not shared by the client.
  • Evoking: How to recognize change talk. Strategies for eliciting change talk from clients. 
  • Using this Approach in "Micro-Bursts": How to Motivate in brief interactions

Session 2
Motivational Interviewing: MI-2 Advanced 
Change Talk: Increasing Importance, Confidence and Readiness to Change

Join this advanced training to take the next steps: increasing change talk and moving to commitment. This session will take you beyond your new skills for increasing connections—offering focused training on building a client's level of importance for positive behavior change and ensure they have the necessary confidence to see the change(s) through. The greatest number of clients have both arguments within them, a side that wants to be rid of the problem (pro change), and a side that doesn't believe change is possible or beneficial (stay the same). Participants will learn how to successfully negotiate client ambivalence. Learn "key questions" that will turn the work from increasing the readiness for change to gaining the commitment to start actual "first steps." Examine actual video's of meetings between staff and clients that demonstrate the "do's and don't's" for bypassing resistance and increasing change talk—even in brief interactions.

Participants will be able to:

  • Learn about the role ambivalence plays in keeping clients "stuck" and how to increase the "pro-change" side of this "fence-sitting"
  • Learn to recognize "change talk" and how to respond to it (to summon more!)
  • Be able to demonstrate strategies that will raise importance to change and confidence to change
  • Explain the role of "key questions" in moving a client to begin "commitment talk"
  • Demonstrate the continuum of motivational Interviewing practice during skill-building exercises
  • Examine actual video footage of staff/client sessions and offer critiques on motivational strategies