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Explore MI with Jeff Allison
Constructive conversations about change without the hullabaloo
jeff@jeffallison.co.uk |+44 7710 595998
Profile
300 commissioners in 18 countries
I specialise in helping practitioners become more proficient in managing awkward conversations, where issues of behaviour change are centre stage, using motivational interviewing as the reference style.
I live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve been a trainer for twenty-five years. My experience extends across diverse fields, countries and cultures, and from brief seminars to comprehensive week-long workshops. I’ve provided training and practice development coaching for more than 300 commissioning organisations in 18 countries, in the fields of healthcare, addictions treatment, criminal justice, social care, employment guidance and academic research.
I’ve worked with co-trainers in India, South Africa, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Canada, and throughout Europe and Scandinavia. I’ve co-led training events for the European Commission and the UNODC. For a decade I was a visiting lecturer to Nord University in Norway and to Glasgow University in Scotland. Between 2014-20 I was a member of a team sponsored by the European Union – The Penitentiary and Probation Support Project – working with the Georgian Ministry of Justice in Tbilisi.
During the pandemic I provided training and coaching online.
Testimonial
‘Jeff Allison has been a flowing fountain of inspiration and creative thinking about MI, contributing metaphors, conceptual clarity, and so many good ideas about how to convey MI to others.’
William R. Miller & Stephen Rollnick (2013)
Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change. Third Edition. New York: Guilford Press
Workshops
Imaginative project design
I offer realistic advice about the most productive training options, guided by the commissioner’s preferences and circumstances. Imaginative project design means that the common constraints of time and money need not be obstacles to satisfactory outcomes.
MI takes an hour to understand and a year to practise without error. However, even the briefest guided exposure will result in most practitioners improving the helpfulness of their practice.
The typical learning pathway progresses from an examination of the recognised competencies of MI to exploring the method’s specific applications within the practitioner’s work setting using simulation techniques.
Working through digital platforms offers practical advantages and presents novel challenges. Where digital is the commissioner’s preferred medium, a sequence of brief sessions for small groups is recommended.
Blueprint
A complimentary guidebook for practitioners, trainers, and coaches
The Motivational Interviewing Practice Blueprint [MI-PB] is a guidebook for practice development coaching. It’s designed to be used by trainers, coaches, and practitioners as an aid to achieving a sustained level of demonstrable competence in the practice of MI.
The MI-PB describes ten practitioner behaviour sets considered to be precise targets for attaining the highest standard of MI-consistent practice. Taken as a whole, the ten targets amount to a comprehensive description of the observable practice of MI done well.
The MI-PB provides a sequence of ‘lenses’ through which practice performance is brought into focus, while the accompanying impressions schematic offers a simple measure of the distance between the observed practice and each exemplar definition. The MI-PB assists the user in making judgements about how close the practice performance under consideration is to a particular target.
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