How can you use Agenda Mapping to help clients prioritize goals?

2 How to do Agenda Mapping?

Agenda Mapping involves four steps: brainstorming, organizing, selecting, and planning. In the brainstorming step, you ask your clients to name all the topics or issues that they want to address, and write them down as bullet points. You can use open-ended questions, reflections, and summaries to help them generate ideas. In the organizing step, you help your clients group the topics into categories, and label them with headings. You can also ask them to rank the topics by importance, urgency, or difficulty. In the selecting step, you invite your clients to choose one or more topics that they want to work on first, and explain their reasons. You can use affirmations, reflections, and decisional balance to support their choices. In the planning step, you help your clients define their goals, actions, and outcomes for each topic, and write them down as sub-bullets. You can use scaling questions, SMART criteria, and commitment language to help them create a plan.

3 Why use Agenda Mapping?

Agenda Mapping can help you and your clients achieve several benefits. First, it can help you establish rapport and trust with your clients, by showing them that you are interested in their views, and that you respect their autonomy and agency. Second, it can help you assess your clients' motivation and readiness for change, by observing their level of engagement, enthusiasm, and confidence in the process. Third, it can help you address your clients' ambivalence or resistance, by acknowledging their concerns, exploring their pros and cons, and reinforcing their change talk. Fourth, it can help you enhance your clients' self-efficacy and empowerment, by helping them identify their strengths, resources, and supports, and by celebrating their achievements and progress.

4 When to use Agenda Mapping?

Agenda Mapping can be used at different stages of your Motivational Interviewing practice, depending on your clients' needs and goals. You can use Agenda Mapping at the beginning of your relationship, to get to know your clients better, and to establish a common agenda and direction. You can use Agenda Mapping in the middle of your relationship, to review your clients' progress, and to adjust or modify their goals and plans. You can use Agenda Mapping at the end of your relationship, to summarize your clients' outcomes, and to prepare them for termination or transition.

5 What are some tips for Agenda Mapping?

Agenda Mapping is a flexible and creative technique, but it also requires some skills and strategies to make it effective. To ensure success, use a collaborative and respectful tone, avoid imposing your own agenda or opinions on your clients, and use clear and simple language to check their understanding and agreement throughout the process. Visual cues, such as colors, shapes, or symbols can make the map more appealing and memorable for your clients. Additionally, OARS skills (open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries) can guide and support their participation and expression. Finally, applying the MI principles (express empathy, develop discrepancy, roll with resistance, and support self-efficacy) can enhance their motivation and readiness for change.