Our Blog
Cementing Commitment to Change
Business models contain compelling indicators for building personal commitment to change and the applicability of these models to health behaviour change is very appropriate. Click here, for example, to see one graphic representation of a business model depicting the process of committing to change. read more…
A Clean Perspective
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning, while they are eating breakfast, the young woman, Steph sees her neighbor hang her wash outside.That laundry is not very clean, said Steph, she doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap. read more…
Asking permission
As health care practitioners, we have a veritable repository of information about positive health behaviours. We are experts in our respective fields of health care, from oral health care to nutrition management to occupational therapy etc. read more…
Client Strengths
In the English language, what is the longest word that contains only one vowel? The answer is s-t-r-e-n-g-t-h. We often think of strength as a physical attribute, one associated with muscle, power, and physique. In the context of client/patient work in the health professions, client strengths are critically important character traits. read more…
Readiness to Change
Change, according to one quaint saying, is inevitable…except from a vending machine. The truth is that for most of our clients, change is very hard and most certainly not automatically inevitable. In the Motivational Interviewing literature, Miller and Rollnick often discuss the fact that motivation to change is enhanced when clients perceive discrepancies between their current situation and their desires or needs for the future. read more…
Chunking Down Health Issues with your Clients
We are multi-taskers; we spend our days trying to do so many things at the same time, all in the name of efficiency and accomplishment, or so we think. Most often, our multi-focus results in strong feelings of getting nowhere fast or being too busy, swamped, and just plain overwhelmed. read more…
Getting to the Core of your Clients
You may be familiar with the TED talks, a nonprofit venture devoted to ideas worth spreading. They are available online and they are inspirational. Recently, Simon Sinek did a talk wherein he revealed a very simple, but powerful model for inspirational leadership. It can be viewed and heard at https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action/comments
See Me…Heal Me
‘See Me…Feel Me…Touch Me…Heal Me‘ forms the haunting, opening song lyrics composed by The Who for the performance of the Tommy Rock Opera in the late 1960s. As a refrain, they are particularly appropriate, poignant, and even prescriptive words-to-heed for health practitioners. read more…
We’re all busy, why bother learning Applied Motivational Interviewing (AMI) tools?
There are so many continuing education options out there for practitioners, and so little time for you to do them all. So, what does the research tell us about why we should bother learning AMI tools? Well, it is clear that MI is not a fad, and now that enough time has passed and enough studies have been conducted on the various approaches to MI, we can conclude that both clients and practitioners benefit greatly when applied systems of delivering MI are used. read more…
Affirming and Acknowledging ~ Keys to Reflective Listening
‘What is it like to be you?’ Imagine if this question were the fundamental or main question you kept in mind when counseling and working with your patients. Every one of us is unique and special. As health professionals, it is vital to be in the mind-set of genuine curiosity about each and every patient. read more…