Match What You Do with Clients’ Unique Stages of Readiness to Change

With a given family, each family member may be in a different stage of readiness to change at the beginning of counseling. For example, it is not uncommon for some fathers and adolescents being forced to go for therapy to be in the precontemplative stage of readiness to change that is, they do not see themselves as part of the solution construction process or neither think that there is a problem serious enough that warrants professional help. However, some therapists think that just because a father or an adolescent show up for therapy that they are prepared to establish treatment goals and implement immediate change strategies. When they fail to do so, these therapists make the assumptions that the clients are “resistant” or are being “noncompliant.” The bottom line here is that the therapists are being resistant! We believe that all clients no matter how chronic their difficulties are or how much treatment they have, want relief from their oppressive difficulties, including getting powerful social control agents off their backs! As Prochaska and his colleagues have pointed out, only 20% of the clients we see in most practice settings begin counseling in the action stage of readiness for change (Prochaska et al., 2006). Therefore, we have to carefully match what we do therapeutically with what stage of readiness to change each family member is presently in. For the fathers and adolescents that do show up to their first sessions in the precontemplative stage, they should be complimented for ‘showing up’, ‘being respectful of your co-parenting partner’s wishes’ (in action stage), and for the adolescent being court-ordered or as an alternative to being suspending from high school, being complimented for ‘taking responsibility and not blowing off the session.’ Compliments like these helps to foster cooperative partnerships with precontemplators, makes it inviting to show up for another session, and can advance them to the next stage of readiness for change, which is contemplation. For further guidelines for matching interventions with clients’ stages of readiness to change, see (Selekman, 2017; Selekman & Beyebach, 2013; Prochaska et al. 2006).

Related Content

• Honor Self-Destructive Habit Clients’ Unique Quitting Styles
• Therapeutic Presence
• Honoring Clients’ Preferences
• Client Self-Generated Pretreatment Changes: Flukes or the Real Deal?
• Meaningful Coincidences, Epiphanies, Good Luck Events, Serendipitous Practices and Contexts: A Client Treasure Trove of Resources Worth Tapping