Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidenced-based intervention for working with individuals who are considering a behavior change. This class is intended to introduce the basic concepts and skills of MI. It fosters a working alliance and promotes that person’s own ideas and motivations for change. Participants will learn basic methods to engage, focus, evoke, and plan in an MI session. Furthermore, attendees will learn about the fundamentals of MI practice: understanding ambivalence, practicing with MI spirit, reflective listening, and learning the core MI skills of recognizing, evoking, and responding to a person’s “change talk”. Role plays, videos, and participant small group practice will be incorporated to help understand concepts. This class will be taught in Spanish 80% or more of the time, so comfortability in reading and speaking in Spanish is required.

Patricia Juarez, MS, and Reyna Puentes, MS, are trainers with the Latino Alcohol & Health Disparities Research and Training Center (LAHDR) in El Paso, Texas. They are both members of the Motivational Interviewing Network of trainers and have trained globally in topics relating to health disparities, substance use, brief interventions, culturally adapted treatments and motivational interviewing.