Last updated on Aug 8, 2024

Your client is struggling to align actions with goals in therapy. How can you help them bridge the gap?

When you're in therapy, aligning your actions with your goals can sometimes feel like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces. It's a common challenge, but one that can be addressed effectively with the right approach. Motivational Interviewing (MI), a client-centered counseling style for eliciting behavior change by helping clients to explore and resolve ambivalence, can be particularly helpful in these situations. By harnessing MI techniques, you can work through the disconnect and find a path that leads from intention to action.

1 Understanding MI

Motivational Interviewing is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes collaboration between you and your therapist. It's grounded in the concept that you are the best expert on your own life and are responsible for the changes you wish to make. The therapist's role is to help you uncover your intrinsic motivations and values that drive change. In cases where your actions don't seem to align with your goals, it's often because there's an underlying ambivalence or conflict. MI techniques help to bring these to light and allow you to resolve them, enhancing your motivation and commitment to change.

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2 Exploring Values

One of the core components of MI is exploring your values and how they relate to your goals. If your actions aren't lining up with what you want to achieve, it might be because there's a misalignment between what you're doing and what's truly important to you. Your therapist can guide you through a process of self-discovery to help clarify your values. Once these are clearly defined, it becomes easier to see which actions support these values and which do not, providing a clearer roadmap for change.

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Cathy Marx

Registered Clinical Psychologist | Online Services| Working to support you in distress, help you heal, and choose resilience and growth | Individualised CBT, Person Centred and Positive Psychology Orientation
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We must make sure that the process of goal setting is not just a cognitive exercise, as cognitions alone do not bring enough life or dynamism to the process to motivate behavioural change. Once the client has identified values that truly resonate with them, they are more likely to throw their whole selves into the changes they need to make in their behaviour.

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3 Setting Goals

Goal setting is another crucial aspect of aligning actions with intentions. In MI, goals are best when they are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Your therapist will work with you to refine your goals, making sure they are aligned with your values and are realistic. This process helps to ensure that the goals are not only clear but also feel attainable, which can increase your motivation to work towards them and align your actions accordingly.

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4 Building Confidence

Confidence is key when it comes to taking action. Through MI, your therapist can help you build self-efficacy—the belief in your ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. This might involve looking back at past successes or breaking larger goals into smaller, more manageable steps. As you experience small victories, your confidence will grow, making it more likely that you'll take the necessary actions to reach your larger goals.

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5 Resolving Ambivalence

Ambivalence, or having mixed feelings about change, is often at the heart of why actions and goals don't align. MI provides strategies for working through ambivalence by examining the pros and cons of change versus staying the same. Your therapist can facilitate this exploration in a non-judgmental way, helping you to weigh your options and decide on the best course of action that aligns with your goals and values.

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Cathy Marx

Registered Clinical Psychologist | Online Services| Working to support you in distress, help you heal, and choose resilience and growth | Individualised CBT, Person Centred and Positive Psychology Orientation
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It’s quite intriguing for the client if the therapist for a while refuses to engage in the concept of change at all, instead going in depth with the client about how the addiction or problem behaviour had originally been identified as a logical and initially successful means of meeting their needs. This kind of conversation can deepen their self knowledge, lift much of the shame they are frequently experiencing, and help them to join with the therapist in seeking more adaptive means of fulfilling their needs.

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6 Sustaining Change

Finally, sustaining change is about maintaining the progress you've made. In MI, this means reinforcing the commitment to your goals and continuing to take actions that support them. Your therapist can help you develop strategies for dealing with setbacks and maintaining motivation over the long term. This might include regular check-ins, reminders of your values and goals, or developing a support system that encourages your ongoing commitment to change.

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Cathy Marx

Registered Clinical Psychologist | Online Services| Working to support you in distress, help you heal, and choose resilience and growth | Individualised CBT, Person Centred and Positive Psychology Orientation
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The value of regular check ins is hard to overestimate. If this isn’t practical, a reliable and informed support group needs to have been brought into the process earlier on, so that accountability and encouragement will be easily accessible to the client long after therapy has been concluded.

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7 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?

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Your client is struggling to align actions with goals in therapy. How can you help them bridge the gap?

1

2

3

4

5

6

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1 Understanding MI

2 Exploring Values

3 Setting Goals

4 Building Confidence

5 Resolving Ambivalence

6 Sustaining Change

7 Here’s what else to consider

Motivational Interviewing

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Your client is struggling to align actions with goals in therapy. How can you help them bridge the gap?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Understanding MI

2 Exploring Values

3 Setting Goals

4 Building Confidence

5 Resolving Ambivalence

6 Sustaining Change

7 Here’s what else to consider

Motivational Interviewing

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

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