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. See a full MI Foundations course description below.

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.

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 FOUNDATIONS COURSE DESCRIPTION

This interactive course will help you develop and use MI skills. You will learn to have more effective conversations about behavior change with the people you serve, including by promoting their autonomy and exploring their own motivations and strengths.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Through 6 weeks of training and coaching, participants will:

Learn MI principles of compassion, acceptance, partnership, and evocation
Strengthen reflective listening skills
Differentiate between change talk and sustain talk
Apply 4 key MI processes in conversations about change: engage, focus, evoke and strengthen peoples’ motivation for change, and plan
Gauge someone’s readiness for planning
Use a 5-step process to develop effective action plans

WHAT TO EXPECT

This is a hybrid course that requires a time commitment of 5-6 hours per week over 6 weeks. Weekly course activities include:

2 hours of weekly self-paced learning (on your own)
2 hours of weekly live instruction and coaching via Zoom
1 hour of weekly partner practice

Learners will also submit recorded audio samples of a real play or conversation with a client for coding with the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI v4) tool. You’ll receive supportive written feedback on strengths in your MI practice and areas for growth.

This is an interactive and experiential course. Live sessions will focus on practicing and applying MI skills, with time for exercises, questions, and troubleshooting real world challenges. We invite you to try new skills, ask questions, and support your peers as they do the same. Participants will need a computer with Zoom capability and a camera, as well as a private, quiet space to join the weekly live sessions from.

While we know finding private space can be difficult in some workplaces, we recommend:

Adding the live course sessions to your work calendar
Notifying your supervisor, colleagues, and/or clients that you are in training
Using headphones in shared workspaces
Closing email and other applications, where possible

Course capacity is limited to 25 learners to support meaningful interactions among learners and instructors.

The Academy will offer two cohorts of the MI Foundations Course in Fall 2023. Both cohorts will start the week of October 9 and end the week of November 13. Live sessions will be held on either Tuesday or Thursday from 10am-12pm.

Learners who complete MI Foundations and demonstrate MI competence will be eligible to apply for the Academy’s MI Supervisor course (winter 2024).

ELIGIBILITY

This course is open to staff of any non-profit community organization or government agency that delivers social services in NYC. It is especially helpful for those who work directly with community members and want to develop counseling skills to have better conversations about changing behaviors that impact health and quality of life.

No prior MI experience is needed, though learners with MI experience are welcome.

Applicants must commit to attend at least 5/6 live course sessions; complete self-paced learning activities between sessions; and receive supervisor approval to participate in all course activities.

This course does not require a degree, license, or prior mental health training.

HOW TO APPLY

Complete a brief application on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.

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