Healthy Conversation Skills trainers specialize in providing tailored training for health professionals (and aspiring health professionals) who support individuals in making positive health and lifestyle behaviour changes such as improving dietary intake, physical activity, sleep, reducing alcohol intake, promoting mental and emotional health and wellbeing, and supporting smoking cessation. Some health professionals who have taken and benefited from Healthy Conversation Skills Training include: nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, doctors, and social workers, amongst others.

If you're unsure whether this training is right for you or your organization, please contact us.

Healthy Conversation Skills and the associated training sessions were developed by a multi-disciplinary public health research team at the University of Southampton in the UK in conjunction with staff from Southampton City Council, NHS Southampton City & Southampton Sure Start Children’s Centres. The training was originally implemented with staff working in Sure Start Children’s Centres in Southampton to help them better support the parents who visit their centres to make healthy lifestyle choices for themselves & their families. It has since been adapted to suit a wide range of health & social care settings.

While other training programs exist to support health and lifestyle behavior change, Healthy Conversation Skills stands apart by focusing on practical, actionable conversation techniques that can be applied by diverse providers across the workforce. The training was designed to strengthen and complement the skills you already have to be effective in supporting behaviour change.

It is evidenced-based training developed by health psychologists and experts in public health to provide practical conversation skills across the workforce so they can support behaviour change for service-users and colleagues.

Healthy Conversation Skills training delivers results. Evaluations show it increases staff confidence in having difficult or sensitive conversations about behaviour change. Findings show it has a positive impact on people’s attitudes and behaviours.

Healthy Conversations Skills Training consists of two half-day sessions, delivered at least one week a part. You must attend both sessions in order to receive your certificate of completion, and you must attend sessions 1 before you attend sessions 2. Therefore, if you are unable to attend session 1, we can reschedule you for the next available training sessions. If you attend session 1 and are unable to attend session 2, you will be rescheduled to attend session 2 with a different group on a different day.