Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing (MI) training equips professionals with the skills to facilitate structured conversations that can support somebody to change their behaviour. Participants learn to engage effectively, address barriers, and strengthen motivation.
What will participants learn?
Motivational Interviewing training equips staff with the skills to:
- Structure conversations to guide behaviour change effectively
- Use active listening to build trust and rapport with clients
- Ask open-ended questions to encourage client reflection
- Recognise and respond to resistance to change
- Strengthen a client’s intrinsic motivation for change
- Help clients explore their reasons for making a change
- Support clients in setting realistic and achievable goals
- Guide clients towards commitment and action planning
- Apply MI techniques within different professional settings
Who is it for?
Motivational Interviewing training is ideal for professionals in health and social care, coaching, and public health roles where behaviour change is central to client support. It is suitable for health professionals, social workers, mental health practitioners, youth workers, educators, managers, and other team members with the opportunity to help somebody make positive changes.
What does the course include?
- The principles and spirit of MI
- Core MI skills to encourage engagement in the change process
- How to assess somebody’s readiness to change
- Methods for overcoming barriers and resistance
- Tactics to strengthen intrinsic motivation towards change
- A structured conversation framework
- Practical MI scenarios and case studies
- Opportunities to practice key techniques during the training
- A reference sheet to support participants as they put MI into practice
All of our courses can be delivered in person or online. Full and half day options are available as standard. Depending on requirements, we can also offer more in-depth training packages with multi-day, follow-up, and train-the-trainer options.
Why choose our training?
To maximise training value and effectiveness, we offer:
- Content tailored to participant needs through pre-engagement with client teams
- Evidence-based approaches like Making Every Contact Count (MECC) and Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- Interactive learning, including simulations and real-world skills practice
- Follow-up support to help staff implement their new skills
- Continuous refinement of our courses through evaluation and participant feedback
Very informative. Small changes to my communication with patients could have a large bearing on patients making/needing to change their behaviour. Great technique advice and relevance to practice.
Practice Nurse
Stoke-On-Trent
The training was not only informative and practical, but I noticed that everyone in the room was focussed and engaged throughout the day. So, a huge thank you to the SMG training team for facilitating such a captivating session.
Community Development Manager
London Borough of Islington
I’ve had a great day learning about how to use motivational interviewing within my practice, and I am excited to use the extra knowledge gained today to support clients to make positive changes.
School Nurse
Thurrock