Motivational Interviewing Training Workshop: Practice Makes Perfect!

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July 17, 2015 by Nicholas Spence

Today, our research team of interviewers for the RMI-Family project concluded a 1.5 day training session on motivational interviewing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. In addition to the “fundamentals” of motivational interviewing, strict attention was paid to the administration of the RMI-Family interview tool, which is the main focus of this project—assessing the readiness and motivation of families to change lifestyle behaviors among families with youth managing pediatric obesity.

This is the first time that the RMI-Family interview tool has been tested among the research team since significant changes were made to the initial version of the interview in recent months. The training itself was a mix of lecture, demonstration, and hands-on experience. Luckily, with three motivational interviewing expert trainers and 10 trainees, there were numerous opportunities for troubleshooting and feedback. The experience was humbling yet extremely positive and helpful for all trainees. Our team of interviewers will continue practicing and receive ongoing feedback as we strive to ensure a high quality of skill in the practice of motivational interviewing before interviews begin with participants.

One of the main strengths of this research team is its range of expertise across disciplines as well as academic and clinical settings. We are very grateful to our colleagues at the University of British Columbia—Dr. Josie Geller, Dr. Suja Srikameswaran, and Joanna Zelichowska—for leading our training session and sharing their wealth of knowledge and clinical experience related to motivational interviewing.

This point marks another important milestone as we edge closer to officially starting the data collection process of this four year project in the fall!