I have a Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science. I have primarily worked in the criminal justice sector. I have held various positions where MI has served as a purposeful form of communication in sometimes difficult settings. Having first-hand experience with using MI in corrections I have seen the benefits and need for the use of MI in social services. I have trained MI in several settings; newly hired corrections staff; social workers; students in counseling programs and treatment providers. I have over 8 years of experience training beginning and advanced MI. I also provide coaching and coding. I assisted in developing an internal coaching process where staff who are more advanced in the use of MI may coach other staff using a more simplistic method to provide onsite coaching among peers where the focus is feedback and ongoing improvement. Once the coachee is ready for more advanced coaching and is ready for a formal evaluation or score then using tools such as the MITI 4 will occur.
My initial training from a Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers member was in 2010, after this experience I embarked on training both basic and advanced MI. In 2013 I started coaching individuals who expressed interest in enhancing their MI skills. In 2016 I became a MINT member. My philosophical approach in training MI is fostering a training environment that demonstrates and allows for openness and honest discussion inherit in benefits and difficulties with learning MI. Those individuals who are willing to tackle such an intricately important communication mode like MI should be held in high regard. With the significant difficulty in learning to communicate differently, a trainer should be cognizant and respectful that trainees are experiencing a change of their own during this training. I believe the training atmosphere should possess a supportive environment which understands the complexities of learning MI.
