INTRODUCTORY MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING
Skills for Communication and Informed Decision Making
Give your team a shared way to listen, ask, and support the decisions people need to make about their own care.
Skills for Communication and Informed Decision Making Workshop or Webinar
Flexible Training Options:
- Webinar: 8 hours of virtual training spread over 2 weeks.
- Workshop: 1 day (8 hours) of in-person training.
A wide range of professionals and peer helpers seeking to enhance their communication skills.
What You’ll Learn
This workshop builds the person-centred communication skills at the heart of Motivational Interviewing — closing the communication and engagement gaps that show up when the people you serve don’t feel heard and understood. It’s designed for helping professionals, clinicians, coaches, and anyone whose work involves meaningful, person-centred care and informed decision making.
Participants build OARS — Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflections, and Summaries — through discussion, video, and hands-on practice in pairs and small groups. The workshop also introduces Ask-Offer-Ask, a respectful way to share information and advice without lecturing, and the BRAIN framework for walking someone through a decision. Giving teams a shared structure for these conversations ensures the quality of an interaction depends less on which staff member someone happens to get.
About the Course
- Interactive Training: Participate in either a live webinar series or an in-person workshop.
- Safe space: Facilitators create a comfortable and welcoming environment to support sharing and learning
- Capacity: This course can accommodate up to 12 learners per group.
Course Details
- Define motivational interviewing (MI).
- Describe the four aspects of the spirit of MI: compassion, acceptance, partnership, and empowerment.
- Discuss the role of listening and being present, in the context of helping interactions.
- Demonstrate the following person-centred communication skills:
- Open-ended questions: Formulate questions that invite dialogue rather than “yes/no” answers.
- Affirmations: Identify and acknowledge client strengths and efforts to build confidence.
- Reflections: Demonstrate “simple” and “complex” reflections to check understanding and ensure the client feels heard and to deepen the conversation.
- Summaries: Periodically pull together the client’s statements to transition or highlight key points.
- Ask-offer-ask: Provide information in an MI-consistent way.
- Define informed and shared decision making.
- Demonstrate using the BRAIN worksheet to support someone to make an informed decision.
If you want an interactive course for your team that focuses on practical application, this course is for you. CCMI uses learner-centred, performance-based approaches to adult education, turning knowledge into action by helping learners master new skills and consider how they will apply them directly to their professional or personal world. The MI foundations training includes:
- Learning content to build an understanding of new concepts and skills.
- Practice activities to increase practical understanding and assess learning.
- Reflection activities that explore how to apply new knowledge and skills in your unique setting.
CCMI’s Motivational Interviewing training content has been updated to incorporate the most recent changes to William Miller and Stephen Rollnick’s Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change and Grow.
The course takes approximately 8 hours, and a certificate is provided upon completion.
For virtual training sessions, learners will need:
- Individual access to a computer, laptop, or tablet with the capability to watch and listen to videos and audio recordings.
- Internet connection
- Microphone and camera.
- Up to date browser including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, or Microsoft Edge.
Other Motivational Interviewing Training Programs
We offer a variety of programs to help you develop professional motivational interviewing skills.
Motivational Interviewing Foundations Part 1
6-8 hours learning time.
Includes one 30-minute practice and feedback sessions
For a wide range of professionals and peer helpers
Motivational Interviewing Foundations Complete Course - Faculty Led
16-17.5 hours of training spread. Options for virtual or in-person.
Includes two 30-minute practice and feedback sessions
Appropriate for a wide range of professionals and peer helpers
MI and Brief Action Planning Train the Trainer
16 week train the trainer pathway, plus 4 days train the trainer workshop
Appropriate for educators
Prerequisites: Successful completion of a 26 week Train the Trainer Preparation Pathway