How do you use affirmations to reinforce change talk?

1 What are affirmations?

Affirmations are positive and supportive statements that acknowledge the client's strengths, efforts, values, or achievements. They are not compliments, praise, or flattery, which can be seen as manipulative, insincere, or patronizing. Affirmations are genuine and specific, and they relate to the client's goals or challenges. For example, you could say "You have shown a lot of courage in sharing your story with me" or "You have a clear vision of what you want to achieve".

3 How to use affirmations effectively?

To use affirmations effectively, you need to follow some basic guidelines. First, you need to listen actively and attentively to the client, and identify their change talk. Second, you need to reflect back their change talk with an affirmation that emphasizes their strengths or resources. Third, you need to avoid overdoing or underdoing affirmations, and match them to the client's readiness and stage of change. Fourth, you need to avoid sounding judgmental, sarcastic, or patronizing, and use a tone and language that suits the client's culture and preferences.

4 How to avoid common pitfalls?

When using affirmations, it is important to be sensitive, empathic, and flexible with the client's needs and context in order to avoid common pitfalls. Vague or generic affirmations that do not relate to the client's situation or goals can be detrimental, as can affirmations that imply the client is not good enough or needs to change. Additionally, affirmations that contradict the client's beliefs or feelings, or are too frequent or too infrequent, should be avoided. The best approach is to tailor your affirmations to the client's level of engagement and motivation.

5 How to practice affirmations?

One way to practice affirmations is to use the OARS model, which stands for open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries. This is a basic framework for motivational interviewing that can help you to elicit and reinforce change talk. You can use open-ended questions to invite the client to express their thoughts and feelings about change, and then use affirmations to acknowledge and support their change talk. You can also use reflections to check your understanding and show interest, and summaries to highlight the main points and transition to the next topic. You can practice this model with a colleague, a friend, or a role-play scenario, and get feedback on your affirmations.

Affirmations are a powerful tool that can help you to enhance your motivational interviewing skills and foster change in your clients or patients. By using affirmations effectively and avoiding common pitfalls, you can reinforce change talk and boost the client's self-efficacy, confidence, and motivation. How do you use affirmations in your practice? What are some examples of affirmations that you have found helpful or challenging? Share your experiences and tips with us.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?