Helping clients think through their causal models: application to counseling clients to exercise.
This article presents a model for therapy using active investigation of causal attributions made by the client. Causal attributions guide behavior. Often wrong attributions (excuses) force the individual to waste effort and time in making changes that do not lead to desired behavior. Many focus on their motivation and not external causes of their behavior. As a consequence, they relapse into old habits when their motivation waivers. Others gather information that is not causally linked to their behavior, and therefore of little use in understanding the mechanism for change. The role of clinician is envisioned as being to guide the clients to seek causal explanations for their behavior, to correct false attributions, and to help the clients use the causal mechanisms they have found to change their behavior. In theory, at least, it is expected that when causes of the unhealthy behavior are removed, lasting change will occur and the client is less likely to go through cycles of improvement and relapse. This article shows how the clinician can conduct causal analysis of the client's behavior. This model for therapy is in the tradition of solution-focused approaches to helping individuals make psychological and behavioral changes. A case example is also presented, where the client is trying to increase his or her exercise patterns.
Sinkule
Jennifer A
JA
Department of Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA. jsinkule@gmu.edu
Alemi
Farrokh
F
D015984:Causality; D003376:Counseling; D015444:Exercise; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013850:Thinking; D014481:United States; D015431:Weight Loss