Workshops & Consultation Groups

What does it take to learn Motivational Interviewing?

While brief workshops and self-guided learning can help people become familiar with what Motivational Interviewing (MI) is and how it differs from other approaches, MI training research indicates that the skills fade quickly. More intensive workshops that focus on growth in competency and follow-up consultation are associated with deeper skills growth and less drift back to MI-inconsistent communication habits (Miller & Rollnick, 2023; Frey et al., 2022).

Whether in-person or online, our competency-based MI workshops and consultation groups are highly interactive and involve multiple opportunities to practice the skills in simulated exercises with live feedback from MI training facilitators and fellow learners. We understand that not all learning is obtained through lecture or didactic delivery, and we strive to balance each training for our learners’ needs and preferences as well as individual and organizational training goals, which we assess prior to designing each of our workshops. Learners can expect to have a balance of didactic, experiential, and discussion with each component of the learning process.

We are passionate about this approach to our workshops because we view good training in MI as being parallel to MI itself in many ways. For starters, MI is rooted in empowerment, emphasizing the autonomy and strengths present in each person, and we seek to connect with our learners from this perspective and to help each learner experience and grow their own MI abilities. We provide competency-based workshops at all levels of MI learning:

  • Our introductory workshops introduce all of the concepts and skills necessary to practice MI, including the Spirit, understanding ambivalence and the language of change, the four tasks or processes of MI, and the core conversation skills for connecting and enhancing motivation. Foundational MI workshops of 10+ hours are associated with increased initial skills.

  • For learners with a foundational background in MI, intermediate topics include deepening reflective listening skills, additional skills for Focusing in MI, softening sustain talk, exploration of personal values, and important topics related to MI including cultural humility, self-compassion, mindful awareness, and helper burnout.

  • For learners with at least a foundational background in MI, advanced and specialty topics include integrating MI with other evidence-based approaches and specific settings, for example, within trauma-informed care, health care, psychotherapy, corrections, child and family services, or education. Brief specialty workshops available by request.

  • For MI learners and practitioners who wish to understand how to recognize high-fidelity MI, we provide training in the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity 4.2.1 (“the MITI”) fidelity coding system. In addition to learning how to use the MITI, we focus on how coding increases the learner’s proficiency and application of MI as well as how coding feedback can be provided in a collaborative, MI-consistent coaching style. This training is an intensive 16-hour process and is highly interactive.

    Learn more here.

  • This 16-hour, interactive series is offered for skilled Motivational Interviewing practitioners interested in learning approaches to sharing and training others in MI.

    B&B facilitates this series through modeling, didactics, exercises, feedback and debriefing conversations and also helps new MI champions to prepare their own customized materials for sharing MI with their colleagues and supervisees.

  • Although our consultation groups typically running on a monthly basis for 6 months following foundational training, we think of these competency-based gatherings as “MI Learning Collaboratives” in which all of us are seeking to grow and share our skills and insights as we practice and apply MI. Anyone with at least an introductory background in MI is welcome to join us.

    For greater MI sustainability we also help organizations develop their own internal consultation groups and learning collaboratives that continue after B&B facilitation.

    For learners wishing to move from competency to proficiency in MI practice, many of our consultation group participants also engage in individual MI fidelity coding and skills Coaching with us.