Motivational Interviewing
Implementation, Training and Consulting
What is Motivational Interviewing?
A collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change, designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.
More than 200 controlled studies conducted over the past 25+ years have demonstrated the efficacy of MI in helping people to change troubling, counter-productive, or unhealthy behavior, and MI has been adopted in organizations as varied as substance use treatment, mental health counseling, medical and public health settings, and criminal justice services. (Click here to learn more about recent research or click here to view a bibliography)
Training
Implementation, workshops and coaching can be customized to fit your organization's needs. We provide the below as a model to help you think about what might be best for your organization. We recommend setting up a consultation meeting to establish your agency goals and then design what combination of workshop and coaching best meets your agency goals.
Informational Session:
If you are interested in learning more about what Motivational Interviewing is, how it can help your organization improve your patient outcomes and whether it is the right approach for your organization, we offer a 1 1/2 hour session for up to 40 attendees. This workshop is designed to give you a brief introduction into MI and how it might help your organization achieve its goals. This is intended for organizations that have not yet decided to fully implement MI into their practice and are trying to gain more information and experience to help inform their decision to adopt MI.
Workshop and Coaching:
For organizations that would like to implement MI in their practice we have the following workshop and coaching approach to help you achieve your outcomes.
Our approach includes workshop training, follow up advance training, coaching and coding feedback for learners. Our goal is to help you implement Motivational Interviewing in an evidenced based way and based on the understanding of the most recent Implementation and Motivational research. The Evaluating Methods for Motivational Enhancement Education study published in 2004, by Drs. William R. Miller, Carolina Yahne, Theresa Moyers and colleagues found that gains from an MI workshop were sustained only when participants received any of the forms of follow-up being offered—whether structured feedback on recorded practice samples, telephone coaching, or the combination of the two.
The best way to develop skillfulness in motivational interviewing is to have an expert consultant observe your practice and offer MI-consistent coaching. A valuable component of MI coaching is feedback based on a reliable, validated system for assessing MI practice, and the gold standard is the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) coding system. We use the a varied of skill coaching approaches including using the MITI to provide feedback to the learner on their progress.
Implementation Team: It is suggested that an internal project lead and implementation team be selected to help guide this project internally. This implementation team should consist of individuals selected to be trained as well as a project lead that is a member of the leadership team who will help facilitate the necessary time and resources (tape recording, schedule adjustments) to help facilitate the practice and learning actives. This implementation team will meet twice monthly to update on the project progress as well as assess and identify any barriers to members’ practice and learning.
Implementation: The project will begin with an in person half day meeting to identify the goals of the project, specific project deadlines and milestones, identify necessary resources and logistics for project activities, and to schedule ongoing project team meetings.
3 Day Workshop
The 3-day intensive workshop will introduce participants to the theory, principles, and skills of motivational interviewing and related motivation-enhancing behavior change approaches. Participants will be guided through a sequence of learning activities to explore and shape counseling practice behavior, and to initiate a process for developing proficiency in motivational interviewing. Learning activities will include: real-life demonstrations, video-tape examples, “real-plays”, case studies, small group exercises, and significant participant practice with feedback. This workshop is appropriate for helping professionals with no prior or minimal to moderate exposure.
MI Extended Practice Enhancement Sessions
Each participant will get 3 coaching sessions (50 min) with a MI Coach. The coaching will consist of the review of direct recorded practice to help participants apply the learning from the workshop to actual practice. Participants will be encouraged to practice in learning groups in between coaching sessions.
Follow On 2 Day Workshop (to be scheduled 3 months after initial training)
The 2-day intensive workshop will have tailored learning activities to continue the application of MI principles and skills to practice. The workshop will target the learning needs assessed from the coaching sessions to match the audiences learning strengths and development needs. The workshop will again include: real-life demonstrations, tape examples, “real-plays”, small group exercises, and significant participant practice with feedback. This workshop is appropriate for helping professionals with no prior or minimal to moderate exposure.
Train the Trainer
As part of the initial training, 5-10 participants will be identified to continue their learning and become internal trainers for the organization. The trainers will help identify participants that are leaders and have high skill. The project leader will collaborate with the leadership of the hospital to identify the ideal candidates to continue on as internal MI trainer and coaches. This select group will be provided further coaching sessions (2 sessions a month over a 6 month period) and will also attend a 4 day Train the Trainer at the conclusion of the coaching. This group will also receive MITI 4 coding to evaluate the level of each trainer’s MI proficiency and identify and further coaching or support needed for each participant. All training materials and support materials will be given to the new trainers to continue the ongoing learning within the hospital and to help train new members of the team.
MI Links and Resources
Videos
Dr. William Miller, “Motivational Interviewing: Facilitating Change Across Boundaries”
The Ineffective Physician: Non-Motivational Interviewing Demo
Resources to Learn MI
Learn More About MI
Links