What you'll learn

Describe the foundation, core concepts, and clinically practical aspects of Motivational Interviewing and Mindfulness

Understand the Motivational Interviewing-Mindfulness synergistic approach to behavior change

Consider the areas of divergence and convergence, and opportunities for integration of both approaches

Utilize practical strategies for practitioners to integrate Motivational Interviewing and Mindfulness in the service of maximizing patient outcomes

Meet the speaker

Melanie A. Gold, DO, DMQ, DABMA

Pediatrician and Adolescent Medicine Sub-specialist

Dr. Melanie A. Gold is an osteopathic physician, a pediatrician, and a board-certified adolescent medicine sub-specialist. She completed a 3-year doctorate in Medical Qi Gong in 2017 and has studied Ayurvedic Medicine and Transcendental Meditation. Dr. Gold is currently a Special Lecturer and former Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Child and Adolescent Health, Section of Adolescent Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center as well as a current Special Lecturer and former Professor in the Department of Population & Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health. She was the Medical Director of New York Presbyterian or NYP’s seven School Based Health Centers (SBHCs) from 2014 to 2022. She is a Diplomat of the American Board of Medical Acupuncture since 2014 and served as a board member of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture and on their membership committee from 2015-2017. Dr. Gold served as an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Section on Integrative Medicine for the American Academy of Pediatrics from 2015 to 2018. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network Trainers (MINT). Dr. Gold is the recipient of the 2024 Pioneer in Integrative Medicine Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Integrative Medicine. Over the past three decades, Dr. Gold has incorporated numerous integrative medicine modalities into her own clinical practice including Motivational Interviewing, osteopathic manipulation, medical hypnosis, Reiki, medical acupuncture, acupressure, Qigong, mindfulness, yoga, aromatherapy, aroma-acupoint therapy, and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping. Dr. Gold expanded pediatric integrative medicine at NYC School Based Health Centers (SBHC) by training their staff to offer many of these modalities. Dr. Gold was a co-investigator on a NIH-funded study whose aim was to develop and test, in a randomized controlled trial, the efficacy of a mind-body integrative health sleep intervention to improve sleep quality among adolescent SBHC patients. Most recently, Dr. Gold has turned her focus to teaching and evaluating the training of health care professionals in the use of integrative therapies for their own self care and to enhance their credibility and effectiveness in teaching patients and patients’ families these same techniques for symptom management.

Antoine Douaihy, MD

Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine

Dr. Antoine Douaihy is an outstanding clinical leader, teacher, and researcher with broad expertise in addiction medicine and dual diagnosis, as well as substance use and co-morbid HIV. He is senior academic director of UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH)’s Addiction Medicine Services, and medical director of Tobacco Treatment Service of UPMC. He has published A Family Guide to Coping with Substance Use Disorders, Managing Your Substance Use Disorder, and more than 30 recovery workbooks, which are used across UPMC and in clinics worldwide. For UPMC, he co-led the development and dissemination of medical marijuana certification guidelines, and at the University of Pittsburgh he served as a member of the Opioid Task Force. Regionally, he has made major contributions as vice chair of the Pittsburgh HIV Commission and a member of the Medical Marijuana Physician Workgroup and the Maternal Mortality Review Committee for the PA Department of Health. In 2023, Dr. Douaihy was recognized as a UPMC Grand Champion, honoring his work advocating for patients with substance abuse and those with HIV. Dr. Douaihy is known as a nationally and internationally recognized expert in motivational interviewing—a therapeutic technique that involves a collaborative conversation style for strengthening motivation and commitment to change, which is widely believed to have transformed the way clinicians and researchers understand behavior change. He has authored or edited three books on the subject, as well as numerous peer-reviewed papers in influential journals, and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally. He serves as a trainer with the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), an international organization of trainers in motivational interviewing. At UPMC, he has contributed substantially to the expansion of motivational interviewing throughout the system, where it is recognized as the gold-standard approach to working with patients and families.