The first time I learned about motivational interviewing was when I was first introduced to Ken Kraybill a few years back at a 100,000 Homes leadership meeting. Ken directs the Center for Social Innovation‘s training activities, and is co-director of t3, an innovative new training institute for homeless service providers.
We’ve all known people we want to help, but for whatever reason, that person just wants to stay where they are at. As a case manager in homeless services, I often have clients that are on a path of self-destruction and there does not seem like anything in our universe can change their destructive path. This is where learning motivational interviewing is a must for everyone working in social services. Simply put, motivational interviewing is a way of talking to people that encourages their own motivation to want change, instead of our motivation to get the other person to change. We all know you cannot change a person unless they want to change. Motivational interviewing helps people see change from their own perspective.
t3 offers online courses to help your case management team learn skills like motivational interviewing at a very reasonable cost. I have taken the motivational interviewing course and I strongly recommend you and your staff do the same. I am still at the practicing stage, though. I’ve been trying to get Ken to use twitter because I want to learn more from him, but I am having no luck. Oh, maybe it’s because I am still relying on my motivation not his. Hmmm, how can we use motivational interviewing to see more tweets from Ken?
