What about when my client makes a plan, but doesn’t do it?

Does a client ever make a plan with you, then not follow it?

(My guess is every single one of you is responding, “Yes, all the time.“)

How does Motivational Interviewing approach this?

Get curious about what might be going on!

We can use the 4 Tasks of MI as a check-in for ourselves! Where are you at with your client around each of these tasks? I have some questions to consider!

Task 1: Engagement

How is your engagement with the client? Is there a trusting, supportive relationship with positive engagement? Does your client feel safe in the relationship, listened to? If not, this is where we hang out a bit more by approaching clients through the spirit of MI and using deep listening skills to build engagement, trust, and collaboration. The question of this task is “Can we walk together?”

Task 2: Focusing

Are we perhaps focused on the wrong thing with our client? Maybe the goal or change target we are talking about isn’t what the client wants to focus on right now. Sometimes things change! Clarify the goal! Check in to make sure you are focused on what is important to them right now! The question of this task is, “Where are we going?”

Task 3: Evoking

Have we spent enough time exploring our clients’ ‘why change’? What is our understanding of the importance of this change for them? Has the client been given the time and space to really explore and anchor in to their motivations for change? You can try evoking change talk strategies such as scaling questions, best & worse case scenarios, values activities, and more. The question of this task is, “Why would you go there?”

Task 4: Planning

Is the plan too lofty, aspirational or difficult? Are we making change plans based on our client’s goals, values, and abilities? Perhaps the plan needs to be revisited and scaled down to more bite-sized steps! What supports might they need to feel more successful? The question of this task is, “How will you get there?”

The other potent thing we can do when this “talk but no action” thing is happening is to ask your client!

We aren’t confrontational in Motivational Interviewing, but we can reflect the discrepancy between words and actions with our clients! We want to be curious with our clients, while relaying our acceptance, compassion & normalizing ambivalence.

“I have noticed we have talked about plans, but action steps seem not to be happening. Would you be willing to get curious with me for a bit so we can explore this together?“

Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: When you find a client talking about a plan in session and not following through with it, our job is to get curious with ourselves and our clients! We can elicit their thoughts on the dilemma, while also asking ourselves which Motivational Interviewing task we are doing with them. Each task offers us an opportunity to check in and make sure we are client centered! Remember, Motivational Interviewing isn’t about instilling motivation in our clients, it is about evoking it!