| Motivational Interviewing (M.I.) is a counselling approach originally developed for dealing with substance misuse issues in Health contexts, usually in one to one settings and over longer periods of up to an hour in length. Motivational Interviewing is now a core theme underlying the use of cognitive-behavioural techniques and Case Management in the National Probation Service as part of the ‘what works’ agenda.
What is Forensic Motivational Interviewing?
ignition Forensic Motivational Interviewing is a variant of M.I specifically devised to take account of differences between Health and criminal justice settings such as degree of coercion and levels of overt resistance and hostility. ignition Forensic M.I. training is specifically adapted to prison and probation contexts where work is with coerced individuals, and provides an extremely effective approach for engaging offenders in the process of overall behavioural change.
The training considers how behaviours which in criminal justice settings are usually seen as indicative of low motivation, such as ‘resistance’, non-attendance, non-engagement, non-completion of tasks and ‘denial’ are in fact heavily determined by the way the worker behaves and can be worked with productively through the use of the approach. The skills and approach embodied in Forensic Motivational Interviewing training are also important for the key ‘what works’ concept of pro-social modelling.
What is Advanced Forensic Motivational Interviewing ?
Advanced Forensic Motivational Interviewing is a Level 3 course requiring staff to have attended the Level 2 Foundations course, and building on the skills, concepts and strategies taught there. There is a continuing emphasis on skills practice and consolidation of core skills through case study. The training also introduces new skills and strategies for extended motivational work at the LATER stages of the Cycle of Change, once initial motivation for change has been explored and developed: Maintenance, Lapse and Relapse. Material includes:
Concepts
- Effective working with later Stages of the Cycle of Change
- The importance and development of empathy
- Worker resilience to hostility or lack of change
Skills
- Advanced skills of reflective listening
- Advanced summaries
- Identifying the strategy appropriate to the stage of the Cycle of Change
- Further exploration of ambivalence to change
Strategies
- Knowing when to ‘back off’
- Maintaining offender motivation
- Lapse prevention
- Relapse recovery
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