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

Credit

Speaker

Christopher Wagner, PhD Related seminars and products

Virginia Commonwealth University

Alternate Dates

Motivational Interviewing Thu, Nov 05, 2026 - 08:00am to 04:00pm CST - Product Code LWC054710 View in Calendar Add to Cart

Additional Info

For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.

Please note: There will be a lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.

Objectives

1. Integrate person-centered 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, recognize 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 behaviors.

Outline

• Redefine motivation as an interactive state
• Utilize 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 prioritize multiple presenting issues & concerns
• Evoking: Preparation for Change
  • The key ingredient of MI
  • Preparatory vs. mobilizing change talk
  • Elicit importance, confidence & readiness for change
  • Acceptance & empathy as tools for eliciting change talk
  • Help clients align values and behavior
  • 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 Behaviors

• MI strategies to strengthen collaboration
• How to challenge “the way I’ve always done it” thinking
• Interventions to break familiar, anxietyinducing patterns
• Combine MI with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

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, empathize
• Help clients reframe therapeutic tasks
• MI & crisis intervention

Substance Use and Addictive Behaviors: MI Strategies to Catalyze Change and Reach Recovery Goals

• What makes life worth living?
• Avoid pushback: Emphasizing choice
• Substance use
• Other addictive/compulsive behaviors
• Using MI in conjunction with the 12 steps
• Research Limitations and Potential Risks

Target Audience

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

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