As someone who thinks a lot about using intentional communication to help others, I have often thought about the idea of feedback. When I served as a supervisor, I thought long and hard about how to talk with team members about their performance in a way that was helpful. As a Motivational Interviewing (MI) trainer, I have tried many ways of communicating to training participants about their use of MI skills. As an instructor/advisor of graduate students, I frequently experiment with different strategies when helping students identify areas of growth and strengths in their professional development. I have thought a lot about giving feedback, but it was not until recently that I had thought about how I receive feedback. After reading Thanks For the Feedback, I am convinced that intentionally receiving feedback is an important and often overlooked aspect in the feedback process. I think that in regards to the practice of cultural humility, the skill of receiving feedback is even more important than the skill of giving feedback.

​I recently attended a training where we talked a lot about micro-aggressions on college campuses (Dela Pena, Travers, Welch, 2017). It was during this training that I first learned of the term micro-affirmations. In the world of Motivational Interviewing (MI) we talk a lot about intentional affirmations as statements highlighting a person’s characteristics, values, and hard work. Unlike these “macro affirmations” offered in MI, micro affirmations are more nuanced and subtle and they aim to validate experiences of others within a power structure. Since attending this training and learning a bit more about micro affirmations and micro aggressions, I think that those of us practicing MI and other helping strategies would do well to consider using some of these ideas in our approaches. In this article I will discuss the idea of micro-aggressions. Then I will focus a bit on what micro-affirmations are and some ways to use them. Finally, I will discuss some ways that these ideas may be included in an MI training.

​Mindfulness has been trending in popular western culture recently. It is promoted as almost a panacea; mindfulness is said to help with everything from pain management to burnout prevention to psychotherapy and self-help. Indeed, the latest research indicates that mindfulness can play a part in helping folks with a variety of conditions such as obesity, anxiety, and even preschool learning outcomes – so clearly this mindfulness trend is not only hype (for more information on latest research see American Mindfulness Research Association). This article will first explore  manifestations of mindfulness in some of the "third wave" therapeutic approaches, and will conclude with a description of some ways that mindfulness is an important (yet not explicit) part of good Motivational Interviewing (MI) practice.

Acceptance 
The term acceptance is common across many therapeutic modalities. Acceptance is one of the 4 processes of the spirit of Motivational Interviewing (MI), it is one of the 6 core therapeutic processes of Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), and radical acceptance is a key component of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).