Margarita Avitia-Das is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of New Mexico, she is a bicultural/bilingual woman with over 17 years of experience working with underserved and vulnerable populations from different backgrounds and lifestyles in the areas of mental health and healthcare. She specializes in the area of addiction treatment as a Behavioral Clinician. She is a proud member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. She believes as an MI facilitator and coach in empowering and uniting diverse communities through Motivational Interviewing, behavioral health training and education.

Jenny has worked in Child and Youth Care, Community Health Services, Adult and Seniors Mental Health and Substance programs and Palliative Care, mostly doing outreach to people in their homes. She has also been a formal educator within Island Health for community, acute, and long-term care programs.

Jenny began her journey with Motivational Interviewing through her work in the Adult Mental Health and Substance Use program over 20 years ago, through 4 days of structured learning about MI. It was an amazing experience that aligned with all her personal and professional values and ethics as it was person-centered, strength-based, and deeply respectful of the client’s lived experience and knowledge. It has been her mission ever since to embody MI in her practice and to share MI with any helpers who are looking for inspiration and better ways to help others.

Jenny is an uninvited settler, grateful to live work and play on the unceded territories of the L’Kwungen- speaking Sencoten peoples of the Esquimalt, Songhees and W’Saanich Nations whose relationship with  the land endures. She believes that land acknowledgements are a very small step on the way to  reconciliation and only the beginning of the work.

A member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), Teresa delivers customized MI training across diverse health disciplines and settings. Her expertise extends to patient-centered care, culturally responsive care, stress management, and identity development, all aimed at fostering meaningful change.

Through her work as a consultant, speaker, and educator, Teresa is dedicated to empowering both health professionals and patients to achieve their goals and fulfill their potential. She shares her insights through teaching, speaking, and publishing, with a mission to inspire and educate others on leveraging MI and psychology to enhance health and well-being.

Publications:

Creating a Culture of Wellness: A Call to Action for Higher Education, Igniting Change in Academic Institutions

Get to know Amy via Motivational Interviewing Podcast – Lions, Tigers, Bears, MI

My home base is in Western PA and NY, US, and I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional and ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, including the Seneca Nation, and the Erie people, who have stewarded this land for generations despite facing colonization and displacement. I honor their past, present, and future.

Featured in:

Motivational Interviewing Practice and Feedback Sessions

Her clinical doctorate in Occupational Therapy involved the creation and evaluation of a course to promote client-centered care using motivational interviewing. Her clinical experience includes care coordination and direct occupational therapy for adults in a variety of clinical setting. She is a trainer and teacher for the Self-Management Resource Center’s evidence- based Chronic Disease Self-Management, Diabetes Self-Management, and Chronic Pain Self-Management Programs and has authored multiple chapters in the books that support these courses. She has publications and professional presentations related to multiple research and curriculum projects to promote and support self-management for people with multiple chronic health conditions, evaluate motivational interviewing training, promote dignity of people with intellectual and developmental disabilitiesand extend occupational therapy services to the primary care setting. Dr. Gecht-Silver retired as an assistant professor and the associate director of medical student education in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). She is a clinical assistant professor in the UIC Department of Occupational Therapy and provides guest lectures. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Occupational Therapy at DePaul University.

Chicago, Illinois, US. I respectfully acknowledge that the land on which I live, and work is the traditional ancestral unceded shared territory of indigenous tribes such as the Council of the Three Fires comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi as well as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo and Illinois Nations.

Lori (she/her) respectfully acknowledges the land on which she lives, works and plays is the traditional ancestral unceded shared territory of the Sumas First Nation and Matsqui First Nation. These two First Nations are part of the Stό:lō Nation. The Stό:lō people have lived in the Fraser Valley for 10,000 years. As well as the Fraser Valley Metis.

Virginia (she/her) respectfully acknowledges that the land on which she lives and works is the ancestral traditional unceded territory of the Syilx/Okanagan Nation. The Syilx people have lived on this land for thousands of years.