I'm a clinical psychologist working mostly in an academic setting. I began practicing MI in 1995, have been a MINT member since 1998 and was involved in MINT leadership from 2000-2008, and became a current member of the MINT board in 2018. I teach a semester-long graduate MI class twice a year, have offered hundreds of MI trainings and consultations and have co-facilitated four MINT training of trainers events. My focus areas are expanding theory related to MI as well as MI in groups. I have worked in a number of practice settings - outpatient, inpatient, forensic, residential and community-outreach. I have worked with people with mental health, health, addiction, relational and criminal justice problems. To me, people are people and the important thing is helping them build a life they want. I view any pathologies, disabilities and disadvantages they may experience as obstacles to be surmounted, worked around or grown around. These things are not the person.
I frequently collaborate with Karen Ingersoll.
Our Guilford book on MI in Groups is available. A sample chapter is posted at http://www.guilford.com/excerpts/wagner3.pdf Even more is previewed on Amazon
Links to a few of our articles that are posted online are listed below:
Wagner, C.C. & Ingersoll, K.S. (2008). Beyond Cognition: Broadening the Emotional Base of Motivational Interviewing. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 18(2):191-206.
Wagner, C. C., & Ingersoll, K. S. (2009). Beyond Behavior: Eliciting Broader Change With Motivational Interviewing. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(11), 1180-1194.
I have also promoted the idea of collaboratively developing therapeutic goals with clients (vs. agencies or practitioners holding them for clients). A brief article in the new MI-TRIP summarizes some of my thinking on that issue:
Wagner, C.C. (2012). Client-centered direction: Or how to get there when you’re not sure where you’re going. Motivational Interviewing: Training, Research, Implementation, Practice, 1, 36-38.
I offer a variety of training opportunities, focusing more on facilitating learning experiences than providing didactic presentations. I believe that MI has not yet reached its full potential for application, and that it is not limited to helping clients change discrete individual behaviors, but can help with a variety of life problems and challenges. In training, I focus more on helping participants incorporate MI skills and strategies into their current styles than approaching training as if they are new learners. Participants often already practice in a way that is fairly consistent with MI philosophy and strategies, and I focus on helping refine practice to be more efficient while not sacrificing depth or meaningfulness. I do not believe that MI "cures all" and at the same time I think it is a very useful form of practice to be familiar with and be comfortable providing.
