Inspire Change with Motivational Interviewing_Final
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>> Hey, I have a question for you.
When you work with clients, do you tend to jump
right into setting goals and making plans?
Or do you spend time deeply exploring
why they want to change and what stands in their way?
If you have that tendency to launch
straight into action mode with your clients,
then pay extra attention to this lecture.
I'm going to share with you an exciting approach to coaching
called motivational interviewing.
Have you ever heard of it?
It's a practical method for helping your clients
make a meaningful shift in the early stages of change
so that they'll have a better chance of being successful
at sustaining progress and achieving their goals.
Here's a little bit of background.
Motivational interviewing
is a goal-oriented communication style
that focuses on the language of change.
It was developed by William Miller and Stephen Rollnick
in the 1990s as a method for counseling,
but has since become widely applied to coaching
and various healthcare professions.
The overall goal is to increase a client's
intrinsic drive for creating change.
This is done by awakening and strengthening
their personal interest in the new behavior
while, simultaneously, growing their disinterest
in maintaining the status quo.
In other words, you're helping them get in touch
with why they really want to change
while also getting in touch
with just how unbearable their current situation is
so that they can gain intrinsic motivation
to do whatever it takes to get what they want.
To be most effective, this should be done
in a supportive environment of acceptance and compassion
so that the client feels safe and comfortable enough
to do this vulnerable kind of work.
In the context of motivational interviewing,
the coach's role is to encourage clients
to explore and resolve their ambivalence,
guide clients to see how shifting their behavior now
will align them with future goals and values,
and instill clients with confidence and hope.
A major premise of this approach is that generally,
your clients already know what they should and shouldn't do,
but for a variety of reasons,
they don't actually do these things.
So you should always assume
that your clients are experts on themselves
and don't need to be taught what to do.
They know what's best.
What they need your help with is getting unstuck.
Miller and Rollnick have described
coaching with motivational interviewing
as being like a service dog
for a person who's visually impaired.
They know where it is that they want to go,
they just need help navigating
around the obstacles in their path.
Can you relate here?
How many clients have you had come to you
already having a fair amount of knowledge
about their health or the issue they face?
They know what their problem is
but they're struggling with how to make that change.
This is the age of Google.
Most of our clients are pretty well-informed.
They're not stumbling into our offices
completely in the dark about their issues.
I find this especially true when it comes to weight loss.
Most clients who sign up for coaching to lose weight
could probably write a book about dieting and healthy foods.
They just can't figure out
how to successfully navigate the obstacles
that come up for them during the weight-loss process.
So what do you do with your clients
who just can't seem to get their acts together?
You already know that lecturing, harshly confronting,
and scaring people into change is not effective.
Motivational interviewing works well
because it provides an empowering way
for coaches to talk about change with their clients.
By encouraging clients to take full ownership
of their goals and behaviors,
they become more invested in them.
This process focuses on getting clients
to really think about their behavior change
and weigh it over on their own terms
at their own pace
instead of feeling led
or forced to make a decision for their health.
We may think we're already doing this as coaches,
but oftentimes, despite our best intension, we're not.
Often, we move at our own pace
or the pace we think our clients
and our sessions should be progressing
rather than actually letting them set the tempo,
especially when they seem indecisive or unsure.
When your clients are ambivalent,
do you encourage them to reach a conclusion
or do you hang out with them
in the space of their uncertainty
for as long as they need to be there?
If you're the type of coach
who sets goals and makes plans right away,
you might be rushing your clients into their journeys
prematurely by letting them riff off your momentum.
This is not sustainable since it's not their momentum.
When working with your clients, observe yourself
and check in with yourself regularly to assess
who is the one setting the pace.
It's also easy to fall into the counterproductive habit
of providing education instead of eliciting ideas.
As coaches, we have so much knowledge about our fields,
and we love to share
and discuss this information with people
because it excites us and we genuinely love to help.
There's a place for information sharing in coaching,
but when you do this
before first eliciting your client's ideas,
you're doing them a disservice
because you're not teaching them
how to tap into their own answers
and intuitive body knowledge.
This backfires, especially when working with clients
who are people-pleasers
or generally passive and defer to others
because they'll end up "Yessing" you
when you make suggestions they may not be totally down with
because they want to be seen as a good client.
So like I said, motivational interviewing
approaches change as a process, and within this process,
there are four phases that guide change.
These can unfold within a single session
but also represents the general flow
for the overall progression of your work together.
The four phases are engaging,
focusing, evoking, and planning.
Let's look at what each of these mean.
First, engaging with your client.
This is where your work with a client begins.
Like with any type of coaching,
this is the rapport-building phase.
You engage your client when you invite him or her
into a warm conversation that's designed
to understand their feelings
about where they're at and where they want to be.
In this stage, you want to focus on building rapport
by asking high-mileage questions
and actively listening to their responses
to demonstrate your interest in understanding.
The desired outcome of this stage
is to create a warm working relationship,
and understand what your client
is generally hoping to gain by working with you.
The next phase in motivational interviewing is focusing.
This means inviting your client to guide the work with you
by identifying, specifically,
what they want to discuss and work on.
This is the initial stage of talking about a goal,
and you'll want to ask powerful,
non-judgmental questions about the "Why"
behind their desired outcome.
Next is the evoking stage.
This is the stage when you work with your clients
to identify and work through their ambivalence
around the desired behavior change.
During this phase, you're assessing
their readiness to change,
exploring doubts and fears,
and getting ready to transition into the planning process.
We'll explore how to work with your client's ambivalence
in detail later on in this module.
Finally, assisting your client
in the planning process to prepare for change.
You enter the planning phase
when your client is clear on their goal,
ready for change, and committed to doing
what needs to be done.
In the planning phase, your role is to support your client
by inviting them to set their own goals,
assessing any barriers to change,
and asking permission to share information.
Again, by eliciting your client's own ideas
and then asking them if you can provide your own two cents,
you're keeping them in the driver's seat.
This will help them to feel most in control
of their change process.
So to recap, motivational interviewing
is a conversational process that inspires clients
to positively embrace change on their own terms.
The four processes involved in moving your clients
towards change are engaging,
focusing, evoking, and planning.
Motivational interviewing works great with health coaching
because it encourages clients to develop meaningful,
positive relationships with food, exercise,
and their bodies.
And it teaches them how to think positively
about changing their behaviors
instead of approaching them with a sense of fear
or apprehension.
I hope this intro provided a solid overview
of the basic concept
and design of motivational interviewing,
and that you find it useful with your clients.
So what do you think about motivational interviewing?
Is this a method you're interested
in trying out with clients?
Are you already using elements of it in your practice?
Hop on over to the Facebook group page and let us know.
Thanks so much for watching.
I'll see you soon.