Staying Motivated encourages the exploration of strategies for strengthening the commitment to change. Clients begin by discussing progress and challenges in working on their “target” – the behavior or attitude they desire to change as part of the motivation group.

Participants are invited to play a brief game that reinforces potential reasons for changing drug behaviors and to practice cognitive techniques that promote self-efficacy and confidence.

The session features a leader’s script, with notes and suggested discussion questions. In addition, handout materials and worksheets for participants are included at the end of the session.

Step 1 Welcome participants. Introduce highlights of today’s session. As in past weeks, today we will continue looking at ideas to strengthen motivation and determination to make changes.

After talking about your Target Logs for this week, we’ll play a short game that explores the costs of continuing drug involvement and the benefits of change.

After that we will focus on strategies for changing our self-talk. Self-talk refers to the thoughts and beliefs we have about our ability to manage the changes we want to make. It’s the things we think and say to ourselves that pump us up or drag us down. Believing we can do something makes a difference and how we talk to ourselves can influence these beliefs.

We’re not saying that simply believing you can do something means you can do it instantly. But learning to address thoughts and self-talk that tell us we are doomed to fail can clear the air so we can realistically assess what we need to do to change.

Remember the American Indian story about the eagle: A man found an eagle's egg and hatched it with a brood of chicks and it grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the chickens did, thinking he was a chicken.

He scratched and pecked and clucked the best he could. He would flap and try to fly, but would soon give it up. The years passed. One day he saw a huge, majestic bird above him circling in the sky.

It glided gracefully on the wind and the sun reflected off of his strong golden wings. The chicken eagle looked up: "Who's that?” he asked. "That's an eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He can fly like the wind, but we're chickens, we have to stay on the ground. So the chicken eagle lived and died, never allowing himself to realize that he, too, could fly.

Briefly discuss the story with participants: What do you make of this story? What do you think it is trying to tell us about the things we tell ourselves? What do you think it has to do with motivation?

Transition to review of Target Logs with participants: As we’ve discussed already, determination and commitment are key players in staying motivated. And giving clear mental attention to the things you want to change.

That includes believing that you can figure out how to have the future you want for yourself. Let’s review your targets and what successes you had through the week.

Step 2 Invite participants to discuss their Target Logs for the previous week. First, go around the room and have participants briefly remind the group what target they are working on.

Ask the group: What is one thing you did during the past week, no matter how small, that you think helped move you toward your target?

Take the time to ask a few follow-up questions to each participant who answers the opening question. Follow-ups should be based on the participant’s response and designed to reinforce the success described.

Examples of follow-up questions: How did you make that happen? What did you keep telling yourself to make that happen? How did you know that was a good first step to take?

Wow! What kept you so committed to your goal? What personal quality helped you the most? What do you need to tell yourself more often to stay on target?

Transition to You Can Do It game: Keep working on your targets and stay focused on those small steps and tiny gains.

Small successful steps help us become more sure-footed which in turn increases our belief that we can reach goals.

Step 3 Introduce You Can Do It game by asking participants to complete Balancing Change worksheets. We’re going to play a game (a learning game) to continue our exploration of determination and commitment to making important changes.

Let’s pick up where we were last week in discussing changing drug-related behaviors in the future. To get started, give some serious thought to the directions on the worksheet and write down your thoughts.

When participants have completed their worksheets, give directions for the You Can Do It game: For this activity, we will be doing role plays.

You will role play with another group member for about 5 minutes– we’ll call that person’s role the “Devil’s Advocate” or DA, for short.

This person’s job will be to argue with you and attempt to convince you that your reasons for avoiding drug involvement are not valid, and you really should get back into “the scene.”

Your job is to use as many of the reasons, losses, and gains from your worksheet in your response. Then you and your partner will switch roles, and you will play the DA and your partner will use his/her list to respond to you.

The set-up is fairly simple. Each of you will play yourself when it is your turn. And next you will play the DA.

When it is your turn, remember to use what you wrote down on your worksheet to answer back to the DA – your most important reasons for avoiding drug-involvement, things you will lose, and things you will gain if you avoid drugs.

Then decide who will go first and who will play the DA. Keep the conversation realistic and natural.

Model how the set-up and exchange might unfold. After partners have had about 5 minutes, call time and ask them change roles.

After another 5 minutes, call time again.

To process, ask for volunteers to do their role plays in front of the group as a whole. Ask the “player” to describe a “high-risk” person or situation that they have thought about that might present a challenge or temptation.

Encourage DA to use this information in forming arguments to persuade the player.

Lead 1 or 2 volunteer role plays, as time allows. After each role play, stop and process the experience with the role players and the group. Debrief “player” role first, DA next, then get feedback from the group as a whole.

Ideas for process questions:

For Player: What did you learn about yourself from this role play? Was it easy or difficult for you to stay focused on your reasons and tune out the persuasion? What do you see as your key reason for changing your thinking about drug involvement in the future?

For DA role: How did you choose your strategy for trying to persuade the player? How did the player’s responses influence you? What did you learn from playing this role?

For Group: How well did the player do in mentioning all reasons on his/her list? What did you like best about how the player handled things? What did you learn from watching this role play?

Summarize using key points and useful ideas generated by group members.

Step 4 Introduce the idea of paying attention to “self-talk” as a strategy for helping ourselves gain a better sense of our abilities and capabilities.

Brainstorm the kinds of self-talk (what we say to ourselves; our thoughts) that interfere with motivation or sticking with a change once the changing has started.

Ask participants for examples of thoughts they have had in the past when they were considering “giving up.”

Use a map outline as described in earlier sessions to chart responses. When we think about making important changes, and when we begin taking the first steps toward determination, commitment, and action for that change, we can sometimes get tangled up in doubt.

Maybe we have tried and failed before, so we doubt we can do it this time. Maybe some of the people around us are negative and critical, so we start thinking the way they think about us.

Maybe we know absolutely that we want to change our lives, but we become nervous or scared when we try to think about how different things might be after the change.

These doubts often get played out in the kind of negative “self-talk” we have just reviewed. The question becomes – what can we do to change the selftalk so that our self-talk supports the positive changes we are considering to make our lives better.

Step 5 Distribute Negative Self-Talk handout. Introduce discussion using some of the following ideas: There are several kinds of negative self-talk that can get in the way of staying on track with our goals.

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Excerpted from Getting Motivated To Change - A collection of materials for leading counseling sessions that address motivation and readiness for change.
http://www.ibr.tcu.edu/_private/manuals/BriefInterventions/BI(06Sept)-mot.pdf