MI Skills Demonstration for Train the Trainer Candidates
30 min/session
Appropriate for MI BAP TTT Candidates
Prerequisites: MI Foundations training or equivalent.
MI skills demonstration is an important part of the train the trainer program, because it ensures that each trainer can demonstrate the skills that they are teaching.
- Skills demonstrations take place with a CCMI trainer acting as a standardized patient/client and will be recorded
- The recording must have been done within 6 months of the application due date.
- The recording will include a statement of permission for use: “I consent to have this conversation recorded for training and research purposes.”
- Length: 8-20 minutes of conversation. (10-12 minutes is a good length)
- This conversation is unscripted and must demonstrate the breadth and depth of your use of MI.
- Candidates start at the beginning of the conversation and remain conscious of the four processes of MI as they proceed through the conversation.
- During the course of the conversation, a clear change topic should emerge as candidates demonstrate focusing skills.
- It is not necessary to include planning in your demonstration. Avoid rushing to a plan.
- After the recording, candidates complete a Self-reflection Form, which will be handed in with the rest of their train the trainer application.
- An opportunity is provided afterwards to have a webinar debrief session with the coder to receive results. Candidates who are unable to meet with the coder will have results emailed.
- Up to three recordings are included in your preparation program.
- When your demonstration meets the entry-level competency standard, you may submit your application. (see below for more information on competency standards)
The following options are encouraged to practice MI in preparation for skills demonstration:
- Attend CCMI sponsored Practice and Feedback Sessions. We encourage those of you have not taken a CCMI-sponsored MI Foundations or Beyond Foundations training to take part in at least one Practice and Feedback call.
- Visit this page to learn more about 1-hour group drop-in sessions.
- 30 minute one-on-one sessions are available in conjunction with the MI Foundations Online Learning Pathway. All trainer candidates have free access to the online learning pathway leading up to the train the trainer. Candidates can log in here and find practice sessions in courses 2 and 3 of the learning pathway.
- Practice with a colleague, paying attention to MI Spirit, Skills and Strategies.
- Review videos of MI skills. The “Effective” examples of Merlo Lab videos on YouTube approximate the level of MI skill described above. They can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8EhbC3dstHbCxlfMW3KC9w
- Use what you know about MI in your daily work.
- An excellent book, Building Motivational Interviewing Skills by David Rosengren, is available from Guilford Press: https://www.guilford.com/books/Building-Motivational-Interviewing-Skills/David-Rosengren/9781462532063
Because it is essential that Foundations of MI trainers be able to model MI, every applicant must submit a recording demonstrating their MI skills.
Trainer candidates are evaluated for their ability to demonstrate:
- MI Verbal interventions
- Use of MI skills: reflections and questions
- Strategically responding to sustain talk and change talk.
- Indicators of an MI-based conversation (also known as MI Intentions)
- Partnering
- Evoking
- Guiding
- Expressing Empathy
- Supporting Autonomy and Activation
CCMI uses the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA) developed by Jackson et al, 2015 and updated in 2019 (version 3.0). The Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA) was developed to provide a way of monitoring and guiding MI practitioner skill development. It draws on current evidence-informed and evidence-based tools to provide concrete feedback on progress in using MI. This validated coding instrument will be used by MICA coders to assess a recording submitted by the trainer candidate.
MI Verbal interventions
- Reflection : Question Ratio
- All reflections are counted (simple or complex.) Affirmations are not counted as reflections. Reflections that all express the same thought and are stated together are counted as one.
- All questions are counted (closed or open).
- The way in which the reflections, questions and other MI skills (affirmations and summaries) are used in the conversation is captured in the rest of the MICA.
- MI strategies: coded on a 1-5 scale
- Strategically responding to Sustain Talk: The helper understands the role of sustain talk and successfully responds to it to the degree necessary in the conversation.
- Strategically responding to Change Talk: The helper identifies and responds to change talk in ways that strengthen it over time.
Indicators of an MI-based conversation, all coded on a 1-5 scale (seeMICA Descriptors)
- Partnering: The interaction takes place between two equal partners, working together toward goals that the person chooses. The person’s expertise is acknowledged.
- Evoking: The helper draws out the person’s own thoughts, ideas, knowledge, perspective, goals, values and solutions.
- Guiding: The helper organizes the conversation in a way that helps maintain a clear course without a hidden agenda or an agenda not of the person’s choosing.
- Empathy: The helper listens with an open mind and works to understand the person’s feelings and experience so that the person feels heard and understood.
- Supporting Autonomy and Activation: The helper actively affirms the person’s freedom to choose and encourages the person’s own actions to achieve their goals.
The MICA was developed by Casey Jackson, Susan Butterworth, Ali Hall, and John Gilbert. For more information, visit micacoding.com.
The Foundations of MI competency level required to attend the workshop is:
- Greater than a 1:1 Reflection : Question ratio (more reflections than questions).
- ≥ 7 total MICA score (learn more about scoring by downloading the MICA manual here)
- No lower than 3 on any item on the MICA