Clinical Psychologist David Manchester to offer 2-day course on motivational interviewing for practitioners working in brain injury rehabilitation

Are you an allied health practitioner, physician, social worker, care co-ordinator or case manager working in brain injury rehabilitation? Would you like to learn more about motivational interviewing, the person-centred approach that can help to strengthen a client’s motivation for behaviour change? If so, this course is for you.

Motivational interviewing (Mi) is an evidence based specialist communication style that can help practitioners working in rehabilitation to 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 their client. 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.

Dr. David Manchester is a clinical 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 using Mi could 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 skills 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.

The 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 Sydney on the 21st and 22nd February, 2019. To download a brochure with more course details and to register, go to: www.mlrbraininjuryservices.com