stephenrollnick

Hello!

I am a young graduate student in clinical psychology from Switzerland (Geneva).
I have been working in a specialized centre for alcohol and other substances addiction throughout the two semester of the Master of Advanced Studies in Psychological Evaluation and Intervention that I am undertaking. I had to write a thesis on two clinical cases coming to the centre for treating their alcohol dependance. In this context I remembered an introduction to MI I attend a few years ago, by Dr. Pascal Gache (MINT Trainer), during an internal training day ot the Phenix Foundation. I was thrilled by the spirit of MI and the enthusiasm that Dr. Gache conveyed speaking about it. Thus I decided to borrow the only MI-related book at the library, the loriginal 1991 edition of the "Motivational Interviewing". It was the beggining of my journey in the MI universe! Then I bought and read all the Gillford books on MI...And started to wonder how to get more proficiency in MI as there is very few training opportunities here in Geneva. The supervision offer is really limited and none of my colleagues, but one, have had a MI training. I try to improve my skills on my own, with much help from my client's feedback!

So...here is the point: except the two-days introduction workshop, which I plan to attent to this fall, is there any university doctoral or clinical program I could take part in, in order to get more proficiency and direct supervision, which I think is of great importance? I would be glad to acquire more clinical experience in MI in the wide range of psychological problems people are searching counselling for.

MI is what I was looking for when I decided to study psychology; its spirit and principles match my own values and I really want to learn it properly in order to develop its use in various aspects of the psychological counselling here in Switzerland.

I hope my post "fits" the purpose of this forum.

Thank you beforehand for your listening and advice.

Julien Flückiger

Dear Julien,

yours is exactly the kind of query this forum is designed for, so please remain engaged if its helpful. i fo through periods of being to busy to reply, but in time I hope others will join in discussions.  The furm is new.

Julien, there is no formal programme I know of, yet I bet there is one somewhere, such is the growth of MI.  Among the ideas that spring to mind are to get the support of MI Campus (www.mi-campus.com), the most through effort to provide certification that I know of. they also offer other services, like peer support and feedback, so its worth looking into.

You could keep a blog of your progress on this site if you like - a wild idea, but it might be fun for others and very interesting.

I know quite a few MI trainers and practitioners in Geneva and Lausanne, but have no idea about supervision.  Cristiana Fortini in Lausanne is worth contacting - she works with Jean-Bernard Daeppen - both are good friends of mine.

let us know how you get on?

Steve

Dear Steve,

I appreciate that you took time to answer me! Your suggestions and encouragement are very precious to me!
I contacted Christina Fortini earlier this week, I am waiting for her answer.
I also went back to MI-campus, and it looks like things are starting up, so I requested information about MI-3 MI-4 MI-6, to learn more about "good practice" of the MI... I also contacted Prof. Arkowitz from the University of Tucson, to express him my enthusiasm for his MI practicum (one semester of theory: readings, role playing, video coding and one semester of clinical practice consisting of following multiple clients under his supervision) and his work on ambivalence.
I also plan to contact Theresa Moyers, and other active MI-researcher across North America. And Europe if you or any body else know engaged MI clinician who might been interested in working with a very motivated psychologist toward the development of MI as a clinical method as such!
And I'll send an e-mail to Pascal Gache to ask him about his work here in Geneva!

I'll post the results of my "MI-quest" regularly, hoping that it might help other people!

See you soon!

I apologize for this mishandling!

Dear Julien,

I have no idea about why you are apologising for "mishandling"?  No need as far as I can see.

Your progress will be of interest to others, for sure.

You located Hal Arkowitz in the USA, and he is the grandpapa of MI.  I have never met him.  Bill Miller has been supervised by him in his early days, and Hal is a brilliant man.  Bill describes Hal as his mentor.   if you can get anywhere near him or his clinic, you might well strike gold.   You also mention Terri Moyers, who is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and who effectively took over the research "lab" when Bill retired.  Great place to visit.

MI-Campus could suit you very well.

As for contact in Europe?  Tricky. If you could get near Tom Barth in Bergen Norway, or Christina Nasholm in Sweden, they are the best MI psychotherapists I know.

Christiana Fortini just down the road from you in Lausanne is excellent, but she might be incredibly busy right now.

Kind regards, keep going, keep us well posted!

Steve

Dear Steve,

I thank you very much for your precious advice!

I have been quite busy this week, but I have just sent an e-mail to Mr. Barth and Ms. Näsholm. I'll keep you informed of what happens...

I didn't know that Hal Arkowitz was such a precursor and that he even supervised Bill Miller! Thus I think it's really worth that I send him another e-mail...as I still haven't gotten any news from him. It is the same for Ms. Fortini, who must be, as you noted, very busy right now. Time will tell!

I contacted two other Professors (Henny Westra, David Hodgins) and I'm about to send an e-mail to Teresa Moyers, whose work on the "active ingredients" of MI are really interesting for someone like me!

I realized that the main problem for me, as a psychologist, to learn MI and then to develop it and have it admitted as an effective "method" for the treatment of psychological problems, is that MI is still mostly seen as "a technique only useful for addicted people". Very few psychologists in Switzerland are really involved in the dissemination of MI and its applications for a wide range of psychological problems. Indeed there are much more physicians practicing MI than psychologists and their use of MI is almost exclusively focused on substance misuse issues.

My "MI-quest" is far from being over... But is beginning quite well, thanks to your advice and your workshop, which I am looking forward to attending this October!

More news soon!!

PS: I apoligized because I involuntarily posted my last message twice, and as I couldn't delete it, then I changed the text of the second one so that it doesn't appear one more time.

Yes please, more news soon from you would be good!

Steve