Gateway Foundation Helps Airline Personnel Get Off to a Flying Start in Motivational Interviewing
Professional training on how to encourage positive changes in colleagues
How do you help a colleague or employee who wants to make a positive change such as to stop smoking, eat healthier or adjust to a shift in job responsibility, yet is ambivalent about making that change? Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a style of counseling and conversation that is used to empathize with a person and enhance their desire to make a positive change.
A team of experts from Gateway Foundation Alcohol & Drug Treatment, who are trained in MI, recently gave an in-depth professional training session to employees of several major airlines. The attendees included not only airline employees, but EAP coordinators and union representatives as well. Airline management sought out Gateway's MI experts to train key personnel in how to help colleagues who confided in them regarding challenges they were having at work with others, or in their personal lives regarding financial matters or family problems, or issues such as substance abuse that affect all aspects of life.
The Gateway team brought their years of experience and training using MI with individuals who are striving for sobriety from substance abuse or treatment for mental health disorders, and applied it to the corporate arena. The Gateway MI team is increasingly in demand by industries, corporations and organizations to help personnel know how to encourage positive change in colleagues. Gateway also works closely with those in the judicial system, hospitals and manufacturing to provide similar types of professional trainings.
The Gateway training team included Julie Trytek Vague, MA, LPC, CADC; Nicolas Turner, LSW, CADC; and Pamela Gomez Scott, LCPC, CADC. Each Gateway trainer is a member of the international Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).
How Can Motivational Interviewing Help Your Organization?
MI is an evidence-based technique and process that is non-confrontational and non-judgmental, so the person who is considering making a change doesn't feel defensive or criticized.
Those who are trained in MI can help employees who are considering a shift in behavior or thinking to find his or her inner motivation for making the change for the better.
By encouraging a person's own desire to better themselves, there is a greater likelihood that the person will make the shift in the first place, and then maintain that new way of behaving.
This technique can be particularly relevant in the business world because a person who is unsure of how to make a change may be more likely to divulge this to a trusted colleague, peer, EAP coordinator or union representative, rather than go to Human Resources or management. When key individuals are trained in MI, they learn how to ask the right questions in the right sequence, and listen attentively, to encourage employees in a way that promotes trust and collaboration throughout your organization.
Gateway has the ability to tailor presentations to meet the unique needs of your audience. Our Outreach team members can work with you to select the best program or create a new educational training program to satisfy your needs.
Please contact us for more information or to schedule training for professionals in your area.
