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

CPD

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Speaker

Christopher Wagner, PhD Related seminars and products

Virginia Commonwealth University

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Christopher C. Wagner, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in Virginia and faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University, with appointments in Rehabilitation Counseling, Psychology and Psychiatry. He began practicing MI in the 1990s and became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) in 1998. From 2000-2008, he served in leadership positions in MINT, twice as chair of the network, and he has led three of their international training-of-trainers events. He was re-elected to the MINT board of directors in 2018.

Dr. Wagner has offered hundreds of MI trainings in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia/Oceania. In addition to focusing on clinical and theoretical advances in individual MI, he has also developed group applications of MI and is an author of the official Guilford series book on that topic, co-written with long-time colleague Karen Ingersoll. He has worked with individuals with a variety of health, mental health, addiction and employment challenges across outpatient, inpatient, residential and corrections settings. Dr. Wagner’s trainings are highly engaging and focused 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.

Objectives

1. Integrate person-centred 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 behaviours.

Outline

Motivational Puzzles: Why People Don’t Do What’s Best for Themselves

• 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 behaviour
  • 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 Behaviours

• 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 behavioural therapy (CBT)

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

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

• What makes life worth living?
• Avoid pushback: Emphasizing choice
• Substance use
• Other addictive/compulsive behaviours
• Using MI in conjunction with the 12 steps

Research Limitations and Potential Risks

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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