Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Integration Workshop

Course Description

Within the Principles of Effective Intervention, the Responsivity Principle directs the use of Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment (CBT) interventions, provided with attention to the individual’s specific needs.  Motivational Interviewing (MI), a humanistic, client-centered approach best accomplishes this standard of practice.  Together they provided a solid framework for best practices in behavior change.

Both MI and CBT interventions have shown strong outcomes in supporting behavior change independently. Many criminal justice practitioners have begun to find usefulness in both, and therefore, explore whether integration may further increase behavior change success. It is easy to see that MI and CBT each have unique strengths and that, although different, they complement each other in important ways.

Since one of the crucial steps in reaching a high level of competency in MI is knowing when – and if so, how – to integrate MI with other available methods, this integration workshop is highly important. And since CBT is the predominant ‘other method’, the choice for this combination is obvious.

Some have noted that CBT practitioners who develop a proficiency in MI are likely to see a ‘softening’ of their CBT delivery style. Learning MI may influence CBT practitioners to be more exploratory and to spend greater time eliciting client concerns around current behavior patterns prior to engaging in activities for restructuring beliefs. Conversely, MI practitioners who learn CBT can provide a more clearly focused direction and skill-building for those clients ready to take action (Tafrate, Luther, 2013).

This workshop will review the key components of both MI and CBT, while investigating further into how they can work together, thus maximizing the potential of each.

Here’s an example agenda for this workshop:

1. Welcome and Introductions
2.  Review
   1. Motivational Interviewing (MI)
      1. Strategy and change talk
   2. Cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT)
      1. Cognitive restructuring
      2. Behavioral structured skill building
      3. Welcome and Introductions
      4. Social Learning Theory
      5. Operant Conditioning
3. Motivational Interviewing and cognitive-behavioral integration
   1. Sequential and integrated approaches
   2. Emerging research
4. Structured sessions in MI/CBT integration framework
   1. Engage -Check-In
   2. Focus -Review
   3. Evoke -Intervention
   4. Plan -Practice assignment
5. The goal-setting process focuses CBT intervention- (scaling importance or confidence)
   1. Apply cognitive restructuring
   2. Apply behavioral rehearsal
   3. Apply reinforcer
6. Emphasize Choice
7. Continuum of Supervision

About the Instructor

This workshop and coaching will be facilitated by Ms. Jennifer Luther. Jennifer Luther has focused her work on the integration of client-centered, strength-based cognitive- behavioral interventions and has published several articles on this topic. She has been an active member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers since 2007. Currently, she is the Senior Director of Programs for Management and Training Corporation, directing the national and international application of rehabilitative efforts.