Motivational Interviewing (MI)

Motivational Interviewing: An Empowering Tool for Human Service Workers

Motivational Interviewing or MI is a proven trauma-informed, culturally reverent communication method that creates an environment of safety, trust, and empowerment for the humans you serve.

At Share Collaborative, we take a unique approach to Motivational Interviewing training. Our training  is highly experiential, hands-on, and practical.

As a result, our Motivational Interviewing training learners are able to:

  • Establish a sense of safety + trust
  • Enhance systems of support
  • Empower: awaken self-awareness of the choice to change and heal
  • Partner to provide education on the effects of trauma
  • Partner to teach and experience emotional and behavioral balance
  • Rewire: build self-capacities and enhance executive functioning
  • Reconnect: re-establish attachment and connection
  • Reframe and integrate traumatic experiences
  • Encourage meaning-making: a sense of purpose and future goals
  • Affirm post-traumatic growth
  • Embrace Cultural Humility to be Culturally Reverent

We deliver Motivational Interviewing training in a variety of formats, including conference presentations, beginning skills training for teams, refreshers, and agency-wide or systemic implementations.

DISCOVER MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING

MI is a widely embraced, evidence-based conversation style for awakening self-awareness of a person’s choices to heal and embrace behavior change.

Through MI, direct service providers surface self-awareness of the need for behavior change within the served person, empowering them to leverage their inner resources (strengths, resilience) to choose to heal and change.

This approach to service considers the whole needs of those you serve, emphasizing going beyond cultural sensitivity. In trauma-informed care, we consider the entire experience and wellbeing of the population we serve. Motivational Interviewing supports and adheres to Cultural Humility and Reverence, honoring the journey of the individual.

SERVICE SETTINGS + ROLE TYPES

Motivational Interviewing training is considered important workforce development and professional development for those who work in criminal justice, health care, behavioral health, education, and other human service fields. At Share Collaborative, we’ve shared MI training with groups of volunteers, youth mentors, peer specialists, clinical psychologists, probation officers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, first responders, and other services workers, who benefit from an enhanced approach to trauma-informed, culturally reverent care.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Our successful implementations have validated our approach; we have guided large agencies of over 300 employees, small entities of 10 employees, and statewide systems. When onboarding your team to Motivational Interviewing training, we achieve the following:

  • Time & cost efficiency
  • Internalize in your organization sufficient expertise to support ongoing learning
Below is an example of our typical schedule. Please contact us today so we can work with you to design a fitting implementation for you organization.
PHASE I: BEGINNING SKILLS TRAINING AND CHAMPION DEVELOPMENT​

Leadership Assessment

Our Motivational Interviewing training begins with a leadership assessment. You’ll work through our simple discovery document to assess your desired outcomes, impacts, and expectations. Then you meet with your team to get an overview of the program.

2-Day Beginning Skills Training

Highly experiential, the 2-day Motivational Interviewing training sets foundational skills and helps learners begin their journey with MI.

Champ Candidate Identification

Next starts the MI Champion development phase. You’ll begin to internalize expertise within your organization to guide ongoing MI learning.

PHASE II: IMPLEMENTATION & SUSTAINABILITY​

Peer Learning Groups Established

In Phase II of your Motivational Interviewing training, peer learning groups are established. You’ll set the learning parameters and schedule for your groups.

MITI Coding & Coaching of Champ Candidates

The primary tool used to measure MI fidelity is MI Coaching. MITI stands for Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity. This tool helps Champ candidates identify the skills they’d like to develop further.

Refresher Training

In our MI refresher, we divide the cohort into two groups to tailor the theme to your unique service setting to support MI’s ongoing contextualization.

ONGOING SUPPORT FOR MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING

Once the initial Motivational Interviewing training is complete, we offer a variety of additional support, including onboarding team members to coach with MITI, fidelity checkups, coaching, peer learning, and observation.

By engaging your team to learn MI, you have begun a journey that has proven to increase sustained change in served persons, reduce service provider burnout, and improve the service culture within individual programs and whole organizations and systems.

MEET OUR MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING TRAINER

Shawn Smith is the primary trainer and facilitator of MI learning. He is a MINT certified, member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and has provided hundreds of MI workshops to thousands of learners nationally.

Feedback from Learners

“Motivational Interviewing training is amazing! I can’t believe how much I can use this to help patients help themselves! Shawn is great at what he does and allows everyone to speak freely and engage with the whole room."
Nikki
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
“Motivational Interviewing training from Share Collaborative was very eye-opening and truly beneficial to us. Shawn is an awesome speaker. He has stories, humor; he is a work of verbal art. I highly enjoyed learning from him.”
Billiejo
Probation and Parole Agent
“It was an awesome training with the opportunity for discussion and practice. Shawn was very engaging, relatable, and approachable. He used videos, visuals, sounds, discussion, practice in groups, and storytelling to convey info, which helps the audience stay engaged. This was one of the best trainings I have attended!” ”
michelle
Psychologist