Motivational Interviewing Certificate Program

WHAT IS MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING?

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a person-centered counseling method that helps people make positive behavior changes in line with their own goals and values. It was developed by psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick for use in situations where one person is acting as a helping professional for another. Miller and Rollnick describe MI as a collaborative and goal-oriented communication style that involves:

paying attention to natural language of change, and
strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to a specific goal by
addressing the common problem of ambivalence about change, and
exploring the person's own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion.

Motivational Interviewing is both an approach (e.g. a commitment to partnering with those we aim to help) and a set of goal-oriented communication skills (e.g. reflective listening, attention to the language of change, and specific interviewing skills).

Source: Motivational Interviewing, Third Edition: Helping People Change. William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick. The Guilford Press, 2013.

If you want to have more helpful conversations with community members about changing behaviors that shape their health and wellbeing, MI may be for you.

THE MI CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Academy's MI Certificate Program is designed to help individuals and teams use MI well in their everyday work. When used effectively, MI can strengthen relationships, promote positive behavior changes, and improve services and outcomes. It can also help staff and clients avoid draining or harmful power dynamics and conversations.

In 2023-2024, the Academy's MI Certificate Program includes three unique certificate courses:

MI FOUNDATIONS. This 6-week course is designed to help learners achieve MI competence. The Academy will offer two cohorts of MI Foundations in Fall 2023. Both cohorts will start the week of October 9, 2023, and end the week of November 13, 2023.

Learners who complete MI Foundations and demonstrate MI competence are eligible to apply for the Academy's MI Supervision & Coaching course.

MI SUPERVISION AND COACHING. This 5-week course prepares learners who have demonstrated MI skillfulness to help others learn and use MI. The Academy will offer MI Supervision & Coaching from January 9, 2024-February 6, 2024. See a full MI Supervision and Coaching course description below.

Prerequisite: Completion of MI Foundations (or the Academy's 2021/2022 MI Practitioner Track) and demonstrated MI competence.

MI TRAIN THE TRAINER. This 3-day in-person workshop will equip you with skills to plan and deliver MI trainings within your own organization. The Academy will offer the MI Train the Trainer course in April 2024.

Prerequisite: Completion of MI Foundations and MI Supervision and Coaching; demonstrated MI proficiency.

MI SUPERVISION AND COACHING COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is intended for those MI practitioners who: 1. Have developed competency in their own MI practice (as evidenced by reaching proficiency on the MITI 4.2.1 or equivalent validated MI coding instrument), 2. who plan to (or currently do) provide Supervision and/or Coaching to those developing their own MI practice, and/or 3. those who wish to incorporate MI principles and strategies into their supervision of staff. This course will build upon your own MI Practice.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Through 5 weeks of supervision and coaching, participants will:

Apply the Spirit of MI to work relationships and discuss the particularities of these relationships.
Demonstrate MI adherent coaching feedback in written form.
Demonstrate MI adherent coaching feedback in verbal form.
Develop and Deliver an MI Learning Group session.
Discuss and Develop a plan for integration of MI practice into existing practices and protocols.

WHAT TO EXPECT

This course is a five-week instructor led course incorporating both synchronous and asynchronous learning. Each week will include a self-paced presentation, readings or podcasts, a practice activity to be completed on your own time, a discussion forum and a live two-hour practice session. The total time spent on learning will be about 5 hours each week, for a total of about 25 hours to complete the course. All participants will receive feedback weekly: written feedback on activities submitted (practice activities), and in the moment verbal feedback in live practice sessions.

ELIGIBILITY

This course is open to participants who completed and demonstrated competence in the MI Practitioners Track or MI Foundations.

Training and coaching for Motivational Interviewing practitioners, supervisors, trainers, and implementation teams