Motivational Interviewing with Staffordshire CC, Jan 2025. "Informative, inspiring, motivational and in short excellent."

Earlier this week I had the absolute pleasure of continuing my on-going Motivational Interviewing sessions with Staffordshire County Council.  The staff are ALWAYS up for the training and none more so than the assembled throng this week!  I have certainly made some new friends and acquaintances. Some of whom have already messaged me to say how they have pout what they learned into practice and the positive outcome! Over the two days in the classroom, we laughed, we learned and we certainly practised our skills. 

The course is now split into two narratives, on day one we follow the story of Lynda and her court mandated drug programme.  On day two we follow the story of young Augustus, (played by the exemplary Wilf Chell and his mum), Thomasina, played by the ever dependable and frankly wonderful Michelle Chell. 

I’ve introduced new characters to the narrative too, one of whom is Lead Worker; Connie Dubois – the massive rescuer who feels that if she isn’t doing EVETTHING for her families then she’s failing as a worker.  Di Malkin plays her with aplomb! 

Plus, we get the mistress of Roadblocking, the one and only Monica who can’t seem to understand the importance of listening, especially when it’s the voice of the child.  Heather Broadhurst knocks it out of the park, as always with her rendition of the awful Monica. 

I’ve loved creating the two strands and its very rewarding how people understand how the training films reinforce learning and practice. 

Feedback has been uniformly excellent, with 100% positive comments: 

“Delivered with humour, a great deal of knowledge and at a great pace. Steven is very knowledgeable and experienced in Motivational Interviewing and presents and shows his knowledge well, with the most excellent of stories!  😊 It was a pleasure to attend his training.  Thanks.”  

“Very interactive and engaging, I really enjoyed this training.  I liked how it was all based on real life stories and examples from Steven’s practice.  I will definitely use this training in my current role.” 

“The training as informative, inspiring, motivational and in short excellent.  Steven’s training is full of knowledge and very interactive.  It is helpful to my practice and as I enjoyed every second of the training it will inform my day-to-day practice going forward.  I will look for more training from Steven.  I wish all training could be this good.” 

“Due to my having dyslexia it was really beneficial having everything on colour paper and Steven made sure that the presentation was tinted blue. The fact that he didn’t make a big thing out of this and just had everything ready was excellent. The two days flew by and it was very interactive and beneficial to my practice.” 

“This training was really informative, interactive and provided space to get to know my colleagues from different teams.  Steven is a great trainer and very enthusiastic.  He gives everyone time and instils and encourages a desire to learn in a safe and inclusive environment.” 

“Really good informative, relaxed and interactive training.  Very well planned and delivered by Steven and I can see how this will benefit my practice going forward.” 

“A great informative session, very, very engaging and made relatable by using real life stories from across Staffordshire.  I have never known a trainer make such an effort before to include lived experience.  What a GREAT trainer!  😊 I enjoyed learning and I don’t always say that.  Thank you.”

“Brilliant training!  The resources, the examples, activities, the training films based on real life scenarios etc.  All were really engaging and helped me maintain my focus.  All of the activities helped reinforce the learning, for example I now get simple, double and amplified reflection and how I can start putting those reflection techniques into practice.  The videos created by Steve helped me reflect on my own practice and how I can improve.  I could also see the circumstances in which I’ll use my MI skills for positive outcomes!”

“Really engaging and enjoyable training.  Steven’s stories were both relatable and funny!  I found the training to be engaging and I would recommend Steve as a trainer to everyone.  He even took time to discuss in his own time a difficult conversation that I have to have with a client and also future conversations I’ll be having and what I could do or say to make sure my client is supported.” 

“A great balance of interactive training and verbal sharing of ideas.  I love the fact that you put so much effort into making the training inclusive (colour paper, interactive, hands on, not death by PowerPoint) and you supported my learning in a safe and empowering learning environment.” 

“I really enjoyed the two days and as much as I’m not a big fan of role play (which it wasn’t as we were talking about ourselves!) I think working with other participants to practice our skills was really helpful and engaging.  I especially liked the six-step change plan and I will be using that in my practice.”