Counseling allows you to explore ambivalence, non-judgmentally. At this point, a counselor will explore your reasons for coming to counseling and directly reflect any reluctance. Maybe there is a good reason why you’ve held back from changing! It’s a counselor’s job to build trust, understand your problem, and gather factual data.Ģ. Perhaps you’ve been pressured to come to counseling by a nagging spouse, or perhaps you’re are genuinely clueless about how a certain thought-pattern is adversely affecting you. You might not have considered changing a certain aspect of your life. Here’s how counseling can help you move through the change process:ĭuring the pre-contemplation stage, you may have some blind spots. Counselors use skills like empathizing, using open-ended questions, reflective listening, and summarizing to help you make your own decisions about change. The two of you must partner together to align on your therapeutic goals.
In the early stages of therapy (and throughout the process) building a solid therapeutic alliance with your counselor is integral to therapeutic success. Regardless, your counselor will tailor therapy for you based on your stage of change. Other times, people are already mid-way through the Action stage when they decide they need some extra help. People come to counseling in different places of readiness, sometimes entering unsure, only contemplating change. Many counselors use a strategy called “motivational interviewing” to help clients move through the different stages of change:ĭid you notice that the Action stage doesn’t take place until Stage 4? Change is more complicated than Nike’s “Just do it!” slogan.Ĭounselors know that lasting change builds over time. It is a mistake to assume that someone is ready to make a change, just because they tell you they’re thinking about it.