As a dedicated Motivational Interviewing training agency in Canada, we have 20 years of experience in facilitating high-quality training in Motivational Interviewing in almost every major town and city in Canada. We can provide training services to virtually any location within a few hours of a commercial airport. To ensure best “bang for your buck, there is never a charge for our travel time to get to/from a training location
Paul Burke is our Lead MI trainer. He took his initial MI training in 1993, in Calgary, Alberta, with Dr. Stephan Rollnick, co-developer of the MI approach. Working in the field of mental health and addictions, Paul began using MI with a broad range of clients who present for help with a very very broad range of behavioural health issues (substance use, dual diagnosis, impaired driving, tobacco cessation, problem gambling, community corrections, adolescent treatment and prevention, family counselling, forensic assessment, etc.) Following from that clinical foundation, Paul began training other helping professionals in MI in various locations including such catchment areas as Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Red Deer and Fort McMurray)
In 2003 Paul expanded his MI training reach and quickly developed a reputation for high-caliber MI training all across Canada. He has trained as far north as Iqaluit, Nunavut, as far east as Victoria, BC, and as far east as St. John’s, NL (and almost everywhere in between!)
We pride ourselves on being a Motivational Interviewing training agency that prioritizes accessibility to in-person training. Our commitment as a Canadian Motivational Interviewing training company has taken us from the northern reaches of Iqaluit, Whitehorse, NT, and Yellowknife to the bustling cities of Toronto and Vancouver and more than fifty places in between. We’ve conducted Motivational Interviewing courses in diverse settings, addressing needs in mental health, addictions, healthcare, corrections, homelessness and more.
Our motivational interviewing trainers travel to you. We never charge for travel time to/from your training location. This approach allows us to offer consistent instructor fees everywhere in Canada.
We’d love to add your location to our list! Our training projects have taken us to numerous locations, including:
Call or email us anytime to discuss a potential training program for your staff group. We’d be happy to discuss ways that we can customize a program for your group at the most affordable rate possible. Of course, even if you are not in the market for MI training, we’re happy to discuss all things MI with anyone, whether they’ve been (or will be) training participants with our team. We never charge for responding to general inquiries.
The fact is that some helper-client conversations are more helpful than others! MI was originally used extensively in the context of substance abuse treatment. In fact., the first edition of the main MI text (more than 30 years ago) focused specifically on helping people change addictive behaviour. Over the ensuing 30 years, three additional editions have been published. Each of these has broadened the scope of MI and the client populations for which it is useful. the use of MI in the helping field had spread to many other client groups. MI was being successfully used in helper-client conversations related to medication compliance, reluctance to engage in therapy/treatment, diabetes education, issues related to homelessness and hard-to-house populations, criminal recidivism, school counselling, problem gambling, social work case-planning, and many others. Most recently there have been MI texts published about use of the approach in athletic coaching and in organizational leadership.
In sum, it became apparent that MI was helpful in almost any context where lack of intrinsic motivation for change was a concern. The focus of MI is not on the “problem behaviour” per se. MI focuses on the motivational obstacles that perpetuate various problem behaviours. It involves finding ways to enhance the client’s own inner motivation to pursue specific changes which, if realized, would minimize or eliminate the behaviour of concern.
As an example – when it comes to determining the effect of a particular medication in the treatment of physical illness, it’s relatively easy to establish cause and effect. In essence, use of a particular medication can be expected to elicit a particular response. In the same way, The amount and frequency that such medication should be used is also easily studied. But what about assessing the determinants of behavioural change? As a helper, almost always, whether you are targeting client (patient) behaviour related to:
MI helper-client conversations have a useful role in making client behaviour change more likely (or less likely) to occur. Such conversations (when conducted with fidelity) have a tendency to:
In all, MI involves becoming more deliberate, or strategic, in the way helpers host conversations. It begins with conscious commitment to a set of relational principles that serve as a foundation for helper-client interaction and then using a number of skills to get the client talking about (and to keep them talking about) the target change which is the center of the conversation.
In all, MI involves becoming more deliberate, or strategic, in the way helpers host conversations. It begins with conscious commitment to a set of relational principles that serve as a foundation for helper-client interaction. It also involves using a number of skills to get the client talking about (and to keep them talking about) the target change which is the center of the conversation.
A simple way of understanding MI is to appreciate that it involves a set of conversational “habits” and guidelines that have been shown to enhance a client’s inner motivation for change. By observing conversations that yield good results and comparing them with conversations that are not-so-pretty helpful, MI training involves supporting service providers in shifting their conversational habits from the “less useful” to “more useful”.
In a nutshell MI involves deliberately several interacting processes and skills to shape a helping conversation which involves:
Dr. W.R. Miller, one of the co-developers of the MI approach, is fond of explaining how MI involves a fairly simple set of principles and techniques. He is quick to add, however, that despite its apparent simplicity, it is not easy to learn or to master. Part of the reason for that is that in order to learn new conversational habits, it usually requires the unlearning of a number of old habits! For example, one of the common habits that many helpers have develop is the tendency to prematurely educate, prescribe advice, tell people what they need to/must do (even when the client is not ready to do it) and shut clients down when they begin explaining why they have been unable to make various changes in the past. Such habits are very hard to break! Many workshop participants who are new to MI tell us how it’s much easier to acquire the new skills, techniques and principles than it is to “let go” of the old ones!
Some people speak to the value of “good bedside manner” in hosting a helpful conversation. Others talk about how getting the helper and client “connected” is essential to success. It is commonly knowledge that engagement between helper and client is the very foundation of any conversation that eventually leads to good outcomes.
But – how does one learn good “bedside manner”? How does one learn to connect with a client who is not very enthused about such an idea? How does one engage with someone who is disengaged, and is ok with that?
One answer is that by changing the approach that we take to interacting with such clients, we can avoid strengthening the discord/reluctance/resistance that emerges in an interaction. Instead, MI provides a useful framework and skill-set that has been shown to draw clients into a meaningful, empowering, and interactive conversation that draws out client statements about reasons and need for making specified changes. It also “grows” the client’s desire to pursue such changes without talking them into it.
So, how simple is it to learn? Pretty simple
So, how easy is it to learn? A little more complex, but very do-able over time
A “crash” course in MI is bound to crash! In twenty (+) years of training MI skills, we have found that 18-20 hours of foundational workshop time gets most learners off to a good start. Following such foundational training, folks leave knowing what they need to practice with (and how they need to practice) to entrench new conversational behaviour into their work with clients. Such practice opportunity and time is absolutely essential for people who want to develop the ability to “do” – and not just possess “knowledge” of MI.
After some foundational exposure to the practice of MI and after some practice time back on the job, some learners may want to “go deeper” into enhancing their skill set. We provide for that in a variety of ways that can be customized to fit the needs of your organization.
After some foundational exposure to the practice of MI, and after some practice time back on the job, some learners may want to “go deeper” into enhancing their Motivational Interviewing skills. We provide for that in a variety of ways that can be customized to fit the needs of your organization. In additional to our foundational training, we also offer:
We encourage you to call or email us (paul@paulburketraining.com) anytime that you’d like to know more about ways to “roll out” an Motivational Interviewing training initiative for your agency or group. We have found that taking a little time to consider a number of options to bolster the “uptake” of MI skills in your agency is well worth the time invested. We never charge for such consulting time. After speaking with you, if we determine that you would be better served by another training company, we will gladly refer you, or to arrange an introduction with an alternate provider.