Behavior Change Plan – Part One

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)

My client joined the program to lose weight and become stronger. She already runs three times a
week on her own, so she wanted to work on getting stronger in her upper body and core. She doesn’t
typically like to strength train, so she wanted to work on finding strength training exercises that she
enjoys.

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)

My client’s intrinsic motivator is to feel better about herself. I am incorporating this into her
exercise program by pushing her to lift heavier weights that she can handle but does not believe that she
can handle. I have heard from other students that my client has told them that she already feels so much
better and stronger.

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)

One of her reasons to change her behaviors is because it helps her to feel more confident and
stronger. Another reason to change her behavior is because she wants to be healthier. The reasons for her
to stay the same is because she is not extremely overweight, and she is still able to do all of the things she
wants to do. Her weight is not holding her back.
The benefits of staying the same is that it is easy to keep doing what she is doing, and it is
comfortable. The concerns with staying the same are she isn’t getting stronger, she isn’t getting healthier,
and she doesn’t feel good about herself. My concerns with the changes are that she is going to lose
motivation to keep up with the changes and then not stick with them. The benefits of change would be
that she would get to a healthier weight and hopefully a better body mass index. This would also
hopefully get her to a better blood pressure.

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)

I believe that my client would pick a 4 on the confidence ruler because she really wants to change
her three cups of coffee a day to two, but a part of her knows that she will end up making a third cup
every morning. In order to assist my client to get a higher number, I would come up with suggestions on
what to drink instead of that third cup. I would also maybe suggest an activity to do in the time that it
would take her to drink a third cup. All of these are good ways to change her behavior without making it
such a drastic change. My client is very comfortable in her routine, and when you push her to change she
complains but she still does it. Often times she surprises herself.
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: MAINTENANCE

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)

The definition of “regular exercise” is three times or more a week for 20 minutes or longer each
time. I agree that my client is in the maintenance stage of change at the beginning of the semester because
she runs three times a week at least 30-45 minutes each time.

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

My client is still in the maintenance phase now because she is still doing her running three days a
week in addition to strength training twice a week. This is way above the definition of “regular exercise”
in the exercise questionnaire.

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)

She is typically moderately confident that in each situation she could exercise. To me it seems
like she is more towards the fact that she wouldn’t exercise in any of these situations. If she is in a bad
mood or on vacation then maybe she would because on paper she is extremely confident that she would. I
would think that half of the time she would and half of the time she wouldn’t with all of these situations.
Based off of the way my client talks, she doesn’t seem very motivated to run after a long day or when it is
hot to the point where she doesn’t. This isn’t very often anymore, but she keeps up with her strength
training. What I try to do to help improve her self-efficacy is encourage her to get at least some
movement in even if it is just a walk after a long day.

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

After reviewing the decisional balance data, I realized that my client is pretty neutral for both the
pros and cons. For the pros, she is on the higher end of the neutral decision. For the cons, she is on the
lower end of the neutral decision with a few in the upper end strongly disagree. Based off of this data I
believe that when it comes to exercising, there is nothing that she strongly feels good about or negative
about.
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)

My client is working on only having two cups of coffee a day instead of three. I believe that she
is in the action phase because she has started only drinking two cups a day. She has not done it for the
past 6 months, but she is currently doing it.

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)

Why do I want to try and change the behavior (pros)?

I want to try and change the behavior, because they do not strongly agree that exercise
can be a good beneficial thing for them to do. They are only neutral on how they think exercise
can be a good thing. I want to try and change this behavior because exercise can be a very good
thing to my client’s health and wellness, but it will not have the same effect if she does not fully
believe that it is beneficial.

Why shouldn’t I try to change the behavior (cons)?

I want to try and change her behavior about the cons because for the most part she is
pretty neutral. She needs to find the motivation to exercise regardless of how she is feeling, how
limited her time is, or even the weather.

What would it take for me to change the behavior? (what is my strategy to overcome my
cons?)

For my client, I think that it would take my client just exercising regularly to become
more confident in the gym. Once she becomes more confident I think that she would have a better
attitude towards it and become more motivated.

7. Comment on your client’s self-efficacy with regard to this health/fitness related behavior. (1 pt)

My client has very poor self-efficacy. She has no confidence in her abilities to be able to do any
of the exercises or go up in weight. I believe her lack of confidence is due to the fact that she is
uncomfortable in the gym. With more time and exercises in the gym, hopefully she will become more
confident and want to pick up the heavier weights.

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

I would create a vision with my client, and use empathy to relate to her. I relate to her in how she
does not feel confident in the weight room. I would also use clarity with my client when I remind her
about her goals. The other day she was saying that she was starting to have three cups of coffee again in
the mornings. I reminded her that her goal was to lose weight and cut out that third cup. I used empathy to
relate to her in the fact that I too enjoy coffee, but I reminded her of her goals and was very clear on
things she could do instead of having that third cup.