Motivational Interviewing for Addiction

This course is for professionals who work with people affected by substance use, including psychologists, therapists, counselors, social workers, addiction specialists, doctors, nurses, and peer workers. Whether you’re a generalist or a specialist, you’ll learn a practical, evidence-based way of engaging clients around change.

Motivational Interviewing complements the approaches you already use. It’s a way of being with people that strengthens your existing work rather than replacing it. You’ll see how Motivational Interviewing can make your work more effective, especially in conversations where clients feel uncertain, ambivalent, or discouraged about change.

Some familiarity helps, but it’s not essential. This course builds on the foundational ideas of Motivational Interviewing and applies them specifically to addiction work, where motivation can shift from session to session.

If you’ve completed our Motivational Interviewing - Foundational course, you’ll recognize the core processes of engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. Here, you’ll see how those same processes fit within the stages of change, helping you meet clients where they are in their readiness for recovery.

Through filmed demonstrations and practical guidance, you’ll learn how to guide conversations about change with skill and confidence.

This self-paced, 10-hour course combines expert teaching, filmed demonstrations, and interactive learning to help you apply Motivational Interviewing in real conversations about substance use. You’ll see how MI looks and sounds in practice, then reinforce your learning with animations, quizzes, and downloadable tools.

It also includes:

• Bonus content lets you explore key topics in more depth.

• A downloadable library of readings and exercises,

• 12 months of access to revisit the material and keep building your skills at your own pace.
  

Addiction work can be complex. Clients may feel uncertain, stuck, or not ready to change. Motivational Interviewing gives you a way to stay engaged in those moments, moving away from confrontation or advice-giving toward genuine collaboration.

Motivational Interviewing offers a different way of understanding relapse. Instead of seeing it as failure or a return to zero, this course helps you view it as part of the ongoing process of change. You’ll learn how to talk about relapse without judgment or blame, keep clients engaged, and support them in finding meaning and direction after setbacks.

You’ll see how Motivational Interviewing brings together compassion and structure, giving people space to feel understood while discovering what matters most to them and how they want to move forward.

Yes. Motivational Interviewing fits easily alongside other evidence-based approaches, such as CBT, contingency management, medication-assisted treatment, and relapse prevention.

The course shows how MI enhances the treatments you already use by strengthening engagement and motivation. It helps you work more effectively with clients who may also experience anxiety, depression, or other difficulties that overlap with substance use, creating a more integrated and person-centred approach to care.

This course offers a downloadable Certificate of Completion you can use to show your professional development boards. CE/CME credits are also available for completing this course - please check the learner notification to view the relevant accrediting bodies.