Building a therapeutic relationship
When I first qualified as a nutritionist in 2018, I made the mistake that many new practitioners make; I believed that knowledge was everything. Now don’t get me wrong, learning was and still is an important part of what I do (and I LOVE learning), but knowledge without building a therapeutic relationship won’t create change.
Research shows that a strong therapeutic relationship is most associated with successful treatment and long term change.
Over the past 4 years my approach has significantly changed and I have invested time into becoming the best coach I can and helping people to make long term change.
Motivational interviewing (MI) is something that has had a significant impact on the way I practice.
MI is an a client centered counselling approach that focuses on eliciting behaviour change rather than forcing motivation on someone. It involves creating a collaborative and empathetic environment using core concepts that help to build a strong therapeutic relationship.
It is easy to assume that the more information and tools we give someone, and the more we tell them why they should change, the more change that will occur, when in reality individuals are more likely to commit to change when they understand what is keeping them stuck and express their own motivations for change.
Most of the clients I work with “know” what they “should” or “shouldn’t” be doing, therefore simply reiterating this often backfires, leads to more resistance and damages the therapeutic relationship.
In addition almost all eating disorder behaviours (and most other behaviours people want to change) are in someway serving a purpose. In other words it’s likely that at some point the eating disorder helped you to cope with the pressures, difficulties and uncertainties of life.
In order to create change, we must understand what needs are being met through the current behaviours and collaborate to figure out what the change process looks like
AMBIVALENCE
noun; a state of having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas
A big part of MI is the concept of ambivalence, which is a state of having mixed feelings. It’s knowing all the reasons you want to change, AND knowing all the reasons you want to stay the same. This is completely normal. If someone was 100% ready to make a change, then change would have already occurred, but with every choice there are pros and cons.
There are a number of MI strategies that are used to explore ambivalence, but the two I often use in my clinic are:
Two possible futures - this involves talking about how the client would like things to be in the future & discussing the two possible ways that things could go. For example how might things be if they change, and how might things be if they do not make a change
Decisional Balance - this involves eliciting the clients view on the pros and cons of making a specific change I.e the pros of change, the pros of no change, the cons of change and the cons of no change)
The goal within my work is to help clients discover in what way their behaviour is and isn’t working for them, recognize the discrepancy between their current behavior and their broader goals or values and to elicit change to come from within.
How can Nutritional Therapy help you in recovery?
Providing a safe and non judgemental space where thoughts and beliefs about food and unpacked
Allowing you to understand more about you and your eating patterns/behaviours
Open communication
Helping you to discover the discrepancy between your current behaviour and your personal values and ‘long term why’
Giving space for you to discover solutions and explore your own unique recovery
Collaborating to figure out what the change process looks like
Learning cognitive tools to help you challenge disordered beliefs and move towards food peace.
Helping you to feel ready and confident in your ability to make change; through self discovery; identifying and building on strengths, past successes & problem solving skills
Are you stuck in your recovery and not sure how to move forward? I can help you.
Just follow these simple steps:
Meet with me weekly
Begin your journey to freedom