Motivational interviewing, a treatment approach developed by William Miller, has been well established as an effective way to promote behavior change in individuals. Following a brief review of the fundamental MI principles and micro-skills, this experiential MI Skill Development training will focus on helping clients to engage in change talk, and then make commitments to make behavioral changes based on goals that they have identified. Ample time will be devoted to role play practice to enable participants to gain skills necessary to elicit change talk from clients with low levels of readiness for change, thereby increasing levels of motivation and moving them toward action to address their substance use issues.

At the conclusion of the training, participants will be able to:
1. Define at least three (3) key principles of Motivational Interviewing that can be utilized with clients.
2. Compare the effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing to traditional medical approaches to counseling clients with substance use problems.
3. Describe and demonstrate the effective delivery of at least three MI micro-skills that be used to help clients increase motivation for substance use related changes.
4. Explain how to apply Motivational Interviewing techniques in typical circumstances encountered in behavioral health treatment.
5. Describe at least two (2) components of the Spirit of Motivational Interviewing and why each is important to the effective application of Motivational Interviewing.