Advanced MI Training focusing on Engaging Teens & Young Adults

All sessions run from 9am to 12pm with a brief break at 1030. Each session is eligible for 3 CEUs.

Advanced MI Training focusing on Engaging Teens & Young Adults

Motivational Interviewing is a powerful tool in working with Teens & Young Adults. Unfairly, adolescents have often been stereotyped as being difficult to engage or as “resistant”. It is often the approach that results in defensiveness and resistance. Young people love approaches that emphasize autonomy and equality, and MI is one approach that is very successful in engaging young people. In this training you will learn how practitioners are using MI in the work with teens & young adults in the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” Nonprofit Program specifically with substance abuse and mental health and what elements of MI are particularly helpful in motivating and engaging young people.

In this training you will:

• Learn to apply MI using the “Natural Highs- Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” Program
• Understand what was learned from engaging young people in this program
• Learn to utilize specific Elements of MI that help engage young people
• Explore how to motivate young people as leaders

Presenter: Avani G. Dilger, MEd, MA, LPC, BC-DMT, CAC III, ADS

Avani is a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Certified Addiction Counselor, a Somatic Psychotherapist, an Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist, and a Motivational Interviewing Trainer (MINT), who specializes in substance abuse prevention and treatment with adults, teens and their families. She is the founder and director of the “Natural Highs – Healthy Alternatives to Drugs & Alcohol” nonprofit program, an innovative, grassroots substance abuse prevention and intervention program that teaches teens to become leaders around healthier lifestyles and positive peer culture. In addition to teaching the Natural Highs program at several high schools in Boulder and at Naropa University, Avani works as a psychotherapist with teens, families and adults with issues around substance abuse, addiction and trauma using approaches such as Somatic Psychotherapy, Brainspotting and Systemic Constellationwork. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and trains Motivational Interviewing for criminal justice, mental health, health care, and substance abuse professionals.