Do Clients Hold the Power to Change?

Do Clients Hold the Power to Change?

Clients possess the power of change because altering behavior is only possible from within. However, it is important to understand that the need for change has to start with the client, though external prompts can give direction. Change involves the desire on the part of the individual to change and embrace new habits. This means that if the client does not have personal motivation, the attempts delivered even by such specialists as personal trainers will be ineffective (Dorotik-Nana, 2018). Successful clients have to experience the necessity of change, choose objectives important to them, and accept personal responsibility for the necessary actions.

Moreover, the clients experience several stages of change: contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. At each stage, they can move to a further stage or regress to the previous one (Raihan & Cogburn, 2023). Such dynamics assert that the client is not only involved in the process but is also responsible for it. Despite challenges, it is the client’s commitment to reassume their decision and follow through that will define success. It empowers the client to know that they have control, which helps build the resilience, confidence, and commitment of the clients towards achieving their goals.

Personal Trainer’s Role in Helping the Client in the Process of Change

The responsibilities of the personal trainer involve encouraging and assisting the client in the change process. Despite trainers not being in a position to make decisions for the client, their work lies in establishing the right environment to facilitate change. Trainers help to evaluate a client’s fitness level, their state of being prepared for change, and life goals, and then develop programs that will meet those specific needs (Lu et al., 2024). Some of the practices they use involve structured goal setting, motivation, and education in order to assist the client in changing their behaviors that lead to the desired outcomes.

Furthermore, personal trainers act as companions, motivators, and instructors to their clients. They support the progress with positive feedback and assist the clients in correcting any difficulties that they might come across. Trainers also adopt a supportive atmosphere in which the clients are encouraged to be innovative and even go to the edge. By encouraging the client and advising them in the right ways, trainers are able to build up self-efficacy, the extent of confidence that clients have in their ability to succeed (Sanders et al., 2023). In the end, a trainer must accompany the client and provide them with what they require to direct their change process.

Where the Responsibility for Change Lies and Why

The main focus of change is always with the client since it will be the client who will have to make the efforts needed to bring the changes that will lead to the accomplishment of their objectives. Clients are due to report to their work and practice, learn how to make daily choices, and embrace change. Even though the trainer defines the plan of action, the client has to go through the process (Dorotik-Nana, 2018). This sense of responsibility is empowering to clients since it portrays them as able to effect a change in their lives. This also shapes an ownership culture whereby the clients do not expect someone else to initiate things; they do so themselves.

Nonetheless, trainers are also involved and have a supportive role in the process as well. They are supposed to be the knowledgeable advisors of safety, objective promoters, motivators and monitors of the clients. They need to be able to understand when clients are having difficulties and, therefore, offer the right support or change of the plan. Nevertheless, they cannot do the work for the client (Qureshi & Butt, 2021). While success is achieved in a team, it essentially relies upon the client taking charge. When both the trainer and the client understand and respect the differences in their involvement in the process, the chances for long-term behavioral modification increase drastically.

References

Dorotik-Nana, C. (2018). Behavior modification (1st ed.). International Sports Sciences Association. https://online.vitalsource.com/books/BMC01S1807

Lu, Y., Leng, X., Yuan, H., Jin, C., Wang, Q., & Song, Z. (2024). Comparing the impact of personal trainer guidance to exercising with others: Determining the optimal approach. Heliyon, 10(2), e24625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e24625

Qureshi, M. N., & Butt, T. (2021). Managing the ambiguity of the trainee and the trainer. International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 8(2), 82–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpam.2020.01.005

Raihan, N., & Cogburn, M. (2023, March 6). Stages of change theory. StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556005/

Sanders, M. R., Hoang, N.-P. T., Gerrish, R. J., Ralph, A., & McWilliam, J. (2023). The change of practitioner’s self-efficacy in Triple P professional training: Moderating role of practitioner characteristics, country, and delivery mode. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(5), 1470–1482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02568-2

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Do Clients Hold the Power to Change?

Week 2 Assignment:
The information covered in this week’s lecture and reading assignments will help you answer the following assignment. Your answers should be concise, complete, no less than 300 words, and typed in a Microsoft Word document. When you are finished, upload the Word document to be graded using the dropbox below.

This week’s assignment:

Do clients hold the power to change, and if so, what is the personal trainer’s role in helping the client in the process change? Where does the responsibility for change lie, and why?

Reading Assignment:
Unit 2 Pgs 14-46

Reference:
LMFT, C.D. M. (2018). Behavior Modification. Lionel University Content. https://online.vitalsource.com/books/BMC01S1807

Lecture Notes Week 2
Lecture Transcript – Week Two

1. Welcome to lecture two. Here we will discuss motivational interviewing, which, as you will see, is an invaluable tool personal trainers can use with clients to engage their own motivation and overcome ambivalence and that places the power to change in the client’s hands. So let’s get started!

2. Although motivational interviewing (MI) originally began as a way to counsel substance abuse clients, it has now become a widely accepted method of assisting with any type of behavioral change. In part developed by clinical psychologists William R. Miller, PhD and Stephen Rollnick, PhD, MI is a method that works on facilitating and engaging intrinsic motivation within the client to change behavior. Because it draws from the early work of humanistic psychologists such as Carl Rogers and places the power to change within the client, it is typically well received by a variety of clients. The idea behind motivational interviewing is that all people have a desire for self-actualization and that through free choice and unconditional acceptance, they will seek to realize their potential. However, MI differs from the humanistic approach in two important ways: 1) MI holds that people often experience ambivalence about change, and through resolution of the disconnect between their desired goals and behavior, the steps to change can be made, and the goal of the MI coach is to expose the client’s ambivalence, whereas a humanistic psychologist allows the client to explore his or her own internal states (which may or may not include ambivalence). 2) In the motivational interview, the coach becomes a partner with the client, developing a curiosity about him or her, through which the discrepancy between the stated goals and behavior (ambivalence) can be unmasked. By using various types of questions – such as open-ended and scaling – the coach elicits self-motivational statements and behavioral change talk with the goal of creating discrepancy that will enhance motivation for positive change (Davidson, 1994; Miller & Rollnick, 1991). Because motivational interviewing draws on the universal feelings of self-actualization and ambivalence, it activates the capacity for beneficial change everyone possesses (Miller & Rollnick, 1991). It is in this way that regardless of whatever change processes a person ultimately uses, motivational interviewing is a vital launching point from which to begin further change.

3. As opposed to methodologies of change that seek to combat resistant to change directly, motivational interviewing recognizes that ambivalence to change is a very normal part of the change process. Furthermore, by addressing and exposing ambivalence – yet not confronting it directly – motivational interviewing accepts and works with the clients regardless of the amount of resistance to change they may have or the stage of change they are in. Overcoming ambivalence, then, can be achieved through a collaborative partnership in which the personal trainer and client work together to uncover the client’s own internal reservoir of strengths and resources that can be used to facilitate change.

4. Because motivational interviewing doesn’t confront the clients and instead meets them with empathy, clients typically receive this very well. As opposed to telling them that they need to change, or should change, motivational interviewing recognizes that clients can both want to change and have resistance about change. By allowing for this ambivalence, and normalizing it as part of the process of change, motivational interviewing invites clients to explore unique and perhaps underutilized strength and strategies to foster change. Inherent in this approach is the belief that the power to change lies within the client.

5. As expressing empathy is a hallmark component of motivational interviewing, it is also important to understand the many barriers to listening that disable the expression of empathy. What these barriers all have in common is that they fail to recognize that the power to change exists within the client, and even more, that the ingredients to change are already within the client. Failures to listen such as judging, shaming, criticizing, and ordering don’t merely get in the way of empathy, but also they get in the way of establishing a trusting relationship with the client and ultimately make the client feel undermined and inadequate.

6. As you look through this list, I would encourage you to think of a time you were the recipient of one of these barriers to listen. What were some of the feelings you experienced? Did the response change the way you felt about the speaker? As you will probably notice, many of these responses come from a position of implied authority – that is, someone assuming responsibility over you and your decisions. When a client comes into a gym for the first time, and feels very uneasy, uncomfortable, and out of place, it’s not hard to see how any one of these responses can quickly trigger feelings of shame, self-doubt, and poor self-confidence – all not predictable motivators of change.

7. Now I want you to think of a time you might have delivered one of these responses. Think back to the specific situation, person, and events surrounding the response. Looking back now, why do you think you responded that way? Was there a specific outcome you were looking for or possibly a reason you might have responded in the way you did? And when you did respond that way, how did you feel?

8. Still thinking about that time, now ask yourself what the outcome was. How did the recipient of your statement respond? Was it the outcome you were looking for? Did it change the nature of your relationship with the person? Do you feel as if it had a positive or negative effect on the level of trust between you and the recipient? How do you think the recipient felt about you upon hearing your statement?

9. Now, as we look at the last two items on this list, I want you to think about how you might respond now if you had the chance to go back and revise your statement. What would you say instead? What outcome would you be hoping for? Thinking about questions such as these helps you understand the effect that barriers to listening can have on clients, and more importantly, the importance of effective listening.

10. Now that we know what the barriers to listening are, let’s examine some effective strategies to start the change process.
Here are four great ways to do so.
Strategy #1: Ask Open-Ended Questions
Asking open-ended questions helps you understand your clients’ point of view and elicits their feelings about what’s important to them.
For example:
• How has your body changed since we started working together?
• Which of the nutritional changes we’ve made do you like best and why?
• Besides having more energy, strength, and tone, what other things have you noticed that eating better and exercising more have made you feel?
Open-ended questions encourage dialogue; they cannot be answered with a single word or phrase and do not require any particular response. They are a means to solicit additional information in a neutral way. Open-ended questions encourage clients to do most of the talking, help you avoid making premature judgments, and keep communication moving forward.
Strategy #2: Listen Reflectively
Reflective listening is when you have accurately heard and understood a client’s communication by restating its meaning.
That is, you hazard a guess about what the client intended to convey and express this in a responsive statement, not a question. Reflective listening is a way of checking rather than assuming that you know what is meant.
Reflective listening strengthens the empathic relationship between you as the personal trainer and your client.
Reflective listening helps your client and reduces the likelihood of resistance by encouraging your client to keep talking. It helps to communicate respect, strengthens the trainer-to-client connection, clarifies exactly what the client means, and reinforces motivation.
Using reflective listening can help you really know your clients as they give you the kind of verbal and nonverbal responses and their possible meanings that can help you zero in on just what your clients need.
Strategy #3: Summarize
Personal trainers will find it useful to periodically summarize what has occurred in a current or past one-on-one session with the client.
Summarizing consists of distilling the essence of what a client has expressed and communicating it back. Summaries reinforce what has been said, demonstrate that you have been listening carefully, and prepare the client to move on.
Summarizing is also a good way to begin and end each training session and to provide a natural bridge when the client is transitioning between stages of change.
Summarizing also serves strategic purposes.
In presenting a summary, you can select what information should be included and what can be minimized or left out. Correction of a summary by the client should be invited, and this often leads to further comments and discussion.
Summarizing helps clients consider their own responses and contemplate their own experiences. It also lets you and your clients notice what might have been overlooked as well as incorrectly stated.
Strategy #4: Affirm and Validate
When it is done sincerely, affirming and validating your client’s words and experiences helps build trust with your client.
By affirming, you are saying, “I hear you, and I understand you,” and it helps validate your client’s experiences and feelings.
Affirming also helps your clients feel confident about tapping into their inner power to take action and change their behavior. Emphasizing experiences will help your clients remember their strengths, successes, and power they possess and can help prevent discouragement.

11. A huge component of change is motivation. And yet, motivation is perhaps one of the most misunderstood concepts today. Ask people what motivation is composed of and answers like “the desire to do something,” “wanting something,” and “willpower” emerge. But the real question is, “HOW do we get the desire, want, or willpower to do something?”

Do we simply provide incentives for our clients? We could offer them prizes for making changes in their lives-sort of like a pay-for-performance plan in the workplace. We could try negative reinforcement, like charging them more for sessions when they fail to make changes. This would be similar to teachers whose pay can be dropped when their students fail to achieve minimum standardized test scores.
But if you were to experiment with these techniques, you would find that neither works.
In a groundbreaking study performed by Deci in 1969, the experimenter used rewards-in the form of money-to encourage people to complete soma puzzles (i.e., Rubik’s cube). However, after splitting participants into two groups (one paid, and one not), Deci did something interesting. First he gave the paid group money for puzzles, and then, in the last trial, he told it that he’d run out of money and gave this group nothing. And in that last trial, the nonpaid group outperformed the once-paid group (Pink, 2011). Deci concluded that “when an external reward is used for some activity, subjects lose intrinsic interest in the activity” (pp. 31, 34).
It turns out that this “intrinsic interest” is an integral part of motivation and considerably more important than once thought.
Why? Rewards can transform an interesting task into a drudge. This is what is known as the “Sawyer Effect.” However, take away the rewards and make something fun again, and intrinsic motivation rises.
A study performed by Mark Lepper and David Greene further elaborated on the Sawyer Effect. Schoolchildren were divided into three groups: Expected Award, Unexpected Aware, and No Award. The “Expected Award” group was shown a “Good Player” certificate and then asked whether it wanted to draw to earn the certificate. The “Unexpected Award” group was asked whether it wanted to draw, and then if it did, was given an award unexpectedly. The third group was given no award. Two weeks later, when teachers set out paper and crayons during the child’s “free play” period, the “Expected Award” group showed much less interest and spent much less time drawing than either the “Unexpected Award” group and the “No Award” group (Pink, 2009).

But let’s be clear: it’s not the rewards that negatively affected the children’s motivation. It was only the contingency/condition (“if you do this, then you’ll get that) that produced the negative effect.
Then if intrinsic interest is essential to motivation and contingent rewards don’t work to increase motivation, what does work?
Motivation is composed of three core elements: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

• When people are given autonomy to choose what they want to do, motivation increases.

• When people can achieve mastery over what they are doing, motivation increases.

• When people have a deeper sense of purpose for the things they do, they are much more motivated to do them.

12. What do we do to increase the client’s own internal motivation? We start with autonomy. By first educating the client about the relationship between autonomy and motivation and then assessing the client’s current level of autonomy, addressing barriers to autonomy and creating concrete methods to increase autonomy, clients can increase autonomy in their own lives. And within the training program, asking open-ended questions that allow the clients to consider how they are doing, what exercises are most effective, and what approaches the clients would like to take, you can engage your clients in the process of change and boost their internal motivation.

13. Mastery is also a crucial component of motivation and, not surprisingly, people want to feel a sense of competence and skill within their lives. How do you increase mastery? As with autonomy, you begin by educating the clients about the relationship between mastery and motivation and then assess their current level of mastery, address barriers to mastery, and create concrete ways to increase mastery. In the training program, you can look for specific ways to increase your clients’ sense of mastery by paying attention to what they do well and looking for unique ways to expand their skills.

14. Having a deep purpose for the things we do helps direct our focus and build our motivation. When we know why we are doing something, the desire to continue becomes automatic. To help your clients connect with their deep purpose, first educate them about the relationship between purpose and motivation, identify a unique purpose, create concrete steps to increase purpose, and then look for ways to connect that purpose to a larger context. Within the training program, it can also be beneficial to help the clients explore and identify their deep-seated reasons for desiring change.

15. As you know, changing behavior is not a seamless process. Many people face a mixture of feelings about the process itself. On the one hand, they may say that they want to lose weight, for example, and yet continue to engage in the very behaviors that lead to weight gain. Similarly, they may join a gym and begin a training program and, after the first week, lose steam and fail to show up. Inconsistencies and disparate feelings such as these are a normal and expected part of the process of change. The theory of motivational interviewing is based on accepting ambivalence as the primary cause of lack of motivation (Miller & Rollnick, 1991). It is through exposing people’s opposing attitudes (I do want to lose weight, but going to the gym takes too much time) that opportunities for tremendous growth occur. When a client is allowed to uncover his or her own ambivalence and then, with your support, finds ways to overcome it, he or she also uncovers strengths and skills the clients were likely unaware of. It is in this way that ambivalence can be construed not as resistance but instead as potential for growth. However, when ambivalence is characterized as denial or resistance, your relationship with your client suffers, as does his or her motivation.
In handling ambivalence, here are few things to keep in mind:
*Ambivalence is a normal part of the change process that everyone experiences.
*Ambivalence presents a powerful opportunity for growth.
*Your client’s motivation depends upon overcoming his or her own ambivalence.
*Your client must be allowed to overcome ambivalence in his or her own way.
*When ambivalence is construed as resistance, your client’s motivation suffers, as does your
relationship with him or her.

16. Change talk is the language a client uses about the change itself. When speaking about change, clients can express a variety of feelings and attitudes form desire, commitment, resistance, self-doubt, and anxiety. Though change talk has long been considered a powerful component of change – that is, the more clients spoke about change through their intentions to change, plans to change, and awareness of the risks of not changing – the work of psychologist Paul Armhein distilled change talk to one powerful parameter. What Armhein found was that the more a person’s language revealed a commitment toward change, the more likely change was to occur. Here, commitment was found to be different from desire for change, intent to change, and awareness of need for change, which, although considered to be preparatory change talk components, did not predict behavior change. Furthermore, Armhein found that the pattern of commitment change talk also significantly correlated with positive outcome: a positive slope of commitment across the MI session was linked to increased change, with the strongest predictor being derived from the client talk at the end of the session (Armhein, et al., 2004). Armhein findings were later replicated in studies of drug abuse where commitment change talk predicted increased abstinence (Aharanovich et al., 2008), and again with problem gamblers (Hodgkins et al., 2009). Here again, preparatory change talk – as expressed through desire, intent, and need for change – did not predict client change.
The takeaway from studies such as this is that talk matters and, specifically, talking about commitment to change matters. Although expressing the desire to change can indicate a preparation to change, expressing a commitment to change is a much stronger predictor of future change. Put another way, it’s the difference between people stating that they are motivated to change and speaking about measurable actions they are going to make toward achieving the change. In this sense, commitment change talk is much more “action-oriented,” whereas preparatory change talk is more closely related to the thoughts and excitement about change.

17. Let’s now take a look at using scaling questions to increase your client’s commitment to change talk:
Step One: Ask scaling questions about your client’s commitment to change. Like scaling questions about your client’s ambivalence, scaling questions about your client’s commitment to change help to orient him or her toward measurable actions to be taken to reinforce commitment. Here are some examples of scaling questions about commitment to change: “On a scale of 1–10, how committed to becoming healthy are you?”; “On a scale of 1–10, how committed to exercising every day are you?” Questions such as these help your clients consider their commitment as a regulating component of change. That is, change will begin when they are ready to take action steps toward it.
Step Two: Ask about small steps your client can take toward change. Once your clients are aware of their level of commitment to making change, asking them about what small steps they can take toward change helps direct their focus toward precisely how to initiate change. Furthermore, because you are asking your clients about what small steps they can take toward change (as oppose to how to reach the long-term goals that may seem overwhelming), these steps seem much more attainable, and confidence and commitment increase.
Step Three: Ask your client scaling questions about these steps. Identifying small steps your client can take toward change is an important part of activating change. However, your client’s commitment toward change can be further increased through asking scaling questions about the steps themselves. Here are some examples: “On a scale of 1–10, how likely are you to walk every day?”; “On a scale of 1–10, how likely are you to reduce your sugar intake?” Keep in mind that these questions ask about the steps that your clients mentioned (as oppose to steps that you, the trainer, might consider important). By drawing your clients’ attention to their commitment to the steps themselves, you help the clients understand how manageable these steps (and the overall process of change itself) are.

Through focusing on your clients’ commitment to change, and what actionable steps they can take toward initiating change, you help your clients harness their resources in a way that not only predicts change but also enhances motivation.

18. As we discussed, listening empathically is a fundamental part of creating the relationship that supports change. Empathy has also been highly linked with the efficacy of the motivational interviewing approach. Expressing empathy also has three important effects:

Collaborative rather than authoritarian.
Acting in a collaborative rather than authoritarian manner with your clients means developing an alliance with them that values them as an integral part of the change process. Working collaboratively also involves using the client’s resources as important tools toward change, avoiding directing the change, and working together with your client to design steps and strategies toward change.
Here are three ways to work collaboratively with your clients:
*Ask your clients what they think they should do as oppose to telling them what to do.
*Ask your clients what they feel would be helpful in the process of change.
*Ask your clients how they feel they are doing (at changing their behavior).

Evokes the client’s motivation rather than trying to install it.
When you focus on your clients’ motivation as opposed to trying to supply it for them (or generate is through external means), you create a powerful resource toward change. As your clients begin to develop their own sense of mastery, autonomy, and deeper purpose in the change (what is most important to them), they activate the crucial elements of internal motivation, which is far most influential in promoting change than is any form of external motivation.
Here are three ways to evoke your client’s motivation:
*Ask your clients when they feels the most competent (strong).
*Ask your clients what steps they can take and plan to take toward change.
*Ask your clients why they really want to change.

Honors the client’s autonomy.
Honoring the clients’ autonomy means to work with them in a way that allows them to have a sense of choice in the process of change (perhaps choosing the types of exercises they would like to do, the order of the exercises, and goals to focus on), provides a sense of control over the process of change, and encourages them to take responsibility for the change.
Here are three ways to honor your client autonomy:
*Allow your clients to have a sense of choice in the process of change.
*Ensure that your clients feel in control of their change process.
*Encourage your clients to develop her own strategies to overcome her ambivalence.

19. How do you express empathy? The first step is simply to listen. When you listen fully and openly, without judgment or interruption, you convey a very important message to clients: you matter, and you are worth listening to.

20. Clients can often feel as though personal trainers represent perfection and have never given in to a bowl of ice cream, skipped a workout, or felt fat. Yet when you open up to clients and share your imperfections, you help them see you as normal – flaws and all. Furthermore, you help them see that you can identify with many of the struggles they face as well, and most importantly, you are on the same side as they are on.

21. One last step of expressing empathy is to be mindful of your clients. Regard them with the highest importance: more important than answering that text and more important than what you had for dinner last night, how your day was, or what you have going on after their appointments. Being mindful of your clients means putting them first – before anything else.

In conclusion: Motivational interviewing is a powerful way to engage clients in the process of change, to respect their unique circumstances, and to look for ways to align with them in overcoming ambivalence.

Weblinks Week 2
Below are links to resources that will complement the material covered this week.

Motivationalinterviewing.orgLinks to an external site.. An international organization devoted to promoting high quality MI practice, this website numerous resources to learn more about MI techniques, upcoming trainings and events, and latest MI news.

Sparkpeople.comLinks to an external site.. Offering a website and an app, sparkpeople has blogs, community forums and message boards, motivation, fitness, and wellness articles, polls, quizzes, and even challenges all designed to utilize motivational interviewing techniques to inspire change.

Integration.samhsa.govLinks to an external site.. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) – Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Center for Integrated Health Solutions (CIHS) promotes the development of integrated and primary health services to address the needs of individuals seeking behavior change, as well as training and technical assistance to those in the field of behavioral change.

https://www.stephenrollnick.com/Links to an external site. A co-founder of motivational interviewing, as well as the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, and the co-author of Motivation Interviewing: Helping People Change, Stephen Rollnick, is a recognized authority in the field of MI and behavior change. His personal website offers resources, articles, blogs – even a sports blog – and upcoming trainings for those interested in MI.

https://www.centerforebp.case.edu/Links to an external site. The Center for Evidence-Based Practices Motivational Interviewing website is a hub of information about MI, providing resources, upcoming trainings and events, and even recent stories of MI in action in communities, organizations, and groups.