MI Facilitator Training
You’ve been learning to guide change.
Now learn to guide the room.
Build the skills to lead purposeful Motivational Interviewing practice sessions without over-teaching, taking over, or feeling like you have to become someone else.
Across five interactive sessions, you’ll explore your facilitation style, practice specific skills, and receive feedback as you learn to help others develop their MI practice.
Quick Facts:
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5 live Zoom classes, 3 hours each
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15 total instructional hours
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Advanced level; prior MI training recommended, ideally Level 2 or equivalent.
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Weekly MI Practice
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Access to Facilitator Friday Community
Knowing MI is one thing. Helping others learn
it is another.
You’ve invested in your MI skills. Now you want to help colleagues practice, lead a learning group, or take a more active role in MI training. But stepping into facilitation brings a different set of questions:
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How do I open a session so people feel welcome and know what we’re doing?
How much should I explain before giving people a chance to practice?
What do I do when one person dominates or nobody speaks?
How do I give useful feedback without overwhelming someone?
How do I provide direction while still supporting learner/practitioner choice?
Can I do this in my own style, rather than copying the trainers I admire?
These questions don’t mean you have nothing to offer or aren't ready to step into the role. They point to a new set of skills to develop.
This course gives you a place to practice them.
You don’t have to become someone else to become a facilitator.
Maybe you bring warmth. Maybe humor. Maybe a calm presence, clear structure, or an ability to notice what others miss. Maybe you aren't sure what your strengths are just yet. Maybe you don't feel like you know MI well enough to lead. That's ok.
Your task isn’t to imitate someone else’s personality or to have all the answers. It’s to learn how to use your strengths intentionally while helping the group learn.
Throughout the course, you’ll explore your emerging facilitator identity, notice the pull to over-explain or fix, and practice leading with both clarity and collaboration.
The goal isn’t a perfect performance. It’s knowing what you’re trying to accomplish and having more options for how to get there.
A place to put
the pieces together.
Throughout the course, you will be guided through demonstrations, discussion, practical exercises, and reflective debriefs.
You’ll watch facilitation choices in action, explore the intention behind them, and try those choices yourself. Then you’ll receive focused feedback and consider what you want to do differently next time.
The course follows the same arc as the practice sessions you’re learning to lead: establish a purpose, open the room, evoke learning, set up practice, guide reflection, and close intentionally.
01
Observe the work.
See different facilitation styles in action. Beginning after the first class, the recommended shadowing and reflection prompts will help you notice specific choices and consider what fits your own approach.
02
Practice the pieces.
Rehearse openings, evocative discussions, clear instructions, transitions, feedback, and responses to challenging group dynamics.
03
Bring it together.
Integrate what you’ve learned in an extended final facilitation lab, with time for applied practice, focused feedback, and reflection.
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Build skills
for the moments that
actually happen in the room.
A thoughtful plan matters. So does knowing how to respond when the session doesn’t follow it. You'll practice how to:
Open with purpose.
Welcome participants, clarify the focus, surface learner goals, and establish expectations that support participation and practice. Learn how crucial it is to "set the table".
Evoke learning without over-teaching.
Draw on the group’s experience, offer concise instruction when it helps, and make room for participants to do their own thinking.
Set up meaningful practice.
Using one of our exercises or one you've designed yourself, choose a clear practice target, explain roles and instructions, and help learners enter an activity knowing what to do.
Manage the flow.
Read the room, make clear transitions, adjust pacing, and respond when energy or engagement changes.
Make feedback useful.
Guide reflective debriefs, include multiple voices, and offer specific feedback without giving learners more than they can use.
Respond without taking over.
Address dominant voices, side conversations, skepticism, and difficult moments while maintaining connection and the session’s purpose.
Facilitate in a real community of practitioners through Evoking Change Institute's Weekly Practice sessions
Upon passing a final practical exam, you'll have the opportunity to facilitate a real group practice session regularly through ECI's weekly practices. This is real-world experience honing your skills with MI practitioners ranging from brand-new to MINT members and beyond.
Partake in the Facilitator Fridays weekly meetup group
You'll be invited to join Facilitator Fridays, which is the teacher's lounge where you can share tips, skills, tools, and breakthroughs with one another.
Who this is for
This program is for helping professionals who already have a solid foundation in MI and want to support others in learning and practicing it. It is especially well suited for:
Practitioners who lead or want to lead MI practice groups at work.
Trainers, coaches, or supervisors responsible for MI skill development on their teams.
MINT members and advanced MI learners who want a deeper facilitation toolkit.
Helping professionals who want to host MI communities or practice spaces in their local context.
Participants should have a firm base in using MI in their daily work, having taken ECI's Level 2 or 3 training, equivalent courses, or substantial applied experience, including being a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), since this program builds on MI competence rather than teaching MI 101.
Not sure if you’re ready for the MI Facilitator Training? Contact us, and we'll find the right fit together.
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Thinking about
MINT down the road?
A future Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) application may be part of your longer-term goals. Or you may simply want to lead a useful practice session for your team.
This course focuses on developing the facilitation skills themselves: planning learning experiences, guiding practice, offering feedback, and finding your own style.
It is not a MINT application-prep course and does not guarantee acceptance into MINT. However, when you apply to MINT, you'll be expected to have the skills to facilitate practice sessions or work in training environments. You'll also be expected to run a training session during your TNT (Training New Trainers) event. This course will cover the skills you'll need to thrive in that environment.
Enroll Now
By the end of this training, participants leave with a more integrated set of skills to help plan, guide, and support others in sharpening their MI skills.
To enroll in the MI Facilitator Training course, click "Enroll Now". You'll be directed to a registration page with upcoming start dates. We offer this course once every 3 to 4 months, and we limit our class sizes. If you're unable to join us on our upcoming start date, we encourage you to reserve a spot for a future date, as spots may sell out.
Pay in Full
Save by bundling all three MI Practitioner course levels and MI Facilitator in our Advanced Program
$1,995.00
Included in the Program
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Full MI Facilitator course
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5 live Zoom classes
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15 live hours total
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Lifetime access to Weekly MI Practice & Facilitator Friday
Start Dates
Jan. 9th, 2027
More TBA
Schedule: 5 sessions over 5 weeks. A typical course schedule looks like:
Saturdays at:
9am PST
11am CST
12pm EST
Meet your trainers
Brendon Ross
Brendon is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and a facilitator of Motivational Interviewing (MI) learning and practice experiences. He’s spent the last 15 years in schools, and for over a decade, MI has been his primary way of navigating the frequent, brief, pivotal moments he shares with students, families, and staff.
As a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) with experience facilitating and training MI, he’s learned that the most impactful learning environments prioritize both skill and presence, honoring both preparation and what comes up naturally in the moment.
Hart Thorson
Hart is an educator, learning experience designer, and motivational interviewing practitioner who helps schools turn everyday conversations into catalysts for change. With nearly two decades of experience in adult education across various roles, he understands the kinds of conversations educators have not only with students but also with parents, guardians, families, and colleagues.
Hart is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), and as a facilitator, teacher, and practitioner, he focuses on a simple belief: people are the experts on their own lives. His goal is to bring structure, tools, and curiosity, not to prescribe answers but to prioritize partnership, genuine respect, and autonomy support, creating spaces where educators, leaders, and learners feel heard, not judged, and can discover that they already have many of the resources they need for change.