A deliberate, guided experience—designed around your team, your environment, and your objectives

The Somoetic Training Experience

Choosing Somoetic means entering a structured, intentional training experience—one that is designed with care from the first conversation through long after the seminar concludes.

We approach every engagement as a partnership. Our role is to understand your environment, your people, and the challenges your team faces, then design a training experience that fits those realities.

The process below outlines how we will work with you to ensure training is purposeful, relevant, and immediately applicable—while also supporting long-term development beyond the classroom.

This is not a single event. It is a guided experience, built to support how your team learns, practices, and applies interview skills in real-world conditions.

somoetic (14)
step 1

Step 1: Decide to Invest in Advanced Interview Training

The Somoetic Training Experience begins when you decide to elevate how your team conducts interviews—not with off-the-shelf instruction, but with a fully customized, science-based training program.

Each engagement is personally curated by Colton Seale, Tony Paixão, and Chris Wilson, PsyD, ensuring that the training is grounded in real-world investigative practice and psychological science.

Step 2: Client Strategy Session

Our team conducts a dedicated strategy session with your leadership and key stakeholders.
During this session, we focus on understanding your:

  • Organizational goals
  • Operational environment
  • Pain points and constraints
  • Existing strengths and capabilities
  • Unique investigative, regulatory, or cultural challenges

We also review and incorporate your existing SOPs, policies, and guidelines to ensure the training aligns with how your organization actually operates.

This step is intentionally collaborative—we take time to learn from you so the training reflects your reality, not a generic model.

Collaborative strategy session with client.
Seminar development session

Step 3: Custom Scenario & Curriculum Development

Using intelligence gathered from the Client Strategy Session, the Somoetic team designs the ideal seminar structure.

This includes:

  • Selecting and sequencing instruction from our library of evidence-based interviewing modules
  • Pairing each block of instruction with the appropriate psychological and behavioral science foundations
  • Developing custom scenarios unique to your organization, which are used throughout the training to reinforce learning and application
  • Embedding your organizations SOPs, language, and operational context directly into the training materials

The result is a seminar that feels purpose-built for you team—not adapted after the fact.

Step 4: Seminar Outline & Training Design Approval

You receive a detailed seminar outline for review. Training programs may span from 1 to 5 days, depending on your objectives, team size, and complexity of need.

At this stage, final refinements are made to ensure:

  • Content depth aligns with participant experience levels
  • Scenarios mirror real-world cases
  • Time allocation matches operational priorities
Session delivery to client
Asynchronous advanced modules to maximize use of in-person training

Step 5: Advanced Delivery Hybrid Training

Somoetic delivers training using a hybrid model to maximize in-person time.

Asynchronous pre-training modules are provided in advance and may include topics such as:

  • Legal considerations
  • Interview environment and venue planning
  • Secondary interviewer roles
  • Statement considerations
  • Report writing fundamentals

This approach ensures that in-person training time is reserved for higher-order skills, applied practice, scenario work, and strategic decision-making.

Step 6: In-Person Training Seminar

All seminars are co-facilitated by Colton Seale and one of Somoetic’s licensed psychologist instructors, combining practitioner credibility with psychological expertise.

The in-person experience emphasizes:

  • Applied skill development
  • Scenario-based practice using client-specific cases
  • Strategic thinking and adaptability

Intelligence development throughout the interview lifecycle

step 6
Continued engagement post-training seminar

Step 7: Post-Training Access & Ongoing Support

Training does not end when the seminar concludes.

All attendees retain direct access to the Somoetic leadership team for a full calendar year, which can be used for:

  • Case preparation and strategy sessions
  • Remedial topic review calls
  • Brief consulting or advisory discussions

Attendees gain access to attend Somoetic’s “Monthly Attendee Think-Tank” zoom calls. These calls are hosted by Colton, Tony, and Chris to discuss updates in research, to present case studies, and to field questions from attendees in a live, approachable setting.

This ongoing access reinforces learning, supports real-world application, and ensures long-term value from the training investment.

Long-Term Capability Development

The Ultimate Outcome

It’s not just improved interviews—it is a sustained shift in how professionals think about, prepare for, and conduct conversations as intelligence-collection opportunities

intelligence interview training certificate

Let's Talk.

Schedule a call to speak with Colton, Tony, and Chris to learn more.
Ready to Engage?

Services Designed for Those Looking to Build Real Intelligence Capabilities.

Scroll to Top

Core Curriculum Modules

  • Rigorous Planning Process
    • FIIG
  • Objective Setting
  • Impression Management
  • Conversation Management
  • Questioning Strategies
    • Funnels
  • Science-Based Rapport Skills
    • BASE
    • Interpersonal Behavior Wheels
    • Cylinder Model
  • Active Listening
  • Memory-Compatible Interviewing
  • Cognitive Interview
  • Strategic Use of Evidence
  • Credibility Assessment
  • Resistance Avoidance and Management
  • Metacognition and Evaluation Processes
  • Intelligence Assessment & Analysis
  • Cross-Cultural Communication
  • Investigative Strategies
  • Principles of Persuasion

Core Psychology Modules

Cognition, Decision-Making, and Bias

  • Dual Process Theory (automatic vs. controlled processing)
  • Heuristics and Cognitive Biases (e.g., confirmation, attribution, anchoring)
  • Cognitive Load Theory and its impact on performance (interviewer and interviewee)
  • Sensemaking and Mental Models
  • Metacognition (awareness and regulation of one’s own thinking and decision-making)
  • Cognitive Dissonance Theory
  • Growth vs. Fixed Mindset

Memory Science

  • Memory encoding, storage, and retrieval processes
  • Memory reconstruction and susceptibility to contamination
  • Effects of questioning style on memory accuracy
  • Trauma and memory (fragmentation, implicit memory, and recall variability)
  • Cognitive Interview principles and memory-compatible practices

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emotion, Threat, and Regulation

  • Emotional Regulation Theory
  • Threat appraisal processes
  • Neuroception and maps of safety vs. threat
  • Threats to status, identity, and autonomy vs. physical threat
  • Stress, arousal, and their effects on cognition and communication

Social & Interpersonal Dynamics

  • In-group vs. out-group dynamics
  • Affective trust vs. cognitive trust
  • Impression formation and social perception
  • Power, authority, and role dynamics in interviews
  • Dynamics of sexual assault
  • Dynamics of domestic violence

Resistance and Motivation

  • Resistance Theory
  • Underlying psychological drivers of defensive responses
  • Autonomy, control, and motivation
  • Approach vs. avoidance motivational systems

Self-Regulation & Evaluative Processes

  • Interviewer self-monitoring and bias control
  • Metacognitive evaluation of interview performance
  • Adaptive decision-making under uncertainty
  • Vicarious trauma
  • Resilience