Intermediate Motivational Interviewing
Culture, Context & Skillful Practice
November 6 & 13, 2026
9:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. MT | 8:00–11:15 a.m. PT | 10:00 a.m.–1:15 p.m. CT | 11:00 a.m.–2:15 p.m. ET
6 CE Hours, including 3 Ethics CE Hours
Approved through the New Mexico Counseling & Therapy Practice Board and New Mexico Social Work Board.
Change never happens outside of context. Our values, relationships, language, culture, communities, histories, and lived experiences shape what change means — and whether a particular change feels desirable or possible.
This interactive intermediate training is designed for helping professionals who already have a foundational understanding of Motivational Interviewing and are ready to deepen their clinical skillfulness. Participants will strengthen their use of complex reflections, evoking, change talk, sustain talk, developing discrepancy, responding to discord, and other core MI strategies while examining how culture, language, identity, relationships, and social context shape motivation and behavior change.
Through clinical vignettes, experiential exercises, guided reflection, focused practice, and real-play, participants will practice listening for culturally situated meaning, recognizing when clinician assumptions enter the conversation, and using MI skills in ways that support client autonomy, values, and lived experience.
Participants should already be familiar with MI Spirit, OARS, change talk and sustain talk, and the directing–guiding–following continuum. Attendance at both sessions is required to receive the full 6 CE hours.
