Section: 3.1 d - Building and Developing a Patient's Motivation for Change | Alcohol Counseling | NextGenU.org

  • Watch the video lecture in the activities section below to understand how to build a patient’s motivation for change

    Table 1: Levels of motivation and areas of focus for counselling

    Patient’s level of motivation

    Focus of counselling process

    Never seriously thought about changing drinking behaviour

    Help the patient understand advantages and disadvantages of drinking, and see if we can help him/her make a decision on whether to change things

    Has been thinking about making a positive change in drinking behaviour, but still strongly feels like continuing drinking

    Help the patient resolve the dilemma and make up his/her mind to change in a positive direction

    Already decided to either control or completely stop drinking

    Help the patient develop a change plan and work with him/her on putting the change plan into practice, based on a sound understanding of why he/she has decided to change