Hannah Schmidt

Behavior Change Plan – Part One

Due Date: 10/20 Total Points – 20

Directions: To answer these questions, review the Pre-Participation Screening and Wellness
Questionnaires and use MI through discussions with your client. Type thorough answers for each
question. You MUST attach the Pre-Participation Screening and Wellness Questionnaires to receive
credit for this assignment.

A. List the reasons your client is in the SHU Personal Training Program. Based on your
motivational interviews, what are the underlying motivations for his/her participation in the
program? (2 pts)

One of the primary reasons that my client is in the SHU Personal Training Program is for weight
loss. She has tried altering her nutrition and doing a variety of cardio; however, nothing seems to
work for her. She’s hoping that incorporating strength training will help with this. My client also
wants to have a more positive experience with exercise and be able to create her own workouts in the
future. With this, she wants to get into a weekly habit of exercise. As of right now, she is starting to
become familiar with the machinery and free weights.

B. What are your client’s intrinsic motivators (doing something for the reward inherit in the activity
itself) for exercise? How are you incorporating these into your client’s program? (2 pts)

As for my client’s intrinsic motivators, she overall wants to start enjoying the feeling of exercise.
She desires to have a more positive relationship with it, and create endorphins post workout. What I
personally have been trying to do, is incorporate things that she enjoys doing. My client currently let
me know that she prefers the elliptical over walking, so we made that shift in her exercise plan. As for
her resistance training exercises, we make sure to do the same. I believe that because she’s not
training for anything specific, she should do something that makes her feel good and that she enjoys.

C. Using the table on page 69 of the Coaching Psychology Manual, state your client’s reasons to
stay the same and reasons to change his/her behaviors. Do not compute composite scores. (2 pts)

Some of my client’s reasons for staying the same and not exercising would be having
more time for other things such as schoolwork and socializing. Also, staying the same would
give her more energy throughout the day. Reasons to change would be to have an increase in fat
loss, look better, and to increase her overall mood.

D. Using the confidence ruler on page 70 of the Coaching Psychology Manual, provide your client’s
confidence number for a critical behavior he/she wants to change. Why did he/she not pick a
lower number? What would assist your client to get a higher number? (2 pts)

The confidence number my client gave for a critical behavior she wants to change was a
five. This was based off of her desire of weight loss. She hadn’t picked a lower number because
she had never incorporated strength training into her regimen and believes that this might help
make the difference. However, she did not choose a higher number because she had tried
numerous ways to lose weight in the past, including change of nutrition. With this she had
 remained unsuccessful. She feels a bit stuck, and I believe a way to help her get a higher number
is to see results in this current strength training that we are performing. Rather its visually with
her appearance, or seeing an increase in strength, I feel that this will give her the confidence she
needs in achieving her goals.

E. Transtheoretical Model: Stages of Change, Self-Efficacy, Decisional Balance

Review your client’s wellness questionnaire entitled “The Exercise Questionnaire” which
contains information on stage of change, self-efficacy, and decisional balance (last pages). This
information can be used to successfully move your client into the direction of a physically active
lifestyle or help him/her maintain exercise behavior. Use the scoring system below to identify
your client’s stage of change at the beginning of the semester:
If 1-4 = No = Precontemplation
If 1,3,4 = No and 2 = Yes = Contemplation
If 1,2 = Yes and 3 = No = Preparation
If 1,2,3 = Yes and 4 = No = Action
If 1,2,3,4 = Yes = Maintenance

Stage of change: Action

1. Based on the definition of “regular exercise” in the Exercise Questionnaire, do you agree that
this was the client’s stage of change at the beginning of the semester? If no, which stage do
you think your client is in? Explain (1 pt)

Based on the basic definition of “regular exercise” in the questionnaire, I do believe that this
was my client’s stage of change at the beginning of the semester. The definition of regular
exercise is equal to three or more times per week for 20 minutes or longer each time. At the
beginning of the semester, my client stated that she was performing daily walks for 30 minutes
every day.

2. Which stage of change do you think your client is in now? Explain. (1 pt)

Currently, my client is now in the stage of action, and is incorporating strength training into
her regimen. She performs this two days a week with me, and once by herself. She is also
performing cardio three days a week with me for 20 minutes, on top of her regular walks. She has
not however, done this for the past six months. Therefore, she cannot be in the stage of
maintenance.

3. Briefly summarize what you found from the self-efficacy questions (number 6a-e). Does
your client have a high, moderate or low self-efficacy towards exercise? What can you do to
help your client improve/maintain his/her self-efficacy based on the answers to the questions?
(2 pts)

After looking at my client’s self-efficacy questions, I can conclude that she has moderate self-
efficacy towards exercise. Based off her results, she struggles with exercising when she feels she
 doesn’t have time, is tired, or on vacation. To help improve upon this, I can suggest her breaking
up her workouts throughout the day. If she doesn’t have enough time to commit to an hour-long
workout, she can always break it apart into two separate times during the day. As for her
tiredness, I would suggest that she does it during the time a day she feels most awake. When on
vacation, I would understand why exercise could become difficult, with not a lot of access to
facilities. With this, I would recommend that she still performs her daily walks which you are
able to do pretty much everywhere.

4. Briefly summarize what you found from reviewing the decisional balance data (number 7).
(1 pt)
PROS = a, b, d, e, f, h, i, j, l, n
CONS = c, g, k, m, o, p

Based on the results of my client’s decisional balance data, for the most part, she
“strongly agreed” or scored herself close to for the majority of the pros for this questionnaire.
With this, it can be concluded that the client had a decent desire or will to exercise at the
beginning of the semester. With the cons, however, her biggest issue seems to be exhaustion,
feeling uncomfortable, and time. With these, she scores herself a four or five. These could
definitely have a slight effect on her exercising in the future.

5. Choose another health/fitness related behavior that your client is working on that is not
considered regular aerobic exercise. State the behavior and determine the stage of change for
this specific behavior. Explain how you came to this conclusion. (2 pts)

Another health/ fitness behavior that my client is working on would be flexibility. It is

one of our goals that she improves upon her sit and reach score by 3 cm at the end of the nine
weeks. I can conclude that in regard to the stage of change, she is in action. We have currently
been having her stretch after each and every workout, and on her own time as well.
However, she has not been doing this consistently for the past 6 months.

6. Answer the three questions in the box on page 41 in the Coaching Psychology Manual with
regard to this health/fitness related behavior. (2 pts)

My client wants to improve her overall flexibility because it prevents fewer injuries, less
pain in the body, and to improve posture and balance. The only con that came to mind was
that it takes extra time out of the day to stretch, especially if she is trying to be timelier with
her workout. In order to change her behavior, she should stretch after every workout and on
her free time. To do this in a timely fashion, she can create a list of difference stretches ahead
of time so she doesn’t have to stop and think.

7. Comment on your client’s self-efficacy with regard to this health/fitness related behavior. (1
pt)
In regard to my client’s self-efficacy with flexibility, I would say that it’s pretty high. In
contrast to strength training, she seems to have no issue with this and performs it after each
 and every workout, and on her free time. She doesn’t really make any excuses in regard to
this and is very willing.

8. List and describe which coaching skills for behavior change you will implement to help your
client with this behavior. (2 pts)

A coaching skill that I will implement to help my client with this behavior change is
having empathy, in order to connect feelings and needs to each other. When a client is feeling
discouraged, it’s important to reassure the client, and reassure them that it is possible to meet
their goals. Another skill that I would also implement having clarity with my client. When a client is
clearly able to state their vision, and commit to it, they are more drawn into it. Finally, I want to
make sure that I am properly educating my client, explaining why stretching will help improve
flexibility, and its benefits beyond fitness.