Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based practice that promotes healthy behavioral changes by strengthening a person’s own motivation for and commitment to those changes (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). It was introduced to help people with substance use disorders (Miller, 1983) and more than two thousand clinical trials have evaluated its efficacy in the treatment of, behavioral health (Lundahl, Kunz, Brownell, Tollefson, & Burke, 2010), medicine (Rollnick, Miller, & Butler, 2008), social work (Hohman, 2015), corrections (Stinson & Clark, 2017), and education (Rollnick, Kaplan, & Rutschman, 2016). Additionally, MI has been shown to work well with a variety of cultures and age groups (Hall, 2001; Lundahl & Burke, 2009), and to be particularly effective with minority populations (Hettema, Steele, & Miller, 2005).

This class will introduce participants to Motivational Interviewing (MI) practice and skills. Participants will learn about the fundamentals of MI including understanding ambivalence, the MI Spirit, and how we can best support others considering change.…