Motivational Interviewing (MI) for Change

Rooted in therapeutic work, Motivational Interviewing (MI) was first developed for use in the treatment of substance use problems with people who were apparently ‘unmotivated’ and ‘resistant’ to change.   

However, since then, its use as a tool for helping people to change in other settings such as policing, probation, social work, crime prevention, investigative interviewing and work with adolescents, young adults, vulnerable people has been recognized both empirically and in practice.

MI embeds a collaborative spirit and fundamental skills of rapport and trust building to help people recognise their own motivation to change and is an important tool to help them to shift their behavior and attitudes.  It is designed to overcome resistance, hostility and denial in an ethical, non- confrontational and non-coercive manner.  

This 2-day course is designed specifically for professionals working in settings where changes in behavior and attitudes are desired.  

It is especially suitable for all professionals working in the criminal justice filed including counter violent extremism intervention practitioners.  

It complements skills and methodology of the  PEACE model of interviewing and as  such it is also suitable both as a pre-cursor to those wishing to complete PEACE training or those who wish to develop further skills afterwards.  

Focusing on themes of  the Process of MI, Decreasing Resistance/Friction, Recognizing, Eliciting and Responding to  “Change  Talk” and Reducing “Sustain Talk,” participants on this course will :

• Learn the core principles of Motivational Interviewing (MI) 
• Learnhow to engage rapidly – what helps and what gets in the way
• Understand how to recognise and work with ambivalence towards change 
• Explore the application of strategic and tactical use of MI in their  field 
• Have opportunities to practice MI skills in a protective environment

TRAINERS

The course is delivered by Jackie Webb and Abdul Hye Miah, who share over 50 years combined experience in policing, probation and social service work and have been collaborating on the use of MI in Criminal Justice Settings since 2017.