Building Successful Relationships With Parents Through Motivational Interviewing

One of the most important roles of Family Service Workers and Home Visitors is to create effective working relationships with parents. We believe in meeting parents where they are. . .and creating a strong partnership with each parent in order to guide them to self-sufficiency. Home Visitors and Family Service Workers work closely with parents to identify their strengths and needs, set family goals and provide opportunities for parents to be fully engaged in the life of their child, including in their education.  Family participation is a powerful predictor of positive child outcomes and it directly impacts children’s school readiness.

Finding the right approach for effective work with parents starts with an ability to extend empathy… to understand where they are and where they want to go. We believe in engaging and building connections with families by initiating “rich” conversations. Create a safe environment for families to share their strengths and open up about areas of challenge. Take the time to work with parents to create solutions and offer support in a patient and helpful way. Discover what each family is all about and what is important to them – recognizing their strengths and needs.

It’s essential that Family Service Workers and Home Visitors have the needed skills in order to create successful relationships with parents. Motivational interviewing is one of those key skills.  Motivational interviewing is the process of helping people move through the stages of change. Motivational interviewing includes:

  • Learning how to collaborate and support change using specific skill-building techniques;
  • Improving how you show empathy through reflective listening.
  • Supporting a parent’s desire to change by learning how to establish discrepancy and rolling with resistance.

This highly interactive, practice-based training explores the principles and stages of motivational interviewing as well as motivators of change and transformation. Motivational interviewing is a great tool to have in your toolbox when establishing successful relationships with parents. Believing that a parent can change is powerful. However, supporting a parent’s belief that they can change themselves is empowering.

Are you looking for training on “Building Successful Relationships with Parents through Motivational Interviewing?” Give us a call at (704) 451-3255 or email us at kristinecortina@hsessentials.com.