Motivating Change
Presented by Monika Parikh & David Flack
AEE Northwest Regional Conference • March 26, 2010 • Bellingham, Washington, USA
Here are the "raw notes" from our presentation.
Workshop Premises
As helping professionals we have 2 goals:
1. Assisting clients to develop insight.
2. Fostering change.
Insight is good and can inherently lead to change, but experiential learning provides opportunities to accelerate the change process.
1. Change is a process, not an event.
2. Only the changer can do the changing.
3. Everyone is motivated by something.
Helping clients discover what they are motivated by sometimes requires helping them reframe the problem.
For example: Very few substance-abusing teens enter treatment believing they have problems with alcohol or other drugs.
However, they’re generally able to identify problems thschool, &/or family problems.
Our goal as helping professionals should be to help our clients discover what motivates them.
⇒ SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION: What are you motivated by?
Stages of Change
o Pre-contemplation.
o Contemplation.
o Preparation.
o Action
o Maintenance.
Final Stage Of Change component: Recycle (or relapse).
Relapse isn’t failure, but a chance to deepen commitment to change.
However, someone becomes stuck when:
o They keep looping through Recycle with no progression;
o Or, they completely stop moving through the Stages of Change.
Growth Zones
o Comfort Zone.
o Change Zone.
o Crisis Zone.
⇒ ACTIVITY: Chiji Cards to explore Growth Zones.
Stuck in the Comfort Zone
Someone’s Stage of Change is her/his Comfort Zone.
That means they’re comfortable where they’re at & see no reason to move forward. Because the Comfort Zone is comfortable, most people would rather stay there.
This can lead to stuckness, which we can define as a lack of motivation to change.
⇒ ACTIVITY: "Human Handcuffs" to illustrate being stuck, trying the same thing over & over.
Stuckness is also about avoiding risk, because change is risky.
What are the risks involved in change?
An important step in motivating change is addressing these risks…
3 Steps to Making Change Seem Less Risky
1. Acknowledge that change is risky – Have discussions like this one!
2. Explore good risk vs. bad risk.
3. Provide opportunities to practice safe risk-taking.
o Clients often have a skewed perspective of “good” risks.
o Once a bx has become habit, it is now in her/his Comfort Zone & no longer perceived as risky.
o Existential anxiety; anticipatory anxiety; fear of fear.
o Practicing appropriate risk taking is one way to have this new bx become part of a client’s Comfort Zone.
⇒ ACTIVITY: Mousetraps
Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
So far, we’ve examined what change is and why it can be hard. The next step is to motivate clients to do this hard work even though it is risky.
According to Daniel Pink in his book Drive, motivation is enhanced through:
1. Autonomy – Autonomy refers to independence and self-determination. When given true autonomy, motivation increases dramatically.
2. Mastery – Mastery is the belief that you can be effective. This is, of course, closely related to self-efficacy.
3. Purpose – Purpose means commitment to something larger than yourself.
⇒ SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION: How can you increase autonomy, mastery & purpose in your experiential groups?
Basics of Motivational Interviewing
1. Roll with the resistance.
2. Express empathy.
3. Develop discrepancy.
4. Help cts build self-efficacy.
OARS:
o Open-ended Questions.
o Affirmations.
o Reflective Listening.
o Summarizing.
⇒ ACTIVITY: Small Group Summarizing
READ MORE!
Browse though my blog for some related posts, and then go get these three books:
Motivational Interviewing, by Miller & Rollnick
Changing for Good, by Prochaska, Norcross & DiClemente
Drive, by Pink
