I’m excited after having presented an oral paper and 2 posters at the Society of Behavioral Medicine meeting in San Francisco.  These papers represent what I’ve been working on most recently, included some on Alcohol-exposed pregnancy risk reduction interventions, Training doctors to do Motivational Interviewing for smoking, Novel Internet interventions based on successful face to face psychological interventions, and Text messaging to improve HIV medication adherence.  It was great to hang with my technology and MI colleagues and a former RA who’s now thriving running suicide prevention programs for the state of California.  We had many good meals and treats while there, and were blessed with lovely, sunny weather.

Ingersoll, K.S., Ceperich, S.D., Hettema, J., Farrell-Carnahan, L., & Penberthy, J.K. (2013, March 20-23). An RCT of 3 Preconception Motivational Interviewing Interventions to Reduce Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancy Risk. Citation Abstract Winner.  Paper presented at the 34^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.

Strayer, S., Ingersoll, K.S., Pelletier, S., & Conaway, M. (2013, March 20-23). Motivational Interviewing in Primary Care: Current Practices in Smoking Cessation Counseling.  Poster presented at the 34^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.

Ingersoll, K.S., Dillingham, R., Reynolds, G., Hettema, J., Freeman, J., Hosseinbor, A., & Winstead-Derlega, C. (2013, March 20-23). Process  Analysis of a Bidirectional Personalized Text Messaging Adherence Intervention for Rural HIV+ Drug Users.   Paper presented at the 34^th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.

Our years of work providing CHOICES training during CDC’s dissemination efforts culminated in a Training of Trainers event hosted at Denver Public Health.  The training was an innovative model in which we trained 17 Trainers experienced with CHOICES to deliver further CHOICES training themselves during the first 2 days, then observed and coached the new trainers cadre as they delivery a CHOICES clinical training to 30 counselors.  This kind of hands-on experience is unbeatable, and for those of us who’ve been there from the beginning, this level of dissemination is very satisfying.  CDC will soon add all of the CHOICES trainers to their NCBDDD Choices dissemination website.

My friends and colleagues at the Center for HIV Educational Studies and Training (CHEST) in NYC hosted me for a 4 day training in Leading Groups and Best Practices for MI Groups.  The trainees were 5 amazing trans women who will be serving as Peer Health Navigators to help stigmatized women overcome oppression and bias while coping with stressors.  The intervention features 2 individual MI sessions as a run-in to a series of 4 group sessions, with a final MI individual session to wrap things up.  The training was a new model that builds on what Chris Wagner and I have been doing and included more hands-on practice with group leadership skills, followed by practice of MI-specific group skills.  It went exceptionally well due to the trainees’ generous participation, and to their excellent preparation from their local trainers.   I learned so much and am thrilled that they found it useful.  The intervention has a great structure but also has room to personalize it to the needs of the women.  The Peer Health Navigators have ample professional and life experiences that will suit them well as they guide other women.   I was very lucky to be a part of this “family” for nearly a week, and I plan to stay involved with this innovative and worthwhile project.