Question
What is change talk and sustain talk?
Answer
There is a thing called change talk, and there is a thing called sustain talk. Sustain talk is language or things that we (clinicians) say or do that increase the resistance, that move the client towards resistance and staying the same.
Change talk is language or things that we (clinicians) say or do that decrease the resistance and moves the client in a positive direction.
Motivational Interviewing involves change talk. Clinicians say and do things that will move the client in a more positive direction. Change talk helps to take the tension off the rope. The harder we try to pull the client toward us, the more they are likely to resist. So, change talk is a way in which we are able to keep the slack in the rope. And hopefully, as we do that, the client will move in a more positive direction.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Motivational Interviewing: A Different Way of Looking At It, presented by John Smith, PhD, LCSW.
