Objective: Because the practical application of motivational interviewing (MI) for health practitioners has been highlighted as a limitation to the approach, the purpose of this pilot study was to assess the impact of a one-day training workshop in MI applied through Co-Active life coaching (CALC) skills on health care practitioners’ perceived competence, autonomy and attitudes toward facilitating health-behavior changes.

Methods: A pre-test/post-test multiple baseline design was used with 10 health care practitioners. Data was collected beginning 25 days prior and for 4 weeks post-training. Participants received a 7.5 hour interactive workshop in January 2011. The Perceived Competence Scale, the Perceived Autonomous Motivation Scale and the Nutrition in Patient care Survey were adapted and administered to assess attitudes toward facilitating health-behavior changes in clinical care.

Results: Significant increases in perceived competence [Cohen’s effect size d=4.61], perceived autonomy [d=1.62], practitioner efficacy [d=2.22], and behavior change in routine care [d=1.69] were reported and remained clinically significant four weeks after the training.

Conclusion: Participation in this applied workshop was effective and should be explored further with a larger group.

Practice Implications: This training improved practitioners’ comfort to counsel behavior changes and may be a useful training model for health professionals.