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Digital Seminar

Motivational Interviewing: Evidence-Based Interventions to Improve Client Engagement and Accelerate Behavioral Change


Faculty:
Christopher Wagner, PhD
Duration:
6 Hours 22 Minutes
Copyright:
04 Apr, 2025
Product Code:
POS054710
Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Access:
Never expires.


Description

Get ready to make therapy so much easier.

Motivational Interviewing is the proven approach relied on by thousands of therapists, just like you, to ignite motivation and end the tug-of-war between your clients’ reasons to change and their reasons not to.

Whether you work with trauma, anxiety, substance abuse or a host of other issues, MI is the go-to tool that has even the toughest clients ready to take more ownership of the therapeutic process, reach goals faster, and stay better longer.

And now, in this best-selling training, you can join MI expert, author and MINT Trainer Christopher Wagner, PhD, for a complete step-by-step guide on quickly and easily bringing MI into your practice so you can walk away with tools to:

  • Increase client motivation with depression, anxiety, substance abuse and trauma.
  • Improve client adherence to your treatments
  • Help clients feel more invested in the therapeutic process
  • Ease your effort as the therapist

As one of the most trusted names in Motivational Interviewing, Dr. Wagner is the perfect person to teach you how to get the most out of MI and skillfully apply it in a variety of settings and scenarios, from individual therapy to group work.

You will be able to make tough therapeutic conversations more productive and maximise opportunities for lasting change from within.

Full of scripts, worksheets and helpful tips based on the real-life situations you see every day, Dr. Wagner will make MI simple to implement in a way that feels intuitive and easy to integrate with the approaches you already use.

If you want more clients committed to change, purchase now!

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.



CPD

PESI Australia, in collaboration with PESI in the USA, offers quality online continuing professional development events from the leaders in the field at a standard recognized by professional associations including psychology, social work, occupational therapy, alcohol and drug professionals, counselling and psychotherapy. On completion of the training, a Professional Development Certificate is issued after the individual has answered and submitted a quiz and course evaluation. This program is worth 6.5 hours CPD for points calculation by your association.



Handouts

Faculty

Christopher Wagner, PhD's Profile

Christopher Wagner, PhD Related seminars and products

Virginia Commonwealth University


Christopher C. Wagner, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist, has offered hundreds of Motivational Interviewing (MI) trainings in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. In addition to focusing on clinical and theoretical advances in MI, he has also developed group applications of MI and is an author of the official Guilford series book entitled Motivational Interviewing in Groups, co-written with long-time colleague Karen Ingersoll. Dr. Wagner has been practicing MI for over 20 years, and has served in leadership positions, including the board of directors, of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT)—the leading international organization of trainers in motivational interviewing representing 40 countries across the globe.

Dr. Wagner’s experience spans across individuals with a variety of health, mental health, addiction and employment challenges throughout outpatient, inpatient, residential and corrections settings. He currently serves as an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where he has focused his scholarship on expanding MI theory and practice. Dr. Wagner’s trainings are highly engaging and specialized on helping participants incorporate MI skills and strategies into their current styles of practice.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Christopher Wagner has an employment relationship with Virginia Commonwealth University. He receives royalties as a published author. Christopher Wagner receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties and book royalties. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Christopher Wagner is a member of the American Counseling Association, the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and the American Psychological Association.

 


Additional Info

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.


Objectives

  1. Integrate person-centred and strategic components to improve clinical outcomes using Motivational Interviewing (MI) in a positive and supportive way.
  2. Evaluate how the four processes and OARS skills of MI help reduce client ambivalence and empower change.
  3. Employ ways to elicit, recognise and respond to “change talk” to improve treatment outcomes.
  4. Develop clinical strategies for working effectively with clients who are resistant to change.
  5. Determine ways that MI can enhance the effectiveness of other existing therapeutic approaches.
  6. Choose how to effectively use MI to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety, depression and addictive behaviours.

Outline

Motivational Puzzles: Why People Don’t Do What’s Best for Themselves
  • Redefine motivation as an interactive state
  • Utilise three components of change
  • Desire for and fear of change in therapy
  • Ambivalence across the stages of change
  • How ambivalence becomes resistance
  • The spirit of MI

Core MI Processes to Cultivate Change

  • Engaging: The Relational Foundation
    • Partnership – the core relationship
    • “Dancing” vs. “wrestling”
    • Avoid the “expert” role
    • Foster client autonomy
    • The core skills of MI
  • Focusing: The Strategic Decision
    • Match your agenda to the client’s goals & priorities
    • Help clients develop a direction for change
    • Guiding vs. directing or following
    • Help clients find freedom
    • How to prioritise multiple presenting issues & concerns
  • Evoking: Preparation for Change
    • The key ingredient of MI
    • Preparatory vs. mobilising change talk
    • Elicit importance, confidence & readiness for change
    • Acceptance & empathy as tools for eliciting change talk
    • Help clients align values and behaviour
    • Aid clients in leveraging strengths
    • Build momentum toward change
  • Planning: Commitment to Change
    • How and when to plan
    • Information exchange to aid in plan development
    • The “Dos” and “Don’ts” of giving advice

MI Tools for Anxiety: Inspire Clients to Engage in Previously Avoided Behaviours

  • MI strategies to strengthen collaboration
  • How to challenge “the way I’ve always done it” thinking
  • Interventions to break familiar, anxiety-inducing patterns
  • Combine MI with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
  • Case Study: Father referred to parenting edication by school social worker. Feels the school’s concerns are overblown
  • Case Study: Teenager with disturbing family conflict and her recent progress towards her health goals have stalled

MI & Depression: Boost Your Clients’ Resilience, Self-Worth & Self-Efficacy

  • Overcoming ambivalence in depression
  • Friends & family: Help clients learn to filter well-intentioned advice
  • Accept, acknowledge, empathise
  • Help clients reframe therapeutic tasks
  • MI & crisis intervention
  • Case Study: Woman with depression, loss of purpose and disconnected from life

Substance Use and Addictive Behaviours: MI Strategies to Catalyse Change and Reach Recovery Goals

  • What makes life worth living?
  • Avoid pushback: Emphasising choice
  • Substance use
  • Other addictive/compulsive behaviours
  • Using MI in conjunction with the 12 steps
    • Case Study: Lifelong smoker who has tried quitting for years

Research Limitations and Potential Risks

  • Scope of practice
  • Ethical considerations

Target Audience

  • Counsellors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Case Managers
  • Addiction Counsellors
  • Therapists
  • Art Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Occupational Therapy Assistants
  • Nurses
  • Physicians
  • Probation/Parole Officers
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

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