How can you help clients set realistic goals for behavior change?

1 Assess readiness

Before you help your clients set goals, you need to assess their readiness for change. This means understanding their current situation, their motivation, their confidence, and their barriers. You can use open-ended questions, reflective listening, and scaling questions to explore these aspects. For example, you can ask: "What made you decide to come here today?" "How important is this change for you?" "How confident are you that you can make this change?" "What are some of the benefits and challenges of changing?" By assessing readiness, you can tailor your intervention to match their stage of change and avoid pushing them too hard or too fast.

2 Collaborate on goals

Once you have a sense of your clients' readiness, you can collaborate with them on setting goals that are realistic for them. This means involving them in the process, rather than imposing or prescribing goals for them. You can use the SMART framework to guide them in setting goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. For example, instead of saying "You should lose 10 pounds in a month", you can ask: "What is a realistic and healthy weight loss goal for you?" "How will you measure your progress?" "What are some strategies that you can use to achieve your goal?" "Why is this goal important for you?" "When do you want to achieve your goal by?" By collaborating on goals, you can increase your clients' ownership, commitment, and self-efficacy.

3 Provide feedback and support

After you help your clients set goals, you need to provide feedback and support to help them monitor and adjust their goals as needed. This means acknowledging their efforts, celebrating their successes, and addressing their challenges. You can use affirmations, summaries, and eliciting questions to provide feedback and support. For example, you can say: "You have done a great job of reducing your smoking by half in the past week." "What have you learned from this experience?" "What are some of the obstacles that you have faced or anticipate facing?" "How can you overcome them?" "What are your next steps?" By providing feedback and support, you can enhance your clients' motivation, confidence, and resilience.

4 Review and revise goals

Finally, you need to review and revise your clients' goals periodically to ensure that they are still realistic, relevant, and achievable. This means evaluating their progress, outcomes, and satisfaction with their goals. You can use reviewing questions, scaling questions, and decisional balance to review and revise goals. For example, you can ask: "How are you doing with your goal of walking 30 minutes a day?" "On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with your goal?" "What are some of the pros and cons of continuing or changing your goal?" "Do you want to keep, modify, or change your goal?" By reviewing and revising goals, you can help your clients adapt to changing circumstances, preferences, and needs.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?