Intermediate Online Motivational Interviewing Course

6/3, 6/10, 6/17, 6/24, 7/1 and 7/8/2014

Skype call times: Tuesdays, 10:00 am or 6:00 pm, Central Standard Time

Trainer: Jacque Elder, PsyD, LCPC

Cost: $500.00

The Intermediate MI course must have the pre-requisite of Intro to MI completed, along with the pre and post audio sessions required by CTI. The post audio session will be coded with the MITI coding system and the learner must meet proficiency once their second post session is coded.

Intermediate MI will continue to focus on some of the basic skills such as developing complex reflections, learning Key Questions, learn to use the tools used in Brief Motivational Interviewing. This course will focus largely on Change Talk. How to evoke it? What to do with it when you hear it? How to reinforce your responses in order to problem solve and get some Action Talk out of a session, even if it is quite brief.

This blended course was developed in response to the needs of adult learners who wanted to learn how to do Motivational Interviewing, yet were unable to because of lack of money, time or both. A blended course is one that uses online learning as well as face-to-face (f2f) learning. Our group Skype calls is considered f2f because you are interacting with other folks and doing it in real time. This may be the first time you are taking a blended course, and our goal is to assist you in learning how to actually acquire the skills of Motivational Interviewing with a cohort of other online learners using a variety of different online technology.

How the Course Works

We will be using CTI’s course page that is password protected for the online portion of the course. At the beginning of the course, we will provide you with a username and password for the website. Please Bookmark the site on your computer where you will be working. We ask that you “Refresh” the site page every time you use it. Scott Hughes (our fab IT guru) and myself continuously add and sometimes withdraw things from the website.

We will create a group Google email for us all, and just remember to hit “Reply All” when you are asking a question or responding to other learners’ observation.

Using the VASE-R, which you will take in real time during that first Skype call, will do Additional MI assessment. The assessment takes about 35 minutes, the responses are timed, and you will be provided with the Video used to prompt reflections, summaries, ambivalence and Change Talk. This same assessment will done on the last Skype call as well. Your scores can be shared with you when the course is completed.

Assignments: Written and Coded Audio Sessions

This course will contain assignments that will be written, and shared among the group. An example would be an audio session for you to listen to with specific questions focused on particular MI skills. It is required that you do this homework. Some people just choose not to do it and then wonder why they cannot understand anything being talked about on the Skype. The homework will be simple, educational and engaging. Some will use audio and video. Some assignments may be written. For instance, many of us struggle with learning how to form reflections so it is fun and useful to do them as a group. We like to share them, even compiling a Big Book of Reflections that you can use later in your practice!

Assessment will not be done by grade (as we are not associated with a university yet we do provide CEU’s), yet you must complete the work assigned, and provide 2 audio sessions to the instructors. Learners must also take the VASE-R on the first and last session. The audio sessions are mandatory, and the baseline session is due by the end of the first week. Your session will be coded by one of us; you will receive the feedback via email as well as a 30 minutes feedback/coaching call. This scheduling of this coaching call is to be determined between the learner and the instructor. We will be using Skype for all conference calls, which are scheduled twice on one day to accommodate all learners. You must attend one, and are free to join the second one, if you would like. The more the merrier!

We will use Skype to work together, role-play with learning skill goals and listen to audio that is not on the site. Skype is a free computer-to-computer system, which you download on your computer by going to You will need to register (don’t pay for anything as they do offer paid services so look for the free one). You will choose a username and password. You are then required to send me an invitation so we can connect. I will need your username only, and mine is jacelder13. There earlier you can do this, the better. Skype is also available on Smart phones yet I am clueless how to do this!

Course Schedule for Course 2, Intermediate Motivational Interviewing

6 Weekly Modules.

When the course begins, we would like for you to have submitted your baseline session by then or that first week. If you register early and are paid in full, you can send the session immediately! You can make your recording with any device that can be downloaded to a computer as an audio file. Olympus makes some of the best recorders with this capability and the audio quality is very good. These are sold at Office Max or any of the BIG office supplies stores. Or check out Amazon, as their prices will be better.

Do not provide video sessions to be coded for feedback/coaching. The coding system is for audio use only. If you have or want to make a video session to share, we will stream it onto the course for you, and the group can give you feedback if you would like.

You will upload your session using dropbox.com. It is free (free is very good), it is secure and it is easy to do once you have done it a couple of times. If I want to share a session with you all and don’t have it posted to the site, we can “Share” folders that allow me to share sessions and documents through our folders. I often email new and additional articles and worksheets and other useful documents to you this way.

Your Audio Sessions: Pre and post sessions

Your sessions can be a “real play” with someone you know: a colleague, or a friend. If you have access and permission from real clients, I will require a signed consent form plus written agreement from your employer that they have allowed this. We take confidentiality very seriously, as all practitioners should.

I also suggest not using family members as “clients”. These sessions are awkward at best and usually do not give us a good baseline of your style.

A “real play” topic would be something the person feels 2 ways about (i.e., ambivalent) such as exercise, procrastination, eating, quitting smoking, time management, stress reduction, career changes, yet nothing “juicy” such as marital problems, family problems, though problems as work would be OK. Please allow them to pick their behavior change that they want to work on. If the person wants to talk about a relationship issue, they certainly can yet nothing too “juicy”. I have heard more than my fair share of sessions concerning adultery; thinking about divorce, etc and those really belong in a therapist’s office.

The session itself must be at least 20 minutes long, and can be 40 or 50 minutes. I will be coding approximately 20 minutes of it, using a random number chart to pick the beginning and ending point. The purpose of this is simple. The practitioner is supposed to be using MI through out the entire session.

The beginning of the session, we ask that you state your name, say Baseline Tape, and what course you are in and state the target behavior. You can also provide this information in writing or email. Your client should give you only one, rather than “I would like to talk about relationships with my co-workers and my husband.”

Those are two, though there might be crossover. We would want the relationship with the co-workers. The husband issue would be best heard with a skilled couples therapist.

You are just to do what comes normally to you in a session or even better, a conversation with this person. All feedback is provided privately to you, via email and a phone call to explain the feedback and provide coaching focusing on how to move your numbers up. We do not focus on what you did wrong. This is not clinical supervision, but a concrete feedback based on a well-research tool with high fidelity. Research is finding that this method of learning MI appears to be one of the most powerful tools in learning MI, and getting better at it, as it is very specific. It breaks MI down into an understandable sequence of listening, reflecting and reinforcing what we want to hear more of (Change Talk), and being strategic in moving towards the Target Behavior. The client is your expert. You follow the client, and use reflections and especially questions to direct the session. MI is directive and not directing.

The feedback/coaching calls are approximately 30 minutes long, and we attempt to do this as quickly as possible so that the other material being present, and skills being practiced make sense!

The Modules consist of audio, video, Power Point and use of assignments from David Rosengren’s book, Building Motivational Skills: A Practitioner’s Workbook.

We have found our favorites, and have put them on pdf so you don’t have to buy the book, if you choose not to. Yet, for $35.00, it is the BEST book on how to actually learn and do MI, and is written in a down-to-earth way with exercises that are truly helpful. Writing has been found to be a useful way of learning how to develop reflections, how to recognize Change and Sustain Talk, and what to say when you are stuck! It is a great book, and David is a great guy.

Successful completion of the course is assessed through homework assignments, weekly conference calls, the VASE-R assessments and the pre and post audio sessions. A learner cannot go on to the next course (Advanced MI) unless their post-audio session meets competency according to the MITI manual. The Manual is public domain, and available on CTI’s website at

What you can expect to be covered in the 6 weeks of the course:

  • Reviews of changes made to MI from the 2nd edition of the main text to its present 3rd edition.
  • How to use Brief Motivational Interviewing for Healthcare or other groups. Included will be Agenda Setting, problem solving (using the client’s own ideas along with some good ideas of yours that you may want to share.
  • Development of a Values Sort Sheet that is specific to the population you work with.
  • Focus on Change Talk via video sessions and transcripts, where we will code whether we hear Sustain Talk, Change Talk or Action Talk.
  • Learn more about DARN (Desire, Ability, Readiness and Need) and learn to use the scaling questions strategically and in the correct way.
  • Lots of skill building (affirmations, autonomy/support reflections, etc).
  • Lots of role-playing, and always done in a way to make you comfortable yet you will not learn MI if you do not use it.

You will be provided with the course URL at least one day prior to the start date, if not sooner.

If you need to contact me, email is great and I can be reached at . My cell phone is 708-717-8528 and texting me is great if you need some immediate attention.

We will meet soon online and via Skype!

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313 Wesley Ave. Oak Park, IL 60302  708-717-8528