“I would highly recommend this training to others and think it should be mandatory for any offender facing role, particularly for those working with IPV1”
(anonymous feedback from Motivational Interviewing training participant
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based approach to engaging clients, and supporting behaviour change.2
The training we provide does cover the theory and terminology used, but tends to have a practical focus. Introductory trainings can be as short as a few hours, but a training this short is unlikely to have much impact on practice. Even longer MI trainings can have a limited long-term impact on interventions without support to integrate the learning into practice.3
Because effective MI training needs to include support to integrate the learning, we recommend training packages that implement the three stages described in our approach to training. The aim is, not only to increase knowledge of MI methods, but also to have had some experience, during training and during daily work, of practising the MI approach and skills. MI training needs to provide opportunities to reflect on the challenges of implementing MI effectively. Ongoing support for this should also be provided throuigh MI-informed reflective practice.
The training outlined above can be a general introduction to MI, or focused on specific topics, for example:
- Engaging clients with low motivation and creating shared goals with them
- Using MI to guide and support (risk) assessment
- Using MI to increase change-talk and move from contemplation to action.
Training topic examples
Footnotes
- Intimate Partner Violence ↩︎
- Originally developed for working with substance abuse, MI has become widely used across (public) health. There is growing evidence that MI improves outcomes with client groups with high levels of interpersonal dysfunction and it is often recommended as a way of working with these clients. See, for example, Santirso, F. A., Gilchrist, G., Lila, M., & Gracia, E. (2020). Motivational Strategies in Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence Offenders: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Psychosocial Intervention, 29(3), 175–190. https://doi.org/10.5093/PI2020A13, and MacKenzie, R., McEwan, T. E., Pathe, M., James, D. V., Ogloff, J. R., & Mullen, P. E. (2009). Stalking Risk Profile: Guidelines for the Assessment and Management of Stalkers. Monash University. https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/stalking-risk-profile-guidelines-for-the-assessment-and-managemen. ↩︎
- This issue is explored, for example, in the “Creating Learning Opportunities” section (pp. 192-195) of Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2002). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people for change (3rd ed), Guilford Press, where it is highlighted as being an issue that is not unique to learning MI, and especially important for any work that includes behaviour change. ↩︎