How to Coach Yourself and Others Empowering Coaching And Crisis Interventions | Page 52

This book is in B&W, not color - Print page in Grayscale for Correct view! lower number (past) to a higher number (now), therapists may follow-up by asking how they were able to do that and how they feel about their change. Examples of Eliciting Statements Supporting Self-Efficacy  “It seems you’ve been working hard to quit smoking. That is different than before. How have you been able to do that?”  “Last week you were not sure you could go one day without using cocaine, how were you able to avoid using the entire past week?”  “So even though you have not been abstinent every day this past week, you have managed to cutyour drinking down significantly. How were you able to do that?”  “Based on your self-monitoring logs, you have not been using cannabis daily. In fact, you onlyused one day last week. How were you able to do that?” Follow-up by asking, “How do you feelabout the change?” After asking about changes clients have made, it is important to follow-up with a question about how clients feel about the changes they made.  “How do you feel the changes you made?”  “How were you able to go from a [# 6 months ago] to a [# now]?” [Client answers] “How do you feel about those changes?” READINESS TO CHANGE RULER Rationale: Assessing readiness to change is a critical aspect of MI. Motivation, which is considered a state not a trait, is not static and thus can change rapidly from day to day. Clients enter treatment at different levels of motivation or readiness to change (e.g., not all are ready to change; many are ambivalent about changing). In this regard, if therapists know where clients are in terms of their readiness to change, they will be better prepared to recognize and deal with a client’s motivation to change. The concept of readiness to change is an outgrowth of the Stages of Change Model that conceptualizes individuals as being at different stages of change when entering treatment. While readiness to change can be evaluated using the Stages of Change Model, a simpler and quicker way is to use a Readiness to Change Ruler (Appendix 4.7). This scaling strategy conceptualizes readiness or motivation to change along a continuum and asks clients to give voice to how ready they are to change using a ruler with a 10-point scale where 1 = definitely not ready to change and 10 = definitely ready to change. A Readiness Ruler allows therapists to immediately know their client’s level of motivation for change. Depending on where the client is, the subsequent conversation may take different directions. The Readiness to Change Ruler can also be used to have clients give voice to how they changed, what they need to do to change further, and how they feel about changing. Examples of How to Use a Readiness to Change Ruler • Therapist (T): “On the following scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is definitely not ready tochange and 10 is definitely ready to change, what number best reflects how ready you are at the present time to change your [insert risky/problem behavior]?” Client (C): “Seven.” T: “And where were you 6 months ago?” C: “Two.” T: “So it sounds like you went from not being ready to change your [insert risky/problem behavior] to thinking about changing. How did you go from a ‘2’ 6 months ago to a ‘7’ now?”  “How do you feel about making those changes?” For [email protected] Property of Bookemon, do NOT distribute 52