Motivational Interviewing Conference in Cardiff

Have just come raring back from the 2012 Cardiff Motivational Interviewing Conference.... and I’m feeling very motivated!

Bill Miller led the day with Steve Rollnick, a rare opportunity to work with both the founders of Motivational Interviewing together. 

It has been a while since I’ve had an opportunity of seeing Steve speak again but it was the first chance I’d ever had to work directly with Bill. 

Apart from reviewing old ground, participants also got a glimpse of some of the new ideas which will be fully expressed in their new edition of Motivational Interviewing that's coming out this summer.

Keep your eyes peeled for it. 

In the meantime, if you're looking for MI training either as an individual or in-house, get in touch with us and we can guarantee we'll offer you a stimulating and practical experience that will definitely change your practice.

http://www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk/seminars.php?courseid=5


Best Wishes

Paul

Debate on Motivational Tools - Feedback

What do you usually do with your unmotivated clients? Discharge them? View them as resistant and work with them accordingly? Hope your supervisor got some ideas?
What do you do if you’re a supervisor and are at a loss?

The fact of the matter is that we could always do with some new ideas and tips on how to approach our most difficult clients.

Our recent delegate debate on motivational techniques produced some fascinating discussions about the topic and I would like to share them with you. Please read the comments to this post and feel free to contribute to this discussion by commenting yourself.

The issue of motivation is extremely interesting and multi-dimensional - that is why our training courses on Motivational Interviewing are always very engaging and lively. They are currently run in Manchester and London and until tomorrow you can book them with 30% discount. If you would like to learn more about this training follow the link:
http://www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk/seminars.php?courseid=5

I hope you will find this post an interesting read and look forward to continuing this discussion with you at one of our training courses.

Take care
Paul

Manchester Deal! Another 24 Hours!

Yesterday's promotion created a number of questions from our delegates regarding some particular details of it.

This blog is to answer your questions and clarify the details.

1. 50% discount is valid both for block bookings of all 4 courses and for bookings of the individual modules of the Certificate in Resource Based Therapies course.

For block bookings of all 4 courses go to Resource Based Therapy follow the "Click here to book online" link on the right and choose your Manchester dates.
For bookings of the individual modules (for those who have completed some of the modules with us already) follow the individual links below:

• POSITIVE THERAPY (CRBT - MODULE 1)
• MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING & BEYOND (CRBT - MODULE 2)
• BRIEF SOLUTION FOCUSED THERAPY (CRBT - MODULE 3)
• BSFT WITH DIFFICULT & COMPLEX CLIENTS (CRBT - MODULE 4)

Choose Manchester on the right hand side of the page and make your online booking.

2. Although this offer is for online bookings only - we are prepared to extend it to those who wish us to invoice their organisations. In order for you to take advantage of this offer PLEASE make sure that we receive some form of authorisation from your organisation within 24 hours (before midday of 20 July 2011).

We accept as the form of authorization the following:
• Purchase order (please fax it within 24 hours)
• Letter of authorisation from your manager with full invoice address (please fax it within 24 hours)
• E-mail of authorisatoin from your manager (please make sure that this e-mail comes from your manager's e-mail address, contains full invoice address and reaches within 24 hours)

As this offer created some questions that needed further clarification WE EXTEND THIS OFFER FOR FURTHER 24 HOURS - EXPIRING AT MIDDAY 20 JULY 2011.

We hope this e-mail answers all of your questions and look forward to welcoming you at our courses. Please feel free to share this information with your friends and colleagues.

Kind regards

The Skills Development Service Team

Resource Based Therapy in Manchester

We had a number of enquiries from our delegates regarding running our BPS Learning Centre approved course on Resource Based Therapies in Manchester. We are pleased to let you know that all four modules of this course are coming to Manchester in January – February 2012.

This course consisting of 4 modules brings together three separate psychotherapeutic modalities that all share an underlying assumption regarding the client’s intrinsic pre-existing resources and psychological strengths.

These include Brief Solution Focused Therapy, Positive Psychology and Motivational Interviewing.

Delegates who attend all four courses receive A Certificate in Resource Based Therapies with BPS Learning Centre approval logo on it and 25 hours CPD. These 4 training modules can be booked together or separately; the order, in which delegates attend the courses, is flexible. If you have done with us training on any of the above topics before – you have already partially completed the full course and now need to attend only the remaining modules to receive your Certificate.

As you are our continuous supporter we here at SDS decided to offer you a special deal to make training more accessible in these difficult and financially uncertain times: FOR 24 HOURS ONLY YOU CAN BOOK THESE MANCHESTER COURSES ONLINE WITH 50% DISCOUNT, PAYING THE INCREDIBLE £62.50 + VAT FOR EACH.

Please explore the website for detailed description of the courses and book online today:

• POSITIVE THERAPY (CRBT - MODULE 1)
• MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING & BEYOND (CRBT - MODULE 2)
• BRIEF SOLUTION FOCUSED THERAPY (CRBT - MODULE 3)
• BSFT WITH DIFFICULT & COMPLEX CLIENTS (CRBT - MODULE 4)

We hope you will find these courses essential for your work and take advantage of this short-term offer.

Kind regards

The Skills Development Service Team

Motivation for Addiction

Smoking is far more than just a physical dependancy. For those looking to quit it is just as much psychological!

Motivation is a key factor in quitting. No motivation, no reason to quit, the less likely a person is to quit!

A new motivational approach by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was published recently and involved using Text messaging to mobile phones to provide the extra motivation. The study examined the long-term effects of specially-designed motivational text messages.

The motivated group received five text messages a day for the first five weeks and then three per week for the next 26 weeks with a personalised system which also allowed people to receive instant messages at times of need by texting the word 'crave' or 'Lapse'.

Examples of the messages include:
•"This is it! -- QUIT DAY, throw away all your fags. TODAY is the start of being QUIT forever, you can do it!"
•"Cravings last less than 5 minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over."

The results showed that continuous abstinence at six months was significantly increased in the motivated group with a 10.7% success rate compared to 4.9% success rate in the control group.

Not only are motivational Text messages a convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit, the extra motivation they received clearly made the difference between deciding to quit or not. The psychological side of the addiction is clearly strong and the ability to motivate the participants in the study helped them fight their cravings.

Motivational techniques have been found to work with a number of different addictions, or other psychological illnesses. They are many times when they only thing holding a client back is their own lack of motivation. If you feel your clients need to be better motivated then look into SDS's 'Motivational Interviewing' course and start motivating your clients today!

Motivational Interviewing and Beyond"

Major Depression and Negative Mindset

A recent study has found further evidence that people suffering with Major Depression are stuck in a negative mindset, and re-live their negative experiences again and again in their mind.

In the study 26 people with depression and 27 people who had never had depression were sat in front of a computer and shown three words, one at a time. They were told to remember the words either in the order they were presented or in reverse order. The computer then presented one of the three words and they were supposed to respond as quickly as they could whether that word was first, second, or third in the list.

People with depression had trouble re-ordering the words in their head; if they were asked to remember the words in reverse order, they took longer to give the correct answer. They had a particularly hard time if the three words had negative meanings, like "death" or "sadness."

But therapy techniques such as motivational interviewing, brief solution focused therapy or positive therapy could prove to be very useful at helping clients change their mindset and thinking and allow them to move on with their lives, which they may not be able to do without guidance.

All of these psychological skills are available from the Skills Development Service:
Motivational Interviewing
Brief Solution Focused Therapy
Positive Therapy

Interested in all these courses? Then why not go for our certificate in Resource Based Therapy course.
Certificate in Resource Based Therapy

Psychotherapy DVDs are also offering an 8 Disk CBT Training Package, offering 14 CPD hours: Essential CBT Skills Series - 8 DVDs Set - 14 CPD Hours

Motivation for weight loss

Indiana University researchers report that the confidence and motivation built in a virtual gym can continue on into normal, 'real' life.

This statement comes after participants in a 12-week weight loss programme - one real, and one online - lost similar amounts of weight. Both groups lost 10 pounds on average but when the groups were surveyed on whether their overall behaviour had changed, those using the virtual gym appeared to have made more changes towards healthy eating and physical activity, suggesting that they might fare better in the future, compared to the 'real' group.

Dr Johnson (one of the study researchers) said that "[the virtual gym] has the potential to reach people who normally wouldn't go to a gym or join a programme because of limitations, such as time or discomfort with a fitness centre environment"

This study is particularly interesting as it seems that the motivation and encouragment people received from the virtual group was as effective, if not more effictive, than those attending the real-life groups. The main point to draw from this study could be that there is strong evidence for a role in virtual support for weight loss that can be further researched and encouraged. Motivation, whether online or real life, seems to be successful at encouraging weight loss.

For information on SDS courses such as 'Motivational Interviewing' and 'Solution Focused Therapy' please visit our website: www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk

Diabetes and Psychology

Diabetes and psychology are not often thought of as being complimentary but with the use of psychology the life of a diabetic can be drastically improved. To understand the role that psychology has to play it is first important to understand exactly what diabetes is and how it can affect the life of a diabetic.

85% of diabetics have type 2 diabetes which is the body's resistance to insulin. Insulin is naturally produced in the body and helps to breakdown the glucose in the blood. The causes of type 2 diabetes are linked to obesity, inactivity and an unhealthy diet. In order to cope with diabetes the diabetic needs to avoid long periods of high blood glucose levels called hyperglycemia and also periods of hypoglycemia which is low blood glucose levels. To balance these 2 extremes a diabetic needs to monitor and regulate their blood sugar levels on a regular basis. If the diabetic doesn't keep their glucose levels under controls they may encounter a whole host of unpleasant diseases and side effects.

The use of psychology comes in when it is necessary for a diabetic to make rapid and extreme changes to their lifestyle. Once diagnosed a diabetic must make these changes almost overnight so someone may go from a sedentary lifestyle of eating junk food and watching TV to having to eat regular healthy food and take regular exercise and well as monitor their blood sugar level. This rapid change can cause lots of problems for newly diagnosed diabetics.

The routines needed to monitor blood sugar levels and control the diabetes can be very complicated. As the majority of diabetes treatment is self care there can be serious problems if the person lacks motivation. Their condition can deteriorate and result in amputation of limbs or blindness. It is therefore imperative that the doctors use psychology to make the patient understand the importance of the illness.

Tests conducted in Canada and Germany into diabetes and psychology in recent years using fully qualified psychologists have resulted in increased levels of successful diabetes control. Whilst still relatively new the use of psychology has undoubted positive effects. With the current level of 125 million diabetes sufferers estimate to double to 300 million in the next 20 years it is important that doctors start to realise the obvious befits of psychology and incorporate psychology as part of the treatment plan for any diabetic.

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An very interesting article. Psychology and a number of physical illnesses are becoming more and more interlinked, with illnesses such as Cancer and Stroke also warranting more and more psychological intervention throughout the illness and after.

The Skills Development Service are currently rolling out a number of training days for those working with Stroke Patients and Psycho-oncology, we are soon hoping to have a training course ready for Diabetes also.

If you have any interest in any of these courses please feel free to contact SDS on 01183 360169.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Max_Peykar

Motivation and Good Health

Another big NHS story to hit the news recently is the idea of the NHS providing incentives to motivate patients to become healthy.

An interesting idea in theory, as there is evidence that incentives do encourage people to continue behaviours - so if your goal is to quit smoking the the NHS rewards you, by whatever means, you are more likely to stick at it. In this example, the short term rewards for quitting is just as great (if not better than!) the long term reward (good health.)

But this idea hasn't come without controversy.

The first barrier is whether incentives are actually effective - or would the NHS just be throwing money away? So far, the results seem mixed - some hits and some misses. Unfortunately there is very little evidence at this point in time to suggest that even the positive evidence will last long term, especially after incentives are removed.

Unsurprisingly, in my mind at least anyway, a large percentage of the public is actually against NHS incentives, which struck me as rather amusing as the percentage of overweight and obese people in the UK is over 50% (or so my quick google for statistics told me.) Read into that what you will - there's no direct link between the two points, I honestly just found that interesting.

.. But people just don't feel incentives are fair.

And perhaps this is what it comes down to - fairness. It's not fair that people ruin their own health then are paid by the taxpayer to improve their health. The public seems to have no problem with surgery, e.g. for heart or lung problems, after the event - we don't seem to want people dead! - but it's not viewed as fair to help people before the absolutely need it.

I don't know which way to think - it's just an interesting point of note.

The thinkers at the NHS may have been along the right lines - motivation, it can be argued, is the number one reason people change their behaviour. I mean, why would you change your behaviour if you weren't motivated to do so - right? So their heart was in the right place.

But perhaps their are other motivations that can be used in the stead of taxpayers money? Smokers, for example, save a huge amount of money by simply not buying cigarettes! If smoker 'Frank' enjoys playing sports, what's going to motivate him more than being able to breath properly when he's running around the pitch?!

Motivation may be the key to helping people improve their on health - but maybe financial incentives are not the way to about it?

Looking to help motivate people yourself? - For more information on Motivation, have a look on our website www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk and check out our course "Motivational Interviewing and Beyond."