Today I conducted a 1/2 day training for the Dietetic Interns in Boston. Dietitians are really my favorites to train, since I’m one of them. I really do “get” who they are and what their goals are for their professional lives.
The interns now are having more exposure to MI techniques and ideas than when I began doing MI trainings for them four years ago. Their questions are much more sophisticated and interesting, that it’s very impressive to me. I find they are often asking me for advice, when they really have all the answers they need.
This is one of the basic ideas of MI when we work with our patients. We assume that they have all the answers they need and we will find them together. As I work with these more sophisticated students, I’m noticing that they too have all the answers they need. I can ask them to try to answer their own questions, perhaps with their fellow students’ help. Their ideas are often more creative than I could ever be, since they are brainstorming about their own work and their own world.
A very wise friend of mine says that teaching is no fun unless he’s learning something. How true and thanks, Glen!
