Editors' Note: This story ran in our January newsletter, published Jan. 6.

Our Center hosted two six-hour workshops on motivational interviewing in Spencer, Iowa, in late November.

Bill Baerentzen, Ph.D., taught the training sessions, geared toward practitioners. Nearly 50 people attended the workshops.

"Often, the choices we make are informed by conflicting thoughts and ideas. For instance, it is possible to want to eat healthy and also want cake," Dr. Baerentzen said. "Motivational interviewing is a form of counseling that helps people resolve such ambivalence and accept positive lifestyles."

The training is part of a two-year project to develop a self-sustaining motivational interviewing program in a northwest Iowa region of mental health and disability services providers. Our Center's experts are training staff at the beginner and advanced levels to understand and competently use the practice, and will provide training and support for the participants' direct supervisors to reinforce the application of the practice.