Offered as three separate learning modules, this course will introduce learners to Motivational Interviewing (MI).  MI is a ground breaking therapeutic approach aimed at helping clients explore how they can change their own behavior. Evidence-based and supportive, MI is well-suited for many types of counselling situations, including substance use, smoking cessation, exercise promotion, treatment adherence, and criminal justice remediation. This 2-day introductory workshop will emphasize communications skills and how to apply MI in practice. Course readings will be based on Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change, by Miller and Rollnick.

Participants will:

• Develop an understanding about motivational interviewing and ethical considerations.
• Learn principles of motivational interviewing to enhance therapeutic rapport and minimise client resistance to change.
• Strengthen knowledge and skills about how to effectively elicit, recognize, and respond to change talk.
• Understand how motivational interviewing can be effectively integrated into brief intervention and adapted to improve the uptake of health education.

Instructor

This workshop is facilitated by Niki Kiepek, MSc (OT), PhD, Assistant Professor at Dalhousie’s School of Occupational Therapy and a member of the International Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers since 2008. Niki has facilitated MI workshops for Health Canada, the Metis Nation of Ontario, WorkSafe NB, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists.