Priority Population: All

Motivational Interviewing Developing Skills (online)

Have you completed a two-day Foundation Skills course in Motivational Interviewing?

Are you looking for a chance to refresh your MI skills, consolidate learning and look for your next steps in learning MI? Then this one-day professional development workshop may be for you.

Perhaps you enjoyed meeting MI, but the details are getting fuzzy. Or you’ve been using the skills and are curious to check in with how you’re going. Or maybe you’re looking for the next step in developing your use of MI in practice.

While MI offers practical and accessible skills to try from the outset, the approach takes time and practice to make the most of its potential to help us have more meaningful and productive conversations about change.

Overview

This workshop provides participants to practice core skills in a positive learning environment with coached feedback. The aim is to have fun revisiting the skills, and gain more focus in their ongoing practice.

The workshop extends the foundation skills training, including deepening reflections, exploring the role of values and working with change talk.

The learning objectives include:

  • Refresh and deepen your understanding of the MI framework
  • Learn from observation and small group practice
  • Deepen understanding of guiding within a client-centred approach
  • Practice core component skills, such as developing useful complex reflections within change conversations
  • Practice identifying core personal values and their relevance to the change process
  • Practice working with change talk
  • Develop strategies to monitor our use of the skills and continue to develop after the workshop is over.

Workshop details

The workshop will be held online via Zoom, providing break-out rooms for small group discussion and skills practice. Workshop numbers will be limited to create a comfortable and personalised learning environment.

 

Eligibility Criteria

  • You must have completed MI Foundation Skills training to enrol in this course
  • This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including Peer and LLE workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend,  cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

No-shows will be charged a $50 cancellation fee.

Motivational Interviewing Foundational Skills (online)

Dates:

Day one: Thursday, 4 December 2025, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM*

Day two: Thursday, 11 December 2025, 9:00 – 4:30 PM

*Download both days to your calendar.  Bookings can only be made from day one of training.

Location: Online (Link will be sent to you closer to the training date)

Description

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative method for guiding conversations about change. More than a set of techniques, MI is a discipline in its own right that brings together a set of values, principles and disciplined use of skills to assist people in resolving ambivalence and deepen motivation to pursue meaningful changes for them.

While the skills take time and practice, the conversation style is gentle, and curious and comes from a place of faith in the other person. The hope is that, together, we may discover what is meaningful for this person and what choices would work best for them, knowing who they are and what they want deep down for their future. MI asks us to be mindful of the way our own hopes and assumptions can interfere in the process as much as they can help and create a space of genuine enquiry and deepening understanding.

Rather than replace other approaches, MI can enhance and deepen the full range of interventions we use by bringing a more acute awareness to the how and when of conversation rather than just what we talk about.

The training is highly interactive, with a focus on practical skill development. The two-day workshop will offer an opportunity to:

  • Gain a clear and up-to-date understanding of MI – what it is, how it works and recent changes to the framework
  • Increase understanding of the change process
  • Review and practice the core skills
  • Apply the skills to the change process
  • Increase ability to work effectively with resistance and ambivalence
  • Practice skills in softening sustained talk and eliciting change talk
  • Develop strategies to continue learning and practising MI.

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including those who are new to the AOD sector or recently employed under the COVID-19 Workforce Initiative and Peer workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as Family Violence, Homelessness and Mental Health and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Terms & Conditions

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend, cancel your registration at least 24 hours before the cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

No shows will be charged a $50 cancellation fee.

Motivational Interviewing Foundational Skills (online)

Dates:

Day one: Thursday, 4 December 2025, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM*

Day two: Thursday, 11 December 2025, 9:00 – 4:30 PM

*Download both days to your calendar.  Bookings can only be made from day one of training.

Location: Online (Link will be sent to you closer to the training date)

Description

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative method for guiding conversations about change. More than a set of techniques, MI is a discipline in its own right that brings together a set of values, principles and disciplined use of skills to assist people in resolving ambivalence and deepen motivation to pursue meaningful changes for them.

While the skills take time and practice, the conversation style is gentle, and curious and comes from a place of faith in the other person. The hope is that, together, we may discover what is meaningful for this person and what choices would work best for them, knowing who they are and what they want deep down for their future. MI asks us to be mindful of the way our own hopes and assumptions can interfere in the process as much as they can help and create a space of genuine enquiry and deepening understanding.

Rather than replace other approaches, MI can enhance and deepen the full range of interventions we use by bringing a more acute awareness to the how and when of conversation rather than just what we talk about.

The training is highly interactive, with a focus on practical skill development. The two-day workshop will offer an opportunity to:

  • Gain a clear and up-to-date understanding of MI – what it is, how it works and recent changes to the framework
  • Increase understanding of the change process
  • Review and practice the core skills
  • Apply the skills to the change process
  • Increase ability to work effectively with resistance and ambivalence
  • Practice skills in softening sustained talk and eliciting change talk
  • Develop strategies to continue learning and practising MI.

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed in a Victorian State-funded Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) service, including those who are new to the AOD sector or recently employed under the COVID-19 Workforce Initiative and Peer workers.

Who is not eligible?

Students on placement or internships, workers from other community sectors such as Family Violence, Homelessness and Mental Health and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Terms & Conditions

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend, cancel your registration at least 24 hours before the cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

No shows will be charged a $50 cancellation fee.

Motivational Interviewing Foundational Skills (trainees)

Dates:

Day one: Tuesday, 5 August 2025, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM*

Day two: Tuesday, 12 August 2025, 9:00 – 4:30 PM

*Download both days to your calendar.  Bookings can only be made from day one of training.

Location: Online (Link will be sent to you closer to the training date)

Description

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative method for guiding conversations about change. More than a set of techniques, MI is a discipline in its own right that brings together a set of values, principles and disciplined use of skills to assist people in resolving ambivalence and deepen motivation to pursue meaningful changes for them.

While the skills take time and practice, the conversation style is gentle, and curious and comes from a place of faith in the other person. The hope is that, together, we may discover what is meaningful for this person and what choices would work best for them, knowing who they are and what they want deep down for their future. MI asks us to be mindful of the way our own hopes and assumptions can interfere in the process as much as they can help and create a space of genuine enquiry and deepening understanding.

Rather than replace other approaches, MI can enhance and deepen the full range of interventions we use by bringing a more acute awareness to the how and when of conversation rather than just what we talk about.

The training is highly interactive, with a focus on practical skill development. The two-day workshop will offer an opportunity to:

  • Gain a clear and up-to-date understanding of MI – what it is, how it works and recent changes to the framework
  • Increase understanding of the change process
  • Review and practice the core skills
  • Apply the skills to the change process
  • Increase ability to work effectively with resistance and ambivalence
  • Practice skills in softening sustained talk and eliciting change talk
  • Develop strategies to continue learning and practising MI.

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed under the AOD Traineeship Program.

Who is not eligible?

Anyone not employed under the AOD Traineeship Program, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, non-supervisors and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Terms & Conditions

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend, cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

Motivational Interviewing Foundational Skills (trainees)

Dates:

Day one: Tuesday, 5 August 2025, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM*

Day two: Tuesday, 12 August 2025, 9:00 – 4:30 PM

*Download both days to your calendar.  Bookings can only be made from day one of training.

Location: Online (Link will be sent to you closer to the training date)

Description

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative method for guiding conversations about change. More than a set of techniques, MI is a discipline in its own right that brings together a set of values, principles and disciplined use of skills to assist people in resolving ambivalence and deepen motivation to pursue meaningful changes for them.

While the skills take time and practice, the conversation style is gentle, and curious and comes from a place of faith in the other person. The hope is that, together, we may discover what is meaningful for this person and what choices would work best for them, knowing who they are and what they want deep down for their future. MI asks us to be mindful of the way our own hopes and assumptions can interfere in the process as much as they can help and create a space of genuine enquiry and deepening understanding.

Rather than replace other approaches, MI can enhance and deepen the full range of interventions we use by bringing a more acute awareness to the how and when of conversation rather than just what we talk about.

The training is highly interactive, with a focus on practical skill development. The two-day workshop will offer an opportunity to:

  • Gain a clear and up-to-date understanding of MI – what it is, how it works and recent changes to the framework
  • Increase understanding of the change process
  • Review and practice the core skills
  • Apply the skills to the change process
  • Increase ability to work effectively with resistance and ambivalence
  • Practice skills in softening sustained talk and eliciting change talk
  • Develop strategies to continue learning and practising MI.

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed under the AOD Traineeship Program.

Who is not eligible?

Anyone not employed under the AOD Traineeship Program, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, non-supervisors and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Terms & Conditions

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend, cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

Take Note! Case Notes Essentials (trainees)

Date: Thursday, 10th September 2025 9:30AM – 12:30PM

Location: Online

Description:

This training will provide you with:

  • An understanding of the benefits and importance of effective case note writing, record-keeping and information sharing for yourself as AOD workers, for your clients and your workplace
  • An overview of evidence-based practice and principles for clinically-relevant and compliant case notes
  • An understanding of the legal context and important concepts (e.g. consent, disclosure, confidentiality, privacy, access, ownership, record-keeping and reporting)
  • Consideration of ethical and operational barriers to case note writing
  • Practical tips and resources for efficiently writing effective case notes
  • Skill development through key examples, resources and activities

 

Eligibility Criteria

This training has been funded for workers employed under the AOD Traineeship Program.

Who is not eligible?

Anyone not employed under the AOD Traineeship Program, workers from other community sectors such as family violence, homelessness, mental health, non-supervisors and AOD workers outside of Victoria.

Terms & Conditions

Please ensure you have clearance from your line manager to attend. If you cannot attend, cancel your registration and make your spot available to someone else on the waitlist.

SHARC Peer Worker Training (Online)

Eligibility: This training is free for paid AOD Peer Workers in state-funded services in Victoria.

Duration: 6 days, 9:30am – 3:00pm each day.

Dates:  16th,17th,18th, 22nd, 23rd & 24th of April 2025

Where: Online via Zoom. Calendar invites to be sent with links to attend closer to the training commencing upon registration.

SHARC Peer Worker Training aims to:

  • Educate peer workers around the concepts and core competencies of the peer work discipline.
  • Assist peer workers to apply best practice peer work in formalised settings.
  • Explore the key components of the role with a focus on the peer relationship.
  • Increase confidence and develop skills in communication and navigating relational parameters.
  • Develop understandings of ethical practice and workplace legislative requirements.
  • Empower peer workers to advocate for the discipline and manage their own wellbeing and development needs.
  • Prepare peer workers to work across a number of domains, remaining ‘peer’ within clinical governance frameworks.

Click here to find out more

Click here to register

Please contact peersupport@sharc.org.au for any queries regarding this training.

*This training is advertised on behalf of SHARC.

Panel Discussion: How do we give women a voice in their recovery?

Facilitator: Lyanne Morel, Lived Experience Advocate

Panel: Tara Schultz, Lived Experience Advocate, Michele Campbell, Clinical Director, NADA and Jennifer Uzabeaga, Consumer Engagement Coordinator, NADA

In this video, panel members discuss experiences of women and the AOD service system.

Resources mentioned can be accessed here: Symposium Resource Hub

To access the video, click on ENROL NOW to change to “I’m going”

The WATCH VIDEO button will appear; click to access the video.

To return to the video later, revisit this page by clicking on Self-paced learning.

Presentation: Voice and creativity in research – young women’s experiences of youth intimate partner violence

Bianca Johnston, PhD Candidate, Monash University

Slides: Voice and creativity in research – Bianca Johnston

Bianca’s PhD examines young women’s experiences of youth intimate partner violence. Using mixed methods of creative art and qualitative interviews with young women, Bianca’s research seeks to provide a platform for young women’s voices and experiences of intimate partner violence.

Resources mentioned can be accessed here: Symposium Resource Hub

To access the video, click on ENROL NOW to change to “I’m going”

The WATCH VIDEO button will appear; click to access the video.

To return to the video later, revisit this page by clicking on Self-paced learning.

Presentation: Best practice when working with female forensic AOD clients

Abbie McNamara, Family Preservation Reunification Response Practitioner/ Master of Social Work Graduate, Monash University and
A/Prof Catherine Flynn, Head of Department and Director of Higher Degree Research – Social Work, Monash University

This presentation is based on research undertaken by Abbie as part of her Master of Social Work at Monash University, supervised by Catherine. This work was awarded the Peter Boss prize for best thesis for the 2023 Academic Year. The research was undertaken as a collaboration with TaskForce-Windana, with its origins in practitioner observations about the challenges of current approaches to working with women mandated to AOD treatment.  The study therefore sought to better understand what are the needs of, and best practices with this group, by examining existing case file data and interviewing clinicians. The audience will gain a more nuanced understanding of the needs of women engaged with the Forensic AOD system, and specific gender-based risk factors, as well as expanding their understanding of ‘best-practice’ to include organisational and system-level actions needed to support work with this group of often overlooked women.

Resources mentioned can be accessed here: Symposium Resource Hub

To access the video, click on ENROL NOW to change to “I’m going”

The WATCH VIDEO button will appear; click to access the video.

To return to the video later, revisit this page by clicking on Self-paced learning.

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