Motivational Interviewing with Spurgeons, "....you are quite the inspiration.” Truly Fantastic Staff
I just had to put finger to keyboard and share my thoughts with regards to the two days training that I delivered for Spurgeon’s Children’s Charity. A huge thank you to my former colleague Nadine Massey who introduced Spurgeons to the Steven Talbot approach.
As Spurgeons themselves state: “Through the delivery of support and intervention services, and by speaking up on behalf of those who need us most, we give vulnerable children and families the chance for a better future.”
What does this entail? Last week I worked with a raft of staff members, all of whom were clearly VERY motivated to make a positive change to the lives of children, young people, families and young men who have offended. I was particularly taken with the level of professionalism and compassion that was shared over the two days. Everyone was obviously UP for the training and that is half the battle. People were prepared and each and every activity saw them mastering the skills of Motivational Interviewing.
I created a two-day Motivational Interviewing course bespoke to their needs, which they all thoroughly enjoyed. The training films that I created for them went down particularly well, with several of the learners stating how inspirational they found the people who had been interviewed. People who had laid bare their lives on camera, inviting professionals to see how they embraced changed and become the person they were always destined to be.
So, a massive CHEERS and THANK YOU goes to Chantelle, Domonyc, Ella, Emily, Katharine, Kelly, Lucy, Nadine, Nii, Patrick, Rachel, Sarah and Vicky. I call my course, ‘Inspiring Change’ and as I said to Rachel from Spurgeons, it was I that was clearly inspired by the exceptional staff members that I met. I got to work with each of them and they each motivated ME and left me feeling elated with a can-do attitude. I dearly hope we all meet again and I get to see the amazing work in action.
Here is a smattering of feedback from the staff:
“Fantastic couple of days Steven. Thank you very much. You are engaging, hilarious, relatable and most of all you have so much knowledge and practical, real-life examples, which really add to the richness of your sessions. I could see that the practitioners were really engaged and motivated to try the techniques (as was I) which will be invaluable to their services.
Loved the interactive activities, which really encouraged focus and concentration. Using our own areas of change really helped reflect on what is really going on and was very empowering in terms of making a change. Thanks again.”
“Thank you, Steven 😊 The two-day course was informative and fun, the time flew past. I found all aspects of the course helpful and I very much enjoyed the videos and Ryan’s amazingly inspiring journey. Many thanks.”
“Thanks for a great couple of days training, really enjoyed the session 😊.”
“This session was by far the most enjoyable online learning I have completed – EVER! Steven has a wealth of knowledge and an ease in delivering this with excellent examples. He engaged everyone attending in an encouraging and supportive manner. The session was well paced with space to explore what was being presented. There was a good mix of presentation, discussion, video examples and group exploration. The subject matter was very relevant to the work we do and has given the team an opportunity to reflect on their own practice and approach and learn improved skills in working with our ‘clients’ , especially when engaging particularly challenging individuals. Steven has a fun natural way that made the session throughout informative and fun – thank you, it was a breath of fresh air ....you are quite the inspiration.”
“A thoroughly engaging and enjoying two days training. I really liked Steve’s approach to delivering and the subject was very relevant and I have already been practicing at work!!”
“Steven’s knowledge, experience and course content is exceptional. The 2 days of training were interactive, informative, and engaging. The use of video’s sharing real life experiences brought the training to life which allowed us to relate to the work we do. I found working in small groups practicing the key skills very useful. Steven is an excellent facilitator; he has a unique teaching style that keeps your attention. We will definitely be booking further training.”
“Training was engaging and informative. Quite a lot of independent tasks, but meant that the knowledge was put into practise and remembered it more after than I would have in other trainings. Nice and friendly, one of the better trainings I’ve been on.”
“I found the training to be very beneficial and I am hopeful that it will be easy to implement in my professional life working with offenders as well as in my personal life. Raising teenagers in this time is difficult and communicating with them and ensuring they feel heard is something I would love to improve on and I hope that it will benefit our relationships in the long run. Thank You Steven for 2 days that I thought was going to be long and painful but (and!) turned out to be time on my sofa well spent!”