As an Education Improvement Leader for South Eastern Region of Victoria, part of my role is to coordinate and support schools who implement the School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS) framework in their schools through targeted professional learning.

Educators particularly value establishing and maintaining positive relationships with the whole school community, and this is often through conversations both difficult and celebratory. I saw real value in training the SWPBS school leaders in Motivational Interviewing. Being able to recognise the change process and understanding what motivates individuals towards change will enable SWPBS school leaders to confidently support colleagues, students and families.

The quality of the presentation by Stavroula and Gen was excellent. The pace was appropriate, interaction was encouraged and supported, and the participants were able to practise the skills in a safe and non-threatening environment. The room was energised and positive. The workshop was so successful, participants advised me that they had gone back to their schools and put into practice the skills they learnt the next day. Moreover, the strategies worked!

I highly recommend anyone to explore motivational interviewing, particularly when delivered by Stav and Gen.

The Victoria Parade Surgery Centre organised Stavroula Zandes from Health & Wellbeing Training Consultants to come out and present two stress management workshops for our staff.  The sessions were professionally presented, and provided participants with very useful strategies about dealing with stress in our busy lives at work and at home.

The staff from both sessions came away with very positive feedback about the content.  I attended the second workshop and was very impressed with the content, and also Stav’s style of presentation which kept everyone listening for the whole session.

I would highly recommend Stavroula Zandes from Health & Wellbeing Training Consultants and her presentations to staff within the health industry setting.  Overall the training presentations were very beneficial for our staff, and Stavroula was a fantastic vibrant presenter.

As part of our annual “Remedy Together Day” we had Stavroula Zandes present to us on the topic of Motivational Interviewing.

Remedy Healthcare has a huge focus on professional development for our Allied Health team members. We work in both the community and aged care setting and treat clients with varying levels of independence. Our clinicians are often faced with clients who are unmotivated and in the past we would often tell them why they need to do what we are suggesting; obviously this has been unsuccessful and this topic on MI gave us a whole new perspective how to handle difficult clients.

Stavroula had a fantastic interactive session and provided handouts for us to keep. She developed a specific case scenario related to our target population and referred to this throughout her presentation which made it so easy to understand.

Following the presentation our team had significantly more confidence to address clients with varying levels of motivation and felt they could utilize the skills learnt when returning back to work.

Thank you Stavroula for providing a fantastic presentation, your wealth of knowledge was fantastic and you made the topic interesting and engaging, I would highly recommend you to other organizations looking to expand their skills in this area.

Stavroula Zandes presented a 3 hour workshop as well as 2 x 1 ½ hour presentations for our delegates at the recent Dental Hygienists Association of Australia’s Symposium in Adelaide, October 2017.

Verbal feedback from workshop attendees highlighted how Stav’s methods of motivational interviewing can be easily and immediately applied in the clinical setting. Stav was rated as “excellent” by 100% of attendees regarding the overall training during the workshop. Comments include “Flowed well with easy to understand concepts”, “Stav is very engaging and knowledgeable”, “Easily relatable points of discussion. Videos and role play helped/supported understanding”. All participants rated the training as either “extremely useful” or “very useful” with one commenting that it had “relevance to both professional and personal life”.

Delegates emerged from Stav’s two plenary sessions energised and motivated. One delegate has reported using Stav’s recommendations the week following the presentation. The patient praised and thanked for her the difference in the way she discussed the patient’s smoking habit, as compared to other health professionals the patient had previously seen.

One final comment is worth reporting: “Presenter was magnificent”!