I am a psychiatrist. I was full time faculty in the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa for ~ 30 years, and moved to emeritus status in 2018 in order to pursue my various professional interests (of which MI is only one) more fully and with less constraints. My work has mostly been with adults with serious mental illnesses, with a focus on schizophrenia. I am particularly interested in the use of Motivational Interviewing in this population as a foundation for recovery-oriented mental health care. My experience is that among front-line providers of mental health services, psychiatrists are often more resistant to recovery-oriented, or what I often refer to as "real person-centered care" than others, and I have found that training them in MI is a good way to enhance their recovery-orientation. It has also been my experience that adults learners learn best from peers, e.g., psychiatrists are more responsive to MI training when it is psychiatrist-led. I have other specific interests related to MI, including the the boundary between MI and Shared Decision Making and the potential role of MI in reducing clinician "burnout".
