Would you like to have better conversations about behaviour change in brain injury rehabilitation? Are you a psychologist, nurse, allied health practitioner, physician, social worker, care co-ordinator or case manager? If you are, this course is for you.
Motivational interviewing (Mi) is a positive evidence based communication style that can help practitioners working in rehabilitation enhance a person’s motivation for behaviour change. For example, this might be a psychologist discussing anger management strategies with a client, a physiotherapist talking about exercise, an occupational therapist recommending a living skills program or a case manager reviewing vocational rehabilitation training with a person. Mi started in the addictions field but has since been shown to be helpful across many other clinical populations and treatment settings. It is increasingly popular in brain injury rehabilitation.
David Manchester is a psychologist with over twenty years’ experience in rehabilitation psychology. He initially became interested in teaching Mi when he was working as a team leader in neurorehabilitation services in the United Kingdom. He saw first-hand how it can help staff to have more compassionate, enjoyable and collaborative conversations about behaviour change with clients and their significant others. Practitioners also reported greater engagement and motivation in their work after training.
As he began to train more and more colleagues he became increasingly interested in the most effective ways to teach the approach to others. He travelled to the USA to attend a three day train the trainer workshop with the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). MINT is the peak international body for the dissemination of Mi training.
This two-day course covers three things. Firstly, it introduces participants to the core principles and practices of motivational interviewing. Secondly, it looks at common cognitive profiles, (both changes and preserved strengths) often encountered in clinical practice with a particular focus on frontal brain injury. Finally, it considers how to blend core Mi skills with effective principles of neuropsychological rehabilitation.
The course will be held in Melbourne on 27 and 28 June 2019. For more information and to register, go to: www.mlrbraininjuryservices.com