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“Steven is a phenomenal trainer." Motivational Interviewing, Nov 2022, Staffordshire County Council



Greetings one and all,


This week, the last week of November (yes, it’s nearly Christmas!) saw my delivering my newly revamped children and young people-centric version of Motivational Interviewing to various staff members form Staffordshire County Council. I can always tell I’m training the staff from Staffordshire as they are prepared, ready to learn and engaged throughout. Learning has been embedded at Staffs and that’s a testament to all at the council, especially people like Miranda and Hazel. I absolutely loved the two days and they just flew past.


We had many a robust discussion and everyone got to practice their skills. Some learners made mention of how my version of Motivational Interviewing training is super interactive and very different to similar courses they’ve previously attended. I always ensure that learners learn the skills by DOING the skills. It’s utterly pointless just talking at people, instead as a teacher I want to engage with my learners and see them grow and bloom.


The new training films are going down a storm too. So, a huge thank you to all of my interviewees who shared their lived experience. Plus, my troupe of actors who took part, I’d be nothing without you all.


On with the 100% positive feedback comments:


“This training was very interesting. I loved the concepts. It has made me consider my practice. It was very interactive and although there was a lot to take on it was all useful. I will recommend it to my colleagues.”


Dawn


“Steven was an amazing trainer, his personality and character made the training interesting, meaningful and worthwhile. I will definitely use what I have learnt from him in my professional and personal life moving forward.”


Collette


“The course was great, really informative and helpful, I will be using the teaching everyday when meeting with my customers and young people. Steven was amazing as well, really helpful and knowledgeable, he really made thing easy to understand and usable.”


David


“The two day training was fantastic – Steve was motivating, informative and funny. Thoroughly enjoyed my time on the training. I feel confident in practicing and applying the skills I have learnt on this training in my role at SCAS to enable meaningful and challenging conversations with parents, young people and professionals who contact the service. Thank you Steve – you are a gem of a person and a pleasure to spend time with.”


Sam G



“Can I just say it was one of the best training sessions I have had in a long while and your delivery and method of teaching was just brilliant I will defo be booking on more training facilitated by yourself.”


Shahida


“Informative learning content. Definitely applicable to the roles of Family Practitioner and Family Practitioner Lead. The breakout room activities were a great welcome and provided good opportunity for open discussion.”


Riz


“Very much enjoyed this training. Steven maintained my focus throughout the 2 days. I feel that it has very much supported a restorative approach by helping families to identify their strengths & problem solve- doing with rather than to. I didn’t realise how much I use the word ‘but’ & will now make a conscious effort to use ‘and’ when paraphrasing & problem solving. It was good to have the opportunity to be able to discuss & practice what we were learning with colleagues.


Although I use a solution focused approach which includes scaling I now feel more confident doing this I would scale myself as a 7 out of 10 in confidence delivering motivational interviewing approach. I will start using this approach tomorrow & am looking forward to seeing how families respond. I would re-scale as an 8 once I have embedded the ‘language’ in my work. Thankyou Steven.”


Jayne


“Steven is clearly very passionate about the training he delivers and this is evident. I explained my learning need and he took this into consideration. It’s very interactive and keeps the audience on their toes.”


Sarah


“Steven’s training was brilliant and informative. Real examples were embedded in the course which helps to show where I could use this in my own practice. I have thoroughly enjoyed this training.”


Rebecca


“Brilliant training, fascinating, fun and everyone got a chance to use the skills we were learning about throughout the two days training. At no point was I bored and I actually felt really rather sad when day two came to an end as it was so enjoyable. Thank you so much.”


Zoe


“Steven is a phenomenal trainer- he is so informative, and the sessions are so interactive, which really helps my learning and never felt like a tick box activity. I thought I knew stuff regarding using tone and paraphrasing but this has blown everything out the water and made me realise I have work to do. And like steven says Practice - practice - practice.


Steven uses a mixture of collaborative learning, videos and written words which for me really helped in my learning. Steven provides a relaxed environment which allows you to engage more in the content being delivered. Steven not only provides you with content on what he is delivering but along the way shares real life stories which are helpful in imagining scenarios in real time. Only criticism I would make is on some of the videos can be hard to hear the words the actors are saying- would be good if they could be updated with some subtitles. Really looking forward to future training that Steven delivers.”


Sam


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