Learning Advanced Skills
Develop advanced skills to help individuals change more persistent unhealthy behaviors.
Some patients or clients do not or will not make brief action plans for behavior change. Others may be able to make plans but will not be able to follow through on the plans that they do make. These patients generally suffer with complex or persistent unhealthy behavior.
Learners who have completed the online course, Comprehensive Motivational Interventions: Core Competencies may be interested in developing more advanced skills to help such patients or clients change these more persistent unhealthy behaviors.
A second online course, Comprehensive Motivational Interventions: Advanced Skills, is currently in development and will be available through this website in 2020.
The online course will explain, demonstrate and train learners to use the 13 Advanced Skills for Action Planning (AAP) described in Chapter 18 of The Medical Interview: The Three Function Approach [1]. The 18 skills fall into three broad categories and are listed below.
Six skills to respond to emotions:
- non-verbal behavior
- reflection
- legitimation
- support
- partnership
- respect/affirmation
Five skills to understand benefits or obstacles to change:
- open-ended questioning
- facilitation
- open-to-closed cone of questioning
- direction
- checking and summarization
Two advanced Motivational Interviewing skills:
- elicit and resolve ambivalence
- develop the discrepancy
Dr. Cole can provide individual coaching or workshop learning for groups in advanced skills by Contacting Us.
1. Cole S, Gutnick D, Weiner J: Stepped-Care Advanced Skills for Action Planning (SAAP) (Chapter 18), in Cole S, Bird J: The Medical Interview: The Three Function Approach. Elsevier. 2014.