Exercises for Developing MI Skills in Corrections

Motivational interviewing (MI) helps clients become less ambivalent about altering their maladaptive behaviors. This publication presents “scenarios that agents commonly encounter in their efforts to monitor and reinforce court/parole/institutional conditions and address clients’ central eight criminogenic needs. This book also considers the learning tasks of MI in relation to the eight principles for effective interventions outlined in Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Community Corrections: The Principles of Effective Intervention, an NIC publication. Ordered in the sequence in which they are most commonly learned or mastered, the first five of these eight tasks for learning MI provide the structure for Exercises for Developing MI Skills in Corrections.” Chapters relating to these five tasks are: the spirit of motivational interviewing; active listening; recognizing and reinforcing change talk; eliciting and strengthening change talk; and responding to resistance. A glossary of related terms is also included.