Motivational Interviewing (MI) in July 2022

Recordings from our 2022 Motivational Interview Series 

The Pacific Southwest MHTTC is pleased to provide this series on Motivational Interviewing to improve our school and mental health workforce skills.

Motivational interviewing (MI) provides us with a way to have conversations about change. In this series, participants will learn the basics of how to apply MI to both typical and challenging clinical situations.

Content covered in this series includes exploring the attitudes and approach of MI, learning the MI process of change, and practicing the specific micro-skills necessary to successfully engage with clients. Examples of MI will be provided via video and demonstration, and attendees will have opportunities to apply components of the model with sample client situations. Participants will also create simple action plans for usingMI, which will be used to guide ongoing coaching and feedback sessions.

Who is this series for?

• All sessions are open to anyone (mental health or school mental health professionals including counselors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, peer supporters, alcohol and drug counselors, mental health program administrators, MDs, nurses, and other allied health professionals).
• Our priority service areas are SAMHSA Region 9 states and territories, including: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and U.S. Pacific Islands of American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.

When is this series?

This series was offered July 25th-29th 2022, every day from 4pm-5:15pm PT.

Below, you can access the recordings and presentation slides from all five sessions.

Series Sessions

Session 1
Monday, 7/25: An Introduction to Motivational Interviewing

Monday, July 25, 2022
4:00-5:15 p.m. PT

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence based practice that helps individuals have conversations about change. MI is used as an engagement tool to help promote focus, exploration, and goal development among individuals and help foster behavioral change.

• Summarize the four components of the “spirit” of MI
• Define the four processes of MI
• Practice the five micro skills of MI
• Distinguish the difference between “preparatory” and “commitment” change talk
• Plan how to immediately use at least two MI skills in the current work environment

Session 2
Trauma Informed Motivational Interviewing

Tuesday, July 26, 2022
4:00-5:15 p.m. PT

Trauma-informed care has been implemented in many health care settings to help individuals overcome trauma and avoid being retraumatized. The values that form the basis of MI - collaboration, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment- are all consistent with the tenants of trauma-informed care, making MI an essential tool for providers.

• Compare the tenants of trauma-informed care and the spirit of MI in order to provide the most effective trauma-informed interventions
• Identify the MI skills promoting empathy that help clients feel empowered to make their own decisions about change
• Apply the MI skills of information exchange in order to provide clients with choice

Session 3
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Motivational Interviewing

Wednesday, July 27, 2022
4:00-5:15 p.m. PT

Motivational Interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy work well together; MI helps providers engage individuals in change and CBT assists in the active thought and behavior change process. 

• Describe the stages of change model and determine when MI should be used vs. when CBT is the best intervention
• Identify what components of MI contain elements of CBT intervention and when such interventions are best applied in session
• List five to seven CBT and BT interventions that help promote change during the action stage of treatment

Session 4
Developmental Reflective Motivational Interviewing

Thursday, July 28, 2022
4:00-5:15 p.m. PT

As motivational interviewing is a way to have conversations about change, individuals engaged in the MI process have an opportunity to learn through discovery as they “talk their way to change.” The connections between MI and developmental reflective practice will be explored so practitioners can promote learning about oneself and others in the change process.

• Identify effective, evocative questions that enable the client to learn more about their own motivations
• Practice completing and working with a “values sort” to develop understanding of individual motivations
• Describe the characteristics of effective learners and how these characteristics can lead to individual change

Session 5
Macro Motivational Interviewing: Integrating Individual Techniques for Socially Produced Trauma

Friday, July 29, 2022
4:00-5:15 p.m. PT

Motivational Interviewing is typically an intervention used to help individuals engage in change, but what if it is the system that needs to change and not the individual? Many individuals are caught up in systems that create and exacerbate their individual trauma. Macro MI is an application of MI that empowers individuals to engage in activism, advocacy, and consciousness raising to address larger systemic issues that impact their lives and influence their wellness.

• Define “socially produced trauma”
• List the components of the SHARP model that address the macro features clinicians need to address in order to support systems change
• Identify the MI skills to use that help promote the SHARP model in session

Priming Resources for the Whole Series

• About MINT: Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers 
• Motivational Interviewing 13: Kristin Dempsey — C4 Innovations 
• Talking to Change: An MI Podcast. Episode 46: Reducing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue with Kristin Dempsey, EdD, and Ali Hall, JD 
• Talking To Change - A Motivational Interviewing Podcast 

Faculty

Dr. Kristin Dempsey, EdD is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) and professional clinical counselor (LPCC). She has provided psychotherapy in the Bay Area for almost 25 years in public non-profits and county mental health settings, schools, and medical clinics. Her current psychotherapy practice is located in San Francisco and Burlingame.

Dr. Dempsey's areas of clinical interest include treatments for co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, complex trauma in childhood and adolescence, eating disorders, panic/anxiety, and behavioral challenges such as anger management and impulse control disorders. She has worked with adults, senior adults, transition age youth, adolescents, and children in individual, family, and group modalities.

In addition to clinical work, Dr. Dempsey trains community behavioral health providers in a number of evidence based and promising practices. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, and has experience teaching and training cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis (CBTp), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). She is a master trainer for Applied Suicide Intervention Skills (ASIST), and has been trained in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) to assess trauma impacts in youth and adults. Dr. Dempsey also provides additional programmatic consultation regarding behavioral health system redesign and implementation of evidence-based practices.

Dr. Dempsey is engaged in behavioral health workforce development research and organizational change projects. She is especially interested in investigating and promoting best practices to recruit and retain underrepresented clinicians in the mental health and substance abuse treatment fields.