Training information

MIO Clinician Training Overview

 

Step 1:

Classroom training

  • 16 hours of classroom training (virtual or in-person)

  • Includes an overview of attachment theory, mentalization, and the neuroscience of addiction, adversity, and attachment

  • Provides foundational skills in the core elements of MIO

  • Includes a review of real case material and opportunity to practice skills for the assessment and promotion of mentalization

 

Step 2:

Consultation

  • Approximately 6 months of weekly virtual consultation meetings with an MIO trainer

  • Consultation meetings are used to provide feedback on the use of MIO core elements and to ensure fidelity/adherence to the model

  • Consultation groups are comprised of approximately 4 clinicians learning to deliver MIO

  • To be eligible for rostering, each clinician is required to:

    • Attend a minimum of 70% of consultation calls

    • Begin providing MIO to two caregivers who have been identified as ‘training cases’

    • See at least one training case for a minimum of 8 sessions

    • Obtain client consent for audio recording, and record all MIO training case sessions

    • Select and play 6 de-identified audio clips in consultation meetings for feedback

Want to request MIO training?

Sustainability: Train-the-Trainer

Multiple randomized controlled trials have demonstrated MIO’s efficacy at improving parental reflective functioning, caregiving sensitivity, substance use, depression, and child behavior, Given its efficacy, it is important for MIO to be disseminated— sustainably, and with fidelity— in order to maximize the number of families that can benefit.

Part of sustainability is ensuring that evidence-based practices can thrive and grow within organizations. It can thus be helpful to identify champions who are interested in training new practitioners who are hired into their organizations. It is also critical to obtain buy-in all the way from clinicians to leadership! 

The MIO Train-the-Trainer program was designed in partnership with faculty from the Yale Child Study Center, Montefiore Medical Center, Baystate Health, Tufts Medical Center, and FIRST Steps Together to prepare MIO clinicians who have demonstrated fidelity and adherence to the MIO model to train substance use counselors, mental health clinicians, and other psychotherapists to provide MIO.

MIO clinicians who complete the Train-the-Trainer program will receive a certificate of completion if all requirements of the course are satisfied. A handbook is provided and includes key points, notes, concepts, and homework assignments that accompany the live education and serves as an enduring reference.