Motivational interviewing is an empathic, goal-oriented therapeutic approach that elicits change in health, mental health, and addictive behaviors.  Originally an alternative to addiction approaches that relied on an expert, authoritarian stance in counseling, MI has evolved into a mainstream, evidence-based, and highly-used method for eliciting change that helps people live better and healthier across a wide variety of settings, clinical problems, and populations.

MI was developed as an individual approach, focusing on dyadic interactions between the person and the counselor.  However, adapting MI for use with a group of people requires reconceptualizing its core practices to harness the power of group support, cohesion and momentum.  Group leadership requires skills beyond those in dyadic counseling.  Managing “conversational traffic” and facilitating open sharing among people with different experiences, goals, styles, and beliefs are essential skills for group leaders.  Effective leaders must be well-prepared to address unexpected situations and maintain therapeutic bonds with individual group members while facilitating a conversation among the whole group.

This six-session experiential training provides information on adapting MI to groups across a variety of formats, and is highly experiential, leading participants through group practice exercises across the four phases of MI groups.  This series will incorporate evidence-based practices with the MI modality.  Participants will become part of a group, and some will have opportunities to lead the group.  Incorporating Motivational Interviewing group skills developed by the trainers, this series guides participants in successful group leadership, refocusing groups away from rehashing problems and toward inspiring positive change.

Credit Hours: 16

Event Leader: Kim Prokosch - [email protected]