Dates: September 17 and 18, 2025
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM (Eastern Time) Check your timezone
Presenter: Jon Sperry, Ph.D., LMHC, LCSW, NCC
Language: English with Spanish interpretation during live sessions
Registration Fee: $80 Public / $65 PDA members
Parenting is a journey filled with both joy and challenge, and sometimes making meaningful changes in our own parenting approaches can feel daunting. This interactive workshop is designed for parent educators and professionals who want to support parents in making positive, sustainable changes in their own approach to parenting using Motivational Interviewing (MI).
Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative, evidence-based communication style that helps individuals explore and resolve ambivalence about change. In the context of parent consultations, MI empowers parents to identify their own motivations for change, overcome barriers, and build confidence in their ability to adopt new parenting strategies. Rather than relying on advice-giving or directive instruction, MI uses empathetic listening and guided reflection to support parents as they navigate challenges such as establishing routines, managing discipline, or improving communication with their children.
Through demonstrations, real-life examples, and hands-on practice, participants will learn how to:
- Engage parents in open, nonjudgmental conversations about their parenting goals and challenges.
- Elicit and strengthen parents’ intrinsic motivation to change their own behaviors, rather than simply directing them to change.
- Address ambivalence and resistance in a supportive, collaborative manner
- Apply MI techniques such as OARS (Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflective listening, Summarizing) and the decisional balance tool to help parents weigh the pros and cons of behavior change.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
-
Define Motivational Interviewing (MI) and explain its relevance in supporting parents to change their own behaviors.
-
Describe the four core principles of MI—expressing empathy, developing discrepancy, rolling with resistance, and supporting self-efficacy—as they apply to parent consultations.
-
Summarize empirical support for MI in facilitating behavioral change among parents.
-
Demonstrate MI skills (OARS) to foster meaningful, change-oriented conversations with parents.
-
Use the decisional balance technique to help parents explore their own reasons for and against changing specific parenting behaviors.
Join us to discover how Motivational Interviewing can transform your parent consultations—empowering parents to make lasting changes that benefit their families and themselves.
Presenter Bio: Jon Sperry, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Lynn University and is also a staff therapist at the Counseling and Psychological Services at Florida Atlantic University. From 2017-2018 he served as President of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology (NASAP). Sperry holds a Diplomate in Adlerian Psychotherapy and is currently the Co-Editor of the Journal of Individual Psychology. He has co-authored eight psychotherapy textbooks and has lectured in 24 different countries.
Special Needs/Accommodations: If you have any special accommodation needs, please contact onlinelearning@positivediscipline.org in advance.
Continuing Education Credits
Up to 3 CE hours. The Positive Discipline Association has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider. ACEP No. 6723.
