Action Planning with Motivational Interviewing

We talk a lot about ambivalence in Motivational Interviewing – that stage of change when a client is on the fence. When there are reasons to change and reasons not to change.

But what if a client IS ready to make that change? What happens next?

This is the time to move into the final process of Motivational Interviewing….Planning!

Planning involves setting goals, and oftentimes we create SMART goals with clients.
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SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant & Time-Specific.

We’ve all had those experiences when we’ve created a wonderful action plan with a SMART goal, both parties feel good about it, and the client goes off to put the plan into action. 

But when you see the client again, the plan didn’t work and you both wonder what went wrong.

There is often a missing piece to action planning, and it has to do with confidence!

We know that two factors have to be present for someone to have a successful behavior change: it has to be important enough to them and they have to believe that they can do it. 

If someone is already in action mode, then we know change is important enough to them, but we also need to make sure they have enough confidence.
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In Motivational Interviewing, this is where a confidence scaling question is really helpful. 
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Ask your client on a scale of 1-10 how confident they are that they can carry out the action plan, with 1 being the lowest, and a 10 the highest confidence. If their answer is anything less than a 7, then components of the plan need to be adjusted until the client has a confidence level of at least 7. Research tells us that 7 or greater is predictive of greater success.
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We want to set our clients up for success!

Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: Remember once you’ve set a SMART goal with a client, include a confidence scale in order to help set them up for success. If they are lower than a 7 out of 10, readjust the plan so they leave with confidence in the plan!​​​​​​​

Watch my full video here!