I began learning and practicing Motivational Interviewing (MI) in 2006 as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) under the mentorship of Carlo DiClemente, PhD, ABPP. I had the opportunity to coordinate several translational research projects that involved training local health care providers in MI to support underserved and at-risk populations with health behavior changes ranging from smoking cessation to HIV treatment engagement. I completed a PhD in Human Services Psychology at UMBC in 2013 with concentrations in Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. My post-doctoral fellowship was at the Department of Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System where I continued my emphasis on training others in communicating with compassion as well as blending MI with other evidence-based treatments. I went on to become a Staff Psychologist in the VA system, where I was a Regional MI Trainer and Consultant with the VA's National Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Training Initiative, followed by full-time teaching and research in the Psychology Department at Rockford University. I am a licensed psychologist in the State and Florida where I now maintain a private consulting/training practice and work at the Center for Translational Behavioral Science at Florida State University. When I'm not conducting training or research activities, I enjoy spending time with my family, connecting with nature and the outdoors, and practicing yoga.
I offer tailored in-person and online, interactive training as well as video-teleconferencing and in-person consultation for MI implementation, program development, and coded feedback of session recordings using the MITI 4.2.1 coding system. I also deeply enjoy co-training collaborations with other MINT members and aspiring trainers across the U.S. and around the world. The best way to reach me is to email onna@brewerbristow.com. Thanks for visiting this page, and I hope to hear from you if I can help you or your organization meet your MI learning goals!
I am passionate about teaching and helping others grow in compassion for themselves and others. After over ten years of practicing MI and feeling so grateful to Bill Miller and Stephen Rollnick for developing MI and my own mentors and clients who helped deepen my practice, I was pleased to join MINT at the Training for New Trainers in Malahide, Ireland in 2017. There I met my now co-trainer and professional partner, Margo Bristow, and went on to later meet exceptional MI researchers at FSU where I get to help develop and study MI training and implementation approaches.
In service to MINT, I was a member of the MINT Nominating Committee from 2021-2025 and the Governance Implementation Working Group in 2024-2025.
