Motivational Interviewing: Understanding Theory and Application
$150* | 6 CEUs and/or 6 Act 48 | Virtual
$150* | 6 CEUs and/or 6 Act 48 | Virtual
Motivational Interviewing is inherently inclusive of diverse cultures and belief systems.
Date: Friday, January 29, 2027 and Friday, February 5, 2027
Time: 9 a.m. - Noon ET
Program Cost: $150*
Delivery: Synchronous Virtual Classroom via Zoom
Motivational Interviewing is an evidence-based and person-centered counseling technique for eliciting and supporting behavioral change that is steeped in the Humanistic approach of Carl Rogers. As our systems of care become increasingly recovery oriented, practitioners need tools for eliciting individuals’ own motivation in planning and implementing their own recovery. In addition, in many counseling environments, clients enter by mandate or medical need and are ambivalent about change. This client-centered approach stands in contrast to more traditional and ineffective confrontational methods that pathologize client resistance. Motivational Interviewing approaches resistance and ambivalence with respect, warmth, and curiosity, and this leads to better outcomes.
Using a combination of lecture, discussion, role play and video examples, Motivational Interviewing: Understanding Theory and Application will provide participants with some of the building blocks of Motivational Interviewing for use in practice.
As a person-centered and evidence driven technique, Motivational Interviewing is inherently inclusive of diverse cultures and belief systems. In addition, teaching examples will include discussion of counselor biases and the potential impact of these on the behavior change process.
Students will role play elements of a Motivational Interviewing session and watch a video of William Miller applying these techniques
This workshop is appropriate for all levels of practitioners in varied practice settings.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this session participants will learn:
- The qualities of Motivational Interviewing
- The 4 Principals of Motivational Interviewing
- About client ambivalence and best practices to work with ambivalence
- Counselor behaviors that increase or decrease client resistance
- How to recognize Change Talk
- Techniques to elicit and respond to Change Talk
Instructor
Ruth Conviser MSS, LCSW, has a Diplomate in CBT and is trained through Level Three in Gottman Couples Therapy. She founded Growth Solution Counseling and sees people in person in Center City Philadelphia and virtually in PA, NJ, DE and FL.
She specializes in helping individuals struggling with anxiety and OCD through CBT and helping couples to improve communication and closeness through Gottman Couples Therapy.
Cost | CEUs
Program Cost: $150
Discount Rate: $120 for BMC alumnae/i, faculty, staff, field instructors of current GSSWSR MSS students, current MSS students, and agency-funded groups of 3 or more*
CEUs: 6 and/or Act 48