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Motivational Interviewing: How to Have Conversations That Create Change

Monday, December 14th, 2026   10:00 AM EST -1:00 PM EST
Avi Shteingart
$59.99 USD

Motivational Interviewing: How to Have Conversations That Create Change

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, evidence-based approach to helping people navigate ambivalence and strengthen their own motivation for change. For beginning therapists, however, learning MI can require a significant shift from the instinct to advise, persuade, educate, or "fix" the problem. This workshop offers a practical introduction to the core spirit, principles, and skills of MI, with particular emphasis on how therapists can respond differently when clients are stuck, ambivalent, resistant, or unsure about change. Participants will learn foundational MI concepts including the four processes, the "righting reflex," sustain talk and change talk, OARS, reflective listening, and the importance of eliciting rather than imposing motivation.

Rather than relying primarily on lecture, this three-hour workshop is designed to be highly experiential. Participants will learn through demonstrations, guided exercises, role-plays, and real-time practice, allowing them to experience the difference between traditional helping responses and an MI-consistent approach. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a practical foundation in MI and a set of immediately usable skills for helping clients explore ambivalence, strengthen their own reasons for change, and move toward meaningful action without feeling pressured or pushed.

About the Presenter

Avi is a licensed psychotherapist, helping individuals and families work through various life issues. Avi has worked with teenagers, young adults, and adults, navigate through various issues, including addiction, depression, and anxiety. Specifically, Avi has worked on helping young adults work through feeling stuck while helping them learn to understand themselves better. Avi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW in NY & NJ) and a substance abuse and behavioral addiction counselor, focusing on sex addiction. Before entering the world of therapy, Avi was on track towards a career in finance. However, Avi recognized the importance of waking up to a job that he loves and shifted his career aspirations. Avi has never looked back.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe the foundational principles and spirit of Motivational Interviewing, including PACE, ambivalence, the Righting Reflex, Change Talk, Sustain Talk, and the four processes of Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, and Planning.
  2. Identify and demonstrate core Motivational Interviewing skills, including OARS, DARN-CAT, readiness rulers, eliciting and reinforcing Change Talk, and responding effectively to Sustain Talk and resistance.
  3. Apply Motivational Interviewing strategies through experiential practice and role-play to collaboratively help ambivalent clients explore their own motivations for change, strengthen commitment, and develop client-driven plans for action.

Agenda:

Agenda: The Art of Not Pushing: A Practical, Experiential Introduction to Motivational Interviewing

0:00–0:15 | Welcome, Introduction & Experiential Exercise

  • Introduction to Motivational Interviewing and the goals of the workshop

  • Why MI? Applications across therapy, brief interventions, referrals, and case management

  • Activity: “The Worst Advice” — participants experience the difference between being told what to do and being helped to discover their own motivation

  • Guided discussion: What makes people more—or less—open to change?

0:15–0:35 | The Spirit of MI: A Different Way of Being With Clients

  • What Motivational Interviewing is—and what it is not

  • The four elements of PACE: Partnership, Acceptance/Autonomy, Compassion, and Evocation

  • The therapist’s role: collaboration rather than confrontation

  • The Righting Reflex and the urge to fix, advise, persuade, or convince

  • Guided discussion: When does our desire to help actually get in the way?

  • Pair exercise: Identifying and replacing the “righting reflex”

0:35–0:55 | Ambivalence, Sustain Talk & Change Talk

  • Understanding ambivalence as “feeling two or more ways about one thing”

  • Sustain Talk versus Change Talk

  • Why arguing for change can strengthen the client’s argument against change

  • Understanding resistance as information rather than something to defeat

  • Activity: Participants identify Change Talk and Sustain Talk from sample client statements

  • Guided discussion: What happens when therapists argue with Sustain Talk?

0:55–1:20 | OARS: The Core Conversational Skills

  • Open-ended questions: moving beyond information gathering

  • Affirmations: recognizing effort, values, strengths, and self-efficacy rather than simply praising outcomes

  • Reflections: the foundation of MI

  • Summaries: selectively reinforcing what matters

  • Simple vs. complex reflections

  • Experiential exercise: Reflection “Dodgeball”

  • Triad practice: Therapist, client, and observer rotate through OARS exercises

1:20–1:30 | Break

1:30–1:55 | Evoking Change Talk: Helping Clients Make Their Own Case for Change

  • The difference between eliciting motivation and providing motivation

  • DARN-CAT: Desire, Ability, Reasons, Need, Commitment, Activation, Taking Steps

  • Questions that evoke Change Talk

  • Asking clients to elaborate on Change Talk

  • Linking Change Talk to the client’s values and goals

  • Looking backward: previous successes and exceptions

  • Looking forward: hopes, goals, and preferred future

  • Activity: “Catch the Change Talk” — identifying opportunities to deepen client motivation

1:55–2:15 | Strengthening Change Talk

  • How to respond when Change Talk appears

  • Reflecting and reinforcing motivation without becoming directive

  • Using summaries to “collect” Change Talk

  • Developing discrepancy between current behavior and personally held values without shaming

  • Exploring values, goals, and consequences

  • Pair exercise: Turning weak Change Talk into stronger Change Talk

  • Guided discussion: When does encouragement become persuasion?

2:15–2:35 | Readiness, Focusing & Finding the Right Target

  • The difference between Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, and Planning

  • Agenda Mapping: helping clients identify what matters most

  • Choosing a target that is meaningful to the client

  • Readiness Rulers: using importance and confidence to guide the conversation

  • Why “Why aren't you a 10?” is often more useful than pushing for commitment

  • Practice exercise: Readiness Ruler conversations

  • Guided discussion: What do we do when the client chooses a goal that isn't our preferred goal?

2:35–2:55 | Rolling With Resistance

  • Resistance as information about the interaction

  • Common forms of resistance: arguing, interrupting, negating, and ignoring

  • Recognizing when the therapist is moving too quickly

  • Strategies for responding:

    • Simple Reflection

    • Amplified Reflection

    • Double-Sided Reflection

    • Shifting Focus

    • Reframing

    • Agreeing with a Twist

    • Emphasizing Personal Choice and Control

    • Coming Alongside

  • Rapid-fire practice: “What would you say next?”

  • Participants practice responding to increasingly challenging client statements

2:55–3:15 | From Conversation to Action: Planning for Change

  • Moving from Evoking to Planning

  • Recognizing when a client is ready to move toward action

  • Eliciting rather than imposing a change plan

  • Assessing confidence and buy-in

  • Developing specific, realistic next steps

  • Identifying barriers and potential supports

  • Strengthening commitment while maintaining autonomy

  • Practice: Turning a conversation about change into a collaborative action plan

3:15–3:30 | Capstone Role-Play & Takeaways

  • Full MI role-play: Participants conduct a brief MI conversation from beginning to end

  • Peer feedback using an MI skills checklist

  • Identify one MI skill each participant wants to practice in their next session

  • Final discussion: “What will you do differently with your next ambivalent client?”

  • Review of practical MI skills:

    • Frontload engagement

    • Clarify the presenting problem

    • Identify the client’s agenda

    • Elicit Change Talk

    • Use OARS intentionally

    • Reflect Sustain Talk rather than arguing with it

    • Use readiness rulers

    • Reinforce autonomy and self-efficacy

    • Assess buy-in before planning

    • Roll with resistance

This presentation is open to:
  • Social Workers
  • Professional Counselors
  • Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Licensed Mental Health Practitioners
  • Medical Doctors and Other Health Professionals
  • Other professionals interacting with populations engaged in mental health based services
Course Level: intermediate
Level of Clinician: beginner
  • New practitioners who wish to gain enhanced insight surrounding the topic
  • Experienced practitioners who seek to increase and expand fundamental knowledge surrounding the subject matter
  • Advanced practitioners seeking to review concepts and reinforce practice skills and/or access additional consultation
  • Managers seeking to broaden micro and/or macro perspectives

Participants will receive their certificate electronically upon completion of the webinar and course evaluation form.

Disability Access - If you require ADA accommodations, please contact our office 30 days or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification. Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often, and while we attempt to stay abreast of their most recent changes, if you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board’s approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling. The grievance policy for trainings provided by NEFESH INTERNATIONAL is available here Satisfactory Completion Participants must have paid the tuition fee, logged in and out each day, attended the entire workshop, and completed an evaluation to receive a certificate (If this is a pre-recorded program, a post-test with a passing grade of 80% to receive a certificate.) Failure to log in or out will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates are available after satisfactory course completion by clicking here.
There is no conflict of interest or commercial support for this program.
Refund Policy:
Full Refund until 48 hours before scheduled date.
48 hours before: full refund less $5.00 processing fee. After event no refund will be given.
*exclusions apply for reasonable need and cause.