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Motivation

41 techniques · 15 approaches
ACT
Two Dials
Two Dials
A metaphor for separating discomfort from willingness. One dial shows the intensity of pain, fear or anxiety; the other shows willingness to…
ACT
Willingness Scale
Willingness Scale
A simple tool for assessing the client's willingness to experience uncomfortable sensations, thoughts or feelings in the service of values. …
BRIEF
Scaling Questions
Scaling Questions
The client rates state, progress or confidence on a scale from 0 to 10. The technique arose spontaneously when a client told de Shazer that …
Bruges
Four Levels of Engagement
Four Levels of Engagement
Isebaert expanded de Shazer's classical three-level typology to four levels: Uncommitted, Searching, Consultative, Expert. The level determi…
Bruges
Relationship Questions / Perspective-Taking Questions
Relationship Questions / Perspective-Taking Questions
The therapist invites the client to look at the situation through the eyes of a significant other — partner, child, friend. This strengthens…
Bruges
Scaling Questions — Motivation and Confidence
Scaling Questions — Motivation and Confidence
Two separate scales for two different parameters: motivation to change (how much I want) and confidence in success (how much I can). A gap b…
Bruges
Working with Uncommitted Clients
Working with Uncommitted Clients
A specific adaptation for clients referred under pressure (court, employer, family) or coming under duress. The therapist does not try to im…
CBT
Activity Scheduling
Activity Scheduling
A structured plan of daily activities, often used in depression. The client schedules specific actions and then rates them for pleasure and …
CBT
Behavioral Activation
Behavioral Activation
A behavioral treatment strategy for depression that increases contact with reinforcing activities. It begins from the observation that low m…
CBT
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A structured examination of the advantages and disadvantages of a belief, behavior or change. It is useful when ambivalence maintains avoida…
CBT
Homework Assignments
Homework Assignments
Between-session practice that turns insight into skill. In CBT, homework is not schoolwork; it is where the client tests ideas, practices ne…
CBT
Psychoeducation
Psychoeducation
Structured explanation that gives the client a usable model of their symptoms and therapy. In CBT it commonly covers the cognitive model, th…
CFT
Functional Analysis of Self-Criticism
Functional Analysis of Self-Criticism
A technique for exploring the functions of the self-critical inner voice through guided discovery. For most clients, self-criticism is not m…
CPT
Practice Assignments (Homework)
Practice Assignments (Homework)
Practice Assignments (Homework) is a CPT intervention for identifying, testing, and revising trauma-related stuck points. It helps the clien…
CPT
Psychoeducation about PTSD and CPT Rationale
Psychoeducation about PTSD and CPT Rationale
Psychoeducation about PTSD and CPT Rationale is a CPT intervention for identifying, testing, and revising trauma-related stuck points. It he…
CPT
Star Worksheet
Star Worksheet
Star Worksheet is a CPT intervention for identifying, testing, and revising trauma-related stuck points. It helps the client move from globa…
DBT
Commitment Strategies
Commitment Strategies
A set of tactics for strengthening the client's commitment to therapy and to change. Commitment is not a one-off signature, but a recurring …
ERT
Contrasting
Contrasting
Holding the current distressing state and a desired value-based state simultaneously so that the tension between them becomes motivation for…
ERT
Motivational Awareness
Motivational Awareness
Teaching the client to see emotions as informative signals about needs and values, rather than as problems that must be eliminated.
ERT
Values Clarification (ERT)
Values Clarification (ERT)
Clarifying what matters to the client so that emotions become signals for values-based engagement, not merely symptoms to reduce.
MCT
Positive Metacognitive Beliefs Modification
Positive Metacognitive Beliefs Modification
Work with beliefs of the type "worry helps me prepare", "rumination helps to find a solution", "anxiety motivates". These beliefs maintain i…
MI
Affirming (OARS)
Affirming (OARS)
Affirmations are the genuine recognition of the client's strengths, efforts, and values. It is not praise ("well done!"), but the noticing o…
MI
Affirming Change Talk (EARS)
Affirming Change Talk (EARS)
EARS is the strategy for working with change talk once heard: Elaborating, Affirming, Reflecting, Summarizing. When the client utters a chan…
MI
Developing Discrepancy
Developing Discrepancy
One of the four original principles of MI. The essence: help the client see the gap between their current behavior and what matters to them …
MI
Evoking Change Talk (DARN-CAT)
Evoking Change Talk (DARN-CAT)
Change talk is any statement by the client in favor of change. It is the heart of MI: the therapist does not convince, but creates condition…
MI
Exploring Values and Goals
Exploring Values and Goals
A technique of directly exploring what matters to the client. Values are the compass of change in MI: when behavior diverges from values, in…
MI
Importance and Confidence Rulers
Importance and Confidence Rulers
Two scales from 0 to 10 that help assess motivation and evoke change talk. The importance ruler: how important is change for the client righ…
MI
Looking Back
Looking Back
A technique for evoking change talk by exploring the past, when the client felt better or things were different. It lets them recall who the…
MI
Looking Forward
Looking Forward
A technique for evoking change talk by imagining a better future. The client projects themselves into a future where the change has happened…
MI
Querying Extremes
Querying Extremes
A technique for evoking change talk through the exploration of extreme scenarios: the worst (if nothing changes) and the best (if the change…
MI
Supporting Self-Efficacy
Supporting Self-Efficacy
The fourth principle of MI. Self-efficacy is the client's belief that they can change. Without it, even high importance of change does not l…
Morita
Desire for Life (Sei-no-Yokubo) Work
Desire for Life (Sei-no-Yokubo) Work
Uncovering and supporting the fundamental striving toward life — sei-no-yokubo. Perfectionism and anxiety are not enemies but distorted form…
Reality
No-Excuses Commitment
No-Excuses Commitment
A structured Reality Therapy technique focused on no-excuses commitment. It gives the therapist a concrete way to translate the approach's m…
Reality
Wants Exploration
Wants Exploration
A structured Reality Therapy technique focused on wants exploration. It gives the therapist a concrete way to translate the approach's model…
SFBT
Compliments
Compliments
In classical Milwaukee SFBT, compliments are not flattery but recognition of the client's concrete resources, actions, and competencies. The…
SFBT
Miracle Question
Miracle Question
The central tool of SFBT. The client describes the desired future in detailed, concrete, observable, behavioral terms. Not an abstract goal …
SFBT
Pre-session Change
Pre-session Change
A question that sets the tone for the whole therapy: the client realizes that change does not start in the office — it has already happened …
SFBT
Scaling Questions
Scaling Questions
A translation of abstract states into concrete numbers (0–10). It creates a "therapeutic tension" — a visible difference between "now" and "…
SFBT
Visitor, Complainer, Customer
Visitor, Complainer, Customer
de Shazer and Berg classified clients not by diagnosis but by the type of relationship between the client and the therapist. These are not l…
STPP
Anxiety-Provoking Technique (STAPP)
Anxiety-Provoking Technique (STAPP)
Sifneos's active use of anxiety as a motivator for insight and change in carefully selected clients.
UP
Motivation Enhancement
Motivation Enhancement
Working with ambivalence by analyzing short-term benefits and long-term costs of emotional avoidance and clarifying life goals.
Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.