Motivational Interviewing – Tools to Engage Clients and Evoke Change
Most of us came into this work because we saw something and wanted to do something about it. Crystal Rozelle-Bennett’s opening point is that this instinct, the one that made you a clinician, is also the one that quietly does the damage. You spot the problem before the client names it, you move in to solve it, and the client stops talking. By the time they say out loud that you are not listening, the alliance has already taken the hit and you are spending sessions rebuilding rather than working.
Her position is that how we motivate matters as much as whether we do, and that a clinician is entirely capable of being the reason a client becomes less motivated. So motivational interviewing here is not a technique bolted onto whatever else you practise. It is a way of being in the room, which she teaches through the acronym PACE: partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation. The word she keeps coming back to is pace itself, as in slow down and work at the client’s speed rather than your own.
She came to this from twenty years in child welfare, working with families under statutory pressure and clients who were in the room by court order. That is a useful place to have learned it, because it is where the traditional approach of confront, educate and enforce is most available and most tempting. The course is practical: the stages of change with worked examples, reading and responding to resistance, and specific ways to draw out a client’s own reasons for changing rather than supplying your own.
You’ll walk away with
- The fixer instinct named clearly, and a way to catch yourself moving in to solve something before the client has finished telling you what it is
- PACE as the underlying stance: partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation, and what each looks like when you are running late and want to get somewhere
- OARS as a working set of engagement skills rather than a list you learned once and stopped using
- Thomas Gordon’s roadblocks to communication, which is a useful and uncomfortable inventory of things most of us do without noticing
- The stages of change treated as non-linear, with practice at placing a client from what they actually said rather than from where you hoped they were
- Scaling questions that separate readiness, ability and confidence, because a client can be ready and still have no way to start
- Ambivalence normalised, both for the client and for you, so it stops reading as resistance and starts reading as an ordinary part of changing
- Signals that you have moved ahead of your client, and what to do in the moment rather than after the session
- Strategies for eliciting change talk, so the reasons for changing come from the client and are therefore theirs to act on
- Reflective listening used so the client hears their own words back, which is often the first time they have
Watch the course trailer
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. This course is included with your Tatra Training membership, along with every other course in the library.
Course Duration: [N] learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records. Your certificates are yours to keep.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Revisit Anytime: Come back to the course as often as you like while your membership is active, whenever you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Marginalised communities struggling with trauma, human trafficking, and systemic oppression need clinicians who understand both lived experience and evidence-based healing approaches. Crystal Rozelle-Bennett brings a unique perspective as both a professional trauma expert and self-proclaimed "Trauma Thryver" - someone who has transformed her own experiences of childhood trauma and familial human trafficking into powerful advocacy and clinical expertise.
As founder and CEO of THRYVE, LLC, and adjunct professor at Florida State University and Southwestern College, Rozelle-Bennett has spent over 20 years working with marginalised youth and families. Her deep commitment to anti-oppressive healing, cultural humility, and trauma-informed care stems from personal experience with systems that often retraumatise the communities they're meant to serve. She was the first in her family to attend college, transforming her lived experience into professional expertise that bridges clinical knowledge with authentic understanding of marginalised communities.
Rozelle-Bennett's expertise spans human trafficking, racial trauma, suicide prevention, child welfare, DEI initiatives, and culturally responsive therapy approaches. Her work addresses the intersection of individual trauma and systemic oppression, showing clinicians how historical trauma, racism, and marginalisation compound personal healing challenges. She specialises in training professionals to recognise when traditional therapeutic approaches may miss or inadvertently harm clients from marginalised backgrounds.
What sets her training apart is authentic integration of lived experience with clinical wisdom. Rozelle-Bennett doesn't just teach about trauma - she demonstrates how personal healing journeys inform professional practice. Her approach helps clinicians understand the difference between resilience myths that blame survivors and genuine trauma-informed care that addresses systemic barriers to healing.
For your practice, expect to gain specific skills in working with trafficking survivors, tools for addressing racial trauma, and frameworks for providing culturally responsive care to marginalised communities. Her methods particularly benefit clinicians working with clients who have experienced systemic oppression, complex trauma, or those who distrust traditional mental health systems.
Quick Win: Rozelle-Bennett's "cultural trauma inventory" helps clinicians quickly assess how clients' marginalised identities intersect with their presenting concerns - often revealing treatment barriers and strengths that traditional assessments miss.
Qualifications
- MSW, Social Work/Child Welfare, Florida State University, 2015
- BA, Psychology, Wells College, 2003
- Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW)
- 20+ years experience working with marginalised youth and families
- Specialised training in human trafficking, suicide prevention, motivational interviewing
Teaching & Roles
- Founder & CEO, THRYVE, LLC, Menifee, CA, 2014–present
- Adjunct Professor, Florida State University, 2022–present (Trauma Informed Social Work Practice)
- Adjunct Professor, Southwestern College, NM, 2022–present (MultiCultural Counseling)
- Executive Director, The Lantern Project, 2021–2022
- Executive Director, Seattle Against Slavery, 2021
Professional Experience
- Director of Human Services, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, 2021
- Associate Executive Director, Cornerstones of Care, Leavenworth, KS, 2020–2021
- Training Specialist, Cornerstones of Care, Kansas City, MO, 2018–2020
- Youth Director, Navy Region Southwest Fleet, Family & Child Programs, San Diego, CA, 2016–2018
- Health Science Specialist - Crisis Hotline Responder, VA Medical Center, Topeka, KS, 2018
Speaking & Training
- Keynote speaker nationwide on trauma, human trafficking, and DEI topics
- POWER Conference presenter (2021)
- Professional trainer with 20+ years experience
- Educational content creator and workshop facilitator
- Expert in lived experience/survivor advocacy
Ready to serve marginalised communities with cultural responsiveness and authentic understanding? Discover how Crystal Rozelle-Bennett's trauma-informed, anti-oppressive methods can transform your ability to create healing spaces for clients who have been failed by traditional systems.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 3
- Topics 0
- Duration 2.5 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English