About Bobbi-Jo
Bobbi Jo Marlatt is a Hearing Instrument Specialist (HIS), educator, researcher, author, trainer, and advocate. Drawing on her lived experience with hearing loss, she combines personal insight with a passion for empowering clinicians to enhance counselling practices and improve patient outcomes. Recognized for her work in transforming patient-provider engagement, Bobbi Jo advocates a motivation-centred approach to communication rather than traditional advice-giving. She is the author of Motivational Interviewing for Hearing Care Providers (Plural Publishing, 2025) and co-developer of a six-part MI training series for hearing professionals in collaboration with Pacific Audiology Group. Her PhD research at Canada’s National Centre for Audiology explores how motivational interviewing (MI) can increase hearing aid adoption by helping clinicians address patient ambivalence. Currently, Bobbi Jo is the National Product Trainer for Demant Canada, supporting hearing care professionals across the country. She is also a professor at Humber College in Toronto, teaching various courses—including patient counselling and clinical theory—and a teaching assistant for counselling and MI courses at Western University. Bobbi Jo serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Hearing Instrument Practitioners of Ontario (AHIP), where she currently chairs the Cerumen Removal and Quality Assurance committees. She is also a member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders and holds the Canadian Health Executive (CHE) credential.
Session Details
The Psychology of Patient Noncompliance
Do your patients follow through when you recommend hearing aids? Research shows that only about 50% do. This interactive session will uncover the psychological principles behind Motivational Interviewing (MI) and its potential to transform hearing care outcomes. MI is a collaborative communication approach that empowers patients to make informed decisions about treating their hearing loss, rather than relying on persuasion. Through practical examples, the speaker will demonstrate how a clinician’s natural desire to help can unintentionally create resistance—and how subtle shifts in language and approach can change the entire trajectory of an appointment. Participants will gain actionable MI strategies and core skills to strengthen patient autonomy, resolve ambivalence, and increase adherence to treatment recommendations. By the end of the session, attendees will leave with practical tools to enhance counseling effectiveness and improve hearing aid adoption rates.
Attend this session and you’ll learn how to:
- Identify roadblocks to listening and understand how they trigger psychology reluctance and discourage engagement.
- Define how what the clinician says to a patient changes how they respond, which changes how they feel about amplification.
- Analyze how a guiding style enables a patient to resolve their indecision – improving adoption rates and therefore patient outcomes.
- Implement basic skills of motivational interviewing to improve patient outcomes right away.