Positive Behavior Change

At some point most of us make a positive behavior change in our lives. Whether it be quitting smoking, increasing our fitness, managing our emotions, or conquering procrastination to improve time management. One of the ways in which behavior change is accomplished is through motivational interviewing. Karzenowski and Puskar (2011) describe motivational interviewing as a tool to help individuals within a supportive and non-judging relationship that’s goal is to elicit change and develop self-efficacy: the individuals confidence that they can maintain change in different situations (Prochaska, Wright & Velicer, 2008), which is facilitated by the interviewer through the principles of expressing empathy, supporting self-efficacy, rolling with …show more content…
I was able to demonstrate this with my use of questions that were client focused and helped develop a rapport that allowed B to share personal details about the struggles and behaviors associated with her smoking habit. An example of expressing empathy that I asked was: “what is your biggest concern about quitting smoking”, which focuses on B’s experience of her change. However, I feel I could have acknowledged the magnitude of the change B wanted to make by outwardly offering more empathetic responses such as “this must be a difficult change for you or I can imagine this is not an easy change”. Nevertheless, I did offer an empathic statement at the end by acknowledging her desire for change and her willingness to becoming a non-smoker. This demonstrated empathy by understanding that the B needs positive recognition for her efforts which intern reflects the positive steps she is making to facilitate her own change which can result in heightened …show more content…
She had expressed the importance of her alone time and that alone time involved smoking. I could have accomplished this by simply asking her “how important are cigarettes and smoking to you?” Another area I could have also come to understand the strong connection of cigarettes and my clients was exploring more stressors in her life that strengthened the relationship between the cigarette’s and B. An example of this could be coming to understand more of her relationships others (other than her relationship with her children). Exploring the relationship with her husband. Perhaps their relationship is complicated and there is a strong desire to get away from him regularly. This approach would have divulged more underlying reasons as to why smoking was so important. This would have revealed more opportunities to explore about why she smoked and was in which she could explore for cessation. This would lead to knowing if her husband was either a hindrance to her desire to change or if he could be a supportive resource for her to improve her