Category: Conversations About Change: Responding to Change Talk and Sustain Talk

In a conversation about change with our clients, we are attempting to guide them towards making meaningful change in their lives that is sustainable. And as we all know, there will be some ambivalence along the way that needs to be worked through for this change to occur. How are...

Whether we are working with someone as they explore the reasons they do not want to escape (and go back to using substances) during the COVID-19 crisis or someone who is thinking about changing careers, some basic MI skills are important to consider. One of the most important skills we...

When we are hearing our clients talk about change, we want to make sure we acknowledge it! This will not only be appreciated by the client, who will likely have felt heard, but it will also encourage more change talk. And when we acknowledge change talk from a client, affirmations...

When there is change talk being expressed by the client, and we, as clinicians, reflect this back to the client, what often comes next is more change talk. And the more we reflect change talk, the more we will receive it. If the client is speaking about change and there...

After a client and clinician have been exploring a topic, the clinician decides when the appropriate time is to offer a summary.  In counseling, there is very little guidance in terms of what should go into a summary, and what should be left out. The clinician must make the decision...

In a conversation about change with our clients, we are aware that ambivalence is a normal part of the process and we expect to hear some sustain talk. When we hear our clients using sustain talk or wanting to maintain the status quo, or stating that they don’t think they...

When a client is contemplating making a change, there is almost always going to be some ambivalence between changing and doing things the same way. There will be the benefits of changing (pros) and the negatives of changing (cons). Sustain talk is when the client wants to keep things the...

In the last few blogs, we have talked about how the more change talk expressed by the client in a session, results in more desired change in their life. And in a skillful MI session, the sustain talk does not go away, but it becomes less frequent. There are some...

In the last few blogs, we have been discussing the balance between change talk and sustain talk and how a skillful clinician can find the change talk to focus on. However, in the case where the client is offering “dubious” change talk, where it does not appear that they really...