last update April 12, 2024 (originally published August 24, 2017)
As health and excercise professional, of it’s easy to feel like your clients’ health behaviors are your responsibility. While you can guide and encourage your customers, lasting behavior change ultimately has to come from an individual.
Psychologists William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick developed MI as customer-centric training style to encourage healthy behavior change. First used in the treatment of people with alcoholism, MI is characterized by its non-directive, collaborative and exploratory approach.
According to the self-determination theory of human motivation, individuals are compelled to engage in behaviors when they have high feelings of competence, autonomy and relatedness to others. MI supports this by putting clients in control of their own behavior change.
Whether it’s helping clients adopt healthier eating habits, reducing stress strategies or regular physical activity, use the following MI strategies to improve client autonomy and success.
Let customers explore their thoughts, feelings, fears and goals through open-ended questions. These questions require customers to answer with more than a yes or no. Here is an example of an open-ended question: “Well, you would she wants to lose 20 pounds in the next five months. What would this weight loss mean to you?’
Open-ended questions can also be used in the face of customer ambivalence. For example, if a customer says; they have I’ve always hated exercise, you might ask, “What experiences have made you feel so negative about exercise?” Instead of telling the customer theirs feelings are wrong expressing how wonderful you I think the exercise is, this question allows customer to investigate the underlying reasons theirs aversion to physical activity.
Approach customers with acceptance and non-judgmental attitude creates a safe space for behavior change. If clients fear being judged by their health coach or practicing as a professionalthey are less likely to be honest about their thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and are more likely to engage in things just to please you. You can explicitly create a non-judgmental environment with stating something like, “There are no failures here, only learning opportunities. Nothing you do is innate bad (even binge eating in an ice cream box) and will only teach us more about the factors that can lead you to an unhealthy behavior (like overeating).
Let customers know they are being heard by reflecting their thoughts and feelings back to them. This helps clear up any potential confusion and lets customers know you’re trying to understand and appreciate how they feel. For example, if a client who dislikes exercise goes to a story about disturbing experiences these had in high school gym class, you might say, “It sounds like your past experiences have really affected the way you feel about exercise. Does that sound true?’ This will both clarify and help understand the client’s feelings their recognize thoughts and feelings they have but he may not have paid attention.
It can be tempting to dictate health behaviors to your customers. While you may be an expert on fitness or nutrition, you are not an expert on your client’s emotions, lifestyle, needs or goals. Instead of telling customers what to do, help them explore viable healthy behaviors, understand the benefits of those behaviors, and recognize and overcome the barriers that stand in your way.
Achieve any goal a client sets is both relevant and accomplished. Telling a client to jog for 30 minutes five days a week might be in line with national guidelines, but if is not makes sense to the customer and It does not suit fits into its context theirs ZOE, of useless. Present customers with options that work for them where they are. An easy way to measure the potential effectiveness of a behavior is to ask the customer. For example, if you and the client work together to come up with a specific goal about eating vegetables, you might ask, “How important is it to you to eat at least two servings of vegetables at two meals each day?” and “How confident are you that you will stick to this goal every day for the next week?” That way, you and the client can work together to create goals that make sense their and is more likely to be achieved.
As health coach or excercise professional, your ultimate goal is to create healthier, happier and more vibrant individuals and communities. Motivational interviewing is a great strategy to help you empower clients to develop intrinsic motivation and create meaningful healthy behaviors that last a lifetime.
If are you interested in learning more about how to incorporate behavior change principles into your work with clients, be an ACE Behavior Change Specialist (worth 2.5 ACE CEC). In this lesson, I will I’m learning oneon common barriers to achieving healthy behavior change and strategies to empower clients to overcome these obstacles and they find their own way to a more fulfilling way of life.
THE, Get yours specialisation one step further by winning The ACE Health Coach Certification and become part of a growing profession with a variety of reward careers.
