Online MI and MITI coding trainings

Hello all:
Thanks to those of you who have responded and accepted my blogs invites!  I cannot believe it took me so long to figure those out.

Above is our website and we have 2 trainings coming up beginning next week, 2/13/12.  We may push back the start dates as I was soooo late getting the info out.

Online Intro to MI
2/13/12 until 3/25/12
$300.00

Online MITI 3.1 Coding Training
2/13/12 until 3/25/12
$300.00

If you know of anyone interested please pass the info along.  Mucho appreciated!

Jacque

Back on the radar screen

Greetings to everyone:

Though I have had this blog up a long while, I could not figure out why people didn't post back.  No wonder!  I neglected to send out into to folks that might want to respond.  I had to play around with this in order to figure it so please feel free to not respond or delete the invitation if you would like.  I have decline invitations as times myself.

I am teaching full time in the Psychology Department of Dominican University in River Forest, IL on for this Spring 2012 semester.  I will be done by mid-May 2012 and am allowing myself to enjoy the luxury of full time salary, benefits and the fantastic students and my faculty colleagues.  MI is not known within my department (perhaps a wee bit) and the department has fantastic research rooms, technology and every student takes 2 research courses for the undergraduate major.  There are computers everywhere with SPSS on them, and they all have to do some sort of research project during both courses.

I have around 500 cases of raw secondary data from all the coding and training I have done, with Baselines and end of training/course sessions as well that I finally will be able to load in. There are 4 Research Assistants there (and this is undergraduate!) with lots of free time.  I am blessed!

Had my left hip replacement on 12/13/12 and am moving around like a champ, though I am still on my cane.  Although I had planned to get lots of prep work done for my 4 courses I am teaching, I am exactly one day ahead of them.  I have taught 2 of them before (Intro and Abnormal) yet the other 2 courses (Child and Adolescent Psychology) are new ones. 

I am still doing a great deal of coding and online courses in MI and MITI Coding, yet the face to face training has dried up.  Everyone's has so that is no big surprise.
Regards to all!  Jacque

Back in the saddle again!

Hello world.  Just trying to catch up after a medical problem that put me in the hospital for over a week.  I am grateful to be alive and healthy.

I have been doing a great deal of coding for several research projects, as well as feedback/coaching for practitioners in healthcare, probation and mental health.  I begin teaching in the Marriage/Family Therapy program at Northwestern University, and the Family Institute has been so gracious to me.  Many thanks to Doug Breunlin and Bill Russell for continuing to be my cheerleaders.  I also begin teaching a similar course in the Community Counseling masters program at Argosy University in Schaumburg, IL and a big shout out to Dale S., my chairperson there.  And Dan Beach, Chair of the Psychology Department at Dominican University, you are the bomb, dude.  I truly am grateful for all of your support during this very trying last 18 months of my life.  I know that I am not only in writing (typing) that you all have continued to see something in me that has provided the optimism much needed, as well as the part time work.

Teaching these courses allows me to continue my own research in teaching Motivational Interviewing, as every student provides a baseline session of MI, receives feedback/coaching and then provides another session at the end of the course.  This has allowed me to see what differences, if any, we can see with or without Feedback/Coaching vs. just numeric feedback.  It is a tremendous amount of work on the part of the students, and I know what courage it takes to let someone hear and code one's own clinical work.  Bravery of this type is in short supply among practitioners and they are to be commended.

I love my students.

Jacque

Guided Imagery Audio to relax to by Jacque Elder and Scott Hughes

Here is a lovely relaxation audio that Scott Hughes and I created so please help yourself and feel free to share with anyone.  Here is the link and I believe you can download it for your own use.  Scott was feeling a wee bit tired so I said "Let's go do some meditation for you to help you rest."

This is the result, and Scott did the beautiful music.  My dog, Laura, is snoring in the background yet I don' t know that you can hear her little doggie sleeping sounds.

A College Education for Free? I love it!

I was reading The Economist Magazine when an article titled "How to make college cheaper" caught my eye, of course.  Having just read that tuition in the UK just skyrocketed and yet Germany decided to not make students pay any tuition in some parts of the country, this article was something I knew I had to read.

The University of the People is a free online university and the link is noted above.  It looks great.  I have applied to be volunteer faculty yet they already have 2,000 volunteers and only 1,000 students.  It is a global university, using the internet to offer free (minus a small admissions fee and some $ for teachers grading exams, etc) yet all in all, you can get a Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics or General Studies.

I hope they pick me.  I love people who do stuff like this.

Jacque

"Can't Get a Break"

This is a standard patient roleplaying the struggles of "trying to do the right thing" with a felony conviction blocking his way of becoming employed.

I hope you enjoy it.  The standard patient ( a good buddy of mine, paid and signed release) did a wonderful job, I thought.  He made the session so easy....

Jacque

Reading "Being Wrong" book

Last week, I finally finished the book Being Wrong,  which I highly recommend.  The book focuses on the "good" vs "not so good" things about how we make mistakes (assumptions) and how transparency about talking about our mistakes actually has the opposite effect that most people think.

For instance, the author has a chapter on all the lives that are lost in hospitals, due the medical error and the "thin blue(green) line" that is evoked when any practitioner makes a mistake because of the fear of legal liability.  She states that doctors and hospitals that acknowledge their mistake, and especially apologize to the patient and their family are sued 80% less than those who don't!  What a novel idea!  There is a beauty in transparency, as it speaks to our core values of honesty and integrity.  It is amazing what a simple apology can do in terms of impact upon the person to whom the harm has been done.

She also writes about using the language of uncertainty, which in MI is "asking permission" or using what a student of mine called "wiggle room".  "What, if any, ideas do you have about making this change if you decided to?"  "You will know if you are ready, and that is if you decide to do it at all."  "You are making a decision to not make a decision, and you know yourself best."  I have found that adding the "if any" is powerful.  For instance, "What are the not so good things about smoking cigarettes, if any?"  "What things have you done in the past to change this behavior, if any?"  That removal of certainty (expertness) opens up for collaboration and autonomy.  And we just cannot assume that they have done this things, or experience "not so good" things.

This is especially true in "Looking Backwards".  I cannot assume that folks have a positive experience that they can resource, and as a result, using the "if any" gives me my wiggle room.  As an Ericksonian hpnotherapist, Erickson was know for his strategic use of language, making sure that we start with the hypothesis that we do not have a crystal ball and cannot make assumptions about the patient's inner world or life experiences.  This is especially true with working with poor people.  They live in neighborhoods where it is not safe to go out and take a walk so pressing them to do so can be offensive.  They don't have money for fresh foods, and there has been a great deal of media attention on "food deserts", which are always located in disadvantaged neighborhoods.  I don't think they have a Whole Foods or Traders Joe's on the West Side or the Englewood neighborhoods of Chicago.  I haven't seen one so if someone knows of one, let me know.  And Oak Park does not count as the west side of Chicago.

Great book, easy to read and I learned a great deal about my willingness to "f**k up" as the author so succinctly puts it.  She wants it to be OK to do that, rather than hiding it and creating the constant "imposter anxiety" we all may experience either all the time or just some times.

Many thanks.  Jacque