Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Idea Of The Day - Contemplation stage of trantheoretical model


The second stage of change in the transtheoretical model is contemplation. At this point, there is an awareness that there might be a problem. The person/people agree that "maybe yes and maybe no". There is part of them that part of the time acknowledges that there could be a problem, but there is a part of them that part of the time minimizes, procrastinates, wants absolute certainly, wants a silver key or magic bullet, or simply hopes that they will go to sleep and wake up and the problem will have just gone away.

It is not until the person becomes emotionally aroused, fired up, or sees the writing on the wall meaning that change is really in their best interest that the person or people can overcome their ambivalence and move forward.

The therapist must resist the reactive attempt at pre-mature closier because nothing contibutes to worst demoralization than to make a change attempt and fail because the person or people really weren't ready yet. While counter-intuitive restraint of change while encouraging the positive side of the ambivalence can be the most effective therapeutic strategy.

For more information click here.

This is article #3 in a series on the Transtheoretical Model.

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