Motivational Interviewing: Evidence-Based Interventions to Improve Client Engagement and Accelerate Behavioral Change

Credit

Program Information

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Speaker

Christopher Wagner, PhD Related seminars and products

Virginia Commonwealth University

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Christopher C. Wagner, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist, has offered hundreds of Motivational Interviewing (MI) trainings in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. In addition to focusing on clinical and theoretical advances in MI, he has also developed group applications of MI and is an author of the official Guilford series book entitled Motivational Interviewing in Groups, co-written with long-time colleague Karen Ingersoll. Dr. Wagner has been practicing MI for over 20 years, and has served in leadership positions, including the board of directors, of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT)—the leading international organization of trainers in motivational interviewing representing 40 countries across the globe.

Dr. Wagner’s experience spans across individuals with a variety of health, mental health, addiction and employment challenges throughout outpatient, inpatient, residential and corrections settings. He currently serves as an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where he has focused his scholarship on expanding MI theory and practice. Dr. Wagner’s trainings are highly engaging and specialized on helping participants incorporate MI skills and strategies into their current styles of practice.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Christopher Wagner has an employment relationship with Virginia Commonwealth University. He receives royalties as a published author. Christopher Wagner receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Christopher Wagner is a member of the American Counseling Association, the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and the American Psychological Association.

 

Additional Info

Program Information

For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.

Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

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Objectives

1. Integrate person-centered and strategic components to improve clinical outcomes using Motivational Interviewing (MI) in a positive and supportive way.
2. Evaluate how the four processes and OARS skills of MI help reduce client ambivalence and empower change.
3. Employ ways to elicit, recognize and respond to “change talk” to improve treatment outcomes.
4. Develop clinical strategies for working effectively with clients who are resistant to change.
5. Determine ways that MI can enhance the effectiveness of other existing therapeutic approaches.
6. Choose how to effectively use MI to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety, depression and addictive behaviors.

Outline

• Redefine motivation as an interactive state
• Utilize three components of change
• Desire for and fear of change in therapy
• Ambivalence across the stages of change
• How ambivalence becomes resistance
• The spirit of MI

Core MI Processes to Cultivate Change

• Engaging: The Relational Foundation
  • Partnership – the core relationship
  • “Dancing” vs. “wrestling”
  • Avoid the “expert” role
  • Foster client autonomy
  • The core skills of MI
• Focusing: The Strategic Decision
  • Match your agenda to the client’s goals & priorities
  • Help clients develop a direction for change
  • Guiding vs. directing or following
  • Help clients find freedom
  • How to prioritize multiple presenting issues & concerns
• Evoking: Preparation for Change
  • The key ingredient of MI
  • Preparatory vs. mobilizing change talk
  • Elicit importance, confidence & readiness for change
  • Acceptance & empathy as tools for eliciting change talk
  • Help clients align values and behavior
  • Aid clients in leveraging strengths
  • Build momentum toward change
• Planning: Commitment to Change
  • How and when to plan
  • Information exchange to aid in plan development
  • The “Dos” and “Don’ts” of giving advice

MI Tools for Anxiety: Inspire Clients to Engage in Previously Avoided Behaviors

• MI strategies to strengthen collaboration
• How to challenge “the way I’ve always done it” thinking
• Interventions to break familiar, anxiety-inducing patterns
• Combine MI with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Case Study: Father referred to parenting edication by school social worker. Feels the school’s concerns are overblown
• Case Study: Teenager with disturbing family conflict and her recent progress towards her health goals have stalled

MI & Depression: Boost Your Clients’ Resilience, Self-Worth & Self-Efficacy

• Overcoming ambivalence in depression
• Friends & family: Help clients learn to filter well-intentioned advice
• Accept, acknowledge, empathize
• Help clients reframe therapeutic tasks
• MI & crisis intervention
• Case Study: Woman with depression, loss of purpose and disconnected from life

Substance Use and Addictive Behaviors: MI Strategies to Catalyze Change and Reach Recovery Goals

• What makes life worth living?
• Avoid pushback: Emphasizing choice
• Substance use
• Other addictive/compulsive behaviors
• Using MI in conjunction with the 12 steps
  • Case Study: Lifelong smoker who has tried quitting for years

Research Limitations and Potential Risks

• Scope of practice
• Ethical considerations

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Nurses
• Physicians
• Probation/Parole Officers
• Other Mental Health Professionals

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