Sydney Kanuch

Behavior Change Plan – Part One

Due Date: 10/26/23

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)
● Feel better
○ Physically
○ Mentally
● Improve overall health
● Trip to italy next summer
○ Wants to be able to walk throughout the towns during the vacation
● Be able to assist her husband who has early onset Parkinson’s disease

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)
● Self-confidence; struggles looking in the mirror
● Losing weight; doesn’t like looking at the number on the scale
● Decrease stress/improve mood to deal with it in a better, more positive way
○ Strength training two days/week is incorporated into her exercise program
○ Cardiorespiratory exercise is also incorporated into her exercise program at
least three times a week, including treadmill walk and a weekly outdoor walk
on saturday mornings
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)
● Reasons to stay the same:
○ Benefits of staying the same:
■ Being comfortable with a routine
■ Nothing changes
■ One less thing to plan/think about
■ Use time for something else such as hobbies
○ Concerns about change:
■ Have to rearrange daily routine
■ Fear of injury/falling
■ Fear of doing it alone, not having a partner
 ■ Being shy/insecure at the gym
■ Fear of judgment
● Reasons to change:
○ Concerns about staying the same:
■ Not being confident in yourself
■ Insecure of going out to places
■ Staying stressed, not having a “release”
■ Decline in mental health
○ Benefits of change:
■ Increase in self confidence
■ Mentally feel better
■ Physically feel better
■ Relieve stress
■ Improve cardiovascular fitness
■ Improve overall strength

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)
● Confidence Ruler: 6; (60%) believes she will achieve her goal. She has more
confidence in achieving her goal during the 13 weeks of the program, but her worry is
sticking with the routine after the program is over.

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 was in? Explain (1 pt)
No, I do not agree that this was the client’s stage of change at the beginning of the semester. I

believe my client was in the preparation stage rather than the action stage. She checked off

questions 1, 2, and 3 as “yes” and question 4 as “no”. I chose the preparation phase as a more

accurate representation of where my client was in the beginning of the semester because she said

“yes” to “I currently exercise regularly” but didn’t meet the ACSM guidelines. The only exercise

she participated in was a short walk outside (if weather permitted) one day per week.

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

I believe my client is in the action stage now, because she exercises regularly. She now

meets the ACSM guidelines with her exercise regimen of at least 150 minutes per week.

The difference between the beginning of the semester and now is pretty much just the

fact of regular exercise while meeting guidelines.

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)
Based on what I found from the questionnaire, it seems my client has low to moderate

self-efficacy towards exercise. She didn’t answer “extremely confident” to exercise for any of the

questions and seems to have motivational issues when it comes to being tired, away from home, or

inadequate weather conditions. To improve my client’s self-efficacy, I will provide extra motivation

and keep each exercise session both interactive and engaging. This way, boredom and disinterest

can be minimized. For poor weather conditions, I will recommend my client use her at home gym to
move her body in some way. If motivation is the main issue, my client may also benefit from having

a workout partner in the future to hold each other accountable.

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

There are a lot of pros within the decisional balance data for my client. She “strongly

agreed” with most of the questions, which shows me excitement and potential to work towards real

progress/improvements. My client realizes exercising regularly will help improve things such as

increase in energy, increase in mood, decrease in stress/tension, and overall confidence. All of these

aspects can tie into an improved quality of life in general. The only cons I came across however

were when my client didn’t seem sure on her exercise commitment during bad weather. This is due

to her hobby of walking her dog with her brother on saturday mornings. However, skipping due to

bad weather could also be avoided by using her at home gym for the morning instead.

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 non aerobic exercise health related behavior that my client is working on is

decreasing Dr. Pepper intake. She has a habit of drinking at least 1 can of Dr. Pepper about 6 days

out of the week. The stage of change for this specific behavior is contemplation. I came to this

conclusion because my client has not actually taken any steps towards decreasing this soda intake,

but intends to do so.

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)
 My client wants to change this behavior because the constant soda intake makes her

feel sluggish, bloated, and unhealthy overall. By decreasing this intake, she believes

these three aspects will improve drastically.

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

My client isn’t thrilled about changing this behavior because she looks forward to this

can of Dr. Pepper everyday after work as a “relaxing reward” from the long day. She will

still be able to look forward to this by not changing the behavior.

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

My client’s strategy for overcoming this con is to find another “relaxing reward” for

after a long day of work. For instance, instead of grabbing a can of Dr. Pepper, she can get in a

warm bath or do some yoga to release tension and stress from the day.

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

My client’s self-efficacy with regard to this health related behavior is definitely in the

low category. She has interest in changing this behavior, but isn’t excited about the action part of

the change. It’s almost like a “talks the talk” type of situation is what I’ve noticed.

8. List and describe which coaching skills for behavior change you will implement to help your
client with this behavior. (2 pts)
The coaching skills I will implement to help my client with this behavior is creating a
vision and using clarity. Creating a vision builds on both past accomplishments and future
goals. This would be a good starting point because my client knows where she stands and the
changes she wants to make/work on. Helping my client visualize the future benefits of
partaking in this behavior change could be quite beneficial for the motivation process.
Including the coaching skill clarity may also be helpful, because it seems as though my client
needs complete honesty and openness about her priorities, goals, issues, and motivators. By
sitting down for this conversation and listing out the subcategories of these topics, my client
will be able to clearly see and interpret what will need to happen on her part for this change
to take place.