Pam Pietruszewski is a Senior Trainer Consultant at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. She provides education and consultation for mental health and substance use prevention and early intervention.
Since 2011 she has engaged thousands of learners in MI practice including social workers, nurses, primary care physicians, case managers, peer recovery specialists, family advocates, teachers and health educators.
In 2013, Pam completed advanced MI training with Bill Miller and Terri Moyers at the University of New Mexico and in 2017 attended Supervision, Quality Assurance and Training of Motivational Interviewing, again with Miller & Moyers. In 2020 she completed an 8-hour online course on MI in Health Care with Steve Rollnick and in 2022 became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).
Pam has a Master’s degree in Counseling and Psychological Services from St. Mary’s University in Minnesota.
I’m detail-oriented and practical with my training approach. It’s important that I get to know who my audience is, why they are there and what they want to take away. I want to see through their lens: What impacts their level of engagement? What makes this important to them? It matters to me whether they’re excited to be there. If not, I need to switch things up to make sure they feel involved and included and are getting what they need.
I get really jazzed to share information about MI, but it’s even more valuable to help people take that information and figure out how it fits with their goals or values. In that way, I view my role as someone who helps facilitate other people’s thinking. Collaboration, teaching and training combined is a lot of fun. It’s very gratifying when people walk away from a session thinking, “I can use this, and I’m ready.”
I love the national reach of my work. I get to collect experiences from so many diverse places. As a consultant, I get a birds-eye view of issues and also get to be on the ground with people, helping them succeed. I can see what’s helping or hindering a health center in Louisiana or hear about the challenges and the resourcefulness of a community-based clinic in Montana. I try to incubate all of this knowledge so I can share it across the many people I’m fortunate to meet in my work!
