Social worker: Can you tell what have you done in the past to get yourself motivated to work out? Client: I don’t know that I have done anything more. I have to exercise because I have heart disease, so my doctor always wants me to exercise. You know, mainly cardiovascular type stuff and I have just done it. I have gone periods, literally years with continuous, I mean 4, 5, 6 days a week. But the past few years I can’t sustain any long term exercise routine. I don’t seem to want to exercise for whatever reason.
The skill of using open-ended questions is a strong point in my interview with Jeff. I found it easy to incorporate the questions throughout the interview. In fact, when I used an open-ended question, Jeff would elaborate and talk in depth about his issue. Asking Jeff the question, “Can you tell me what you have done in the past to get yourself motivated to work out”, allowed Jeff to explore why he is having difficulty with his motivation for working out. The open-ended question gave him a reason to reflect on what worked and motivated him in the past. For instance, he discovered working out was more of a priority to him in the past than it is now. Recently, his hobbies have taken a precedence over working out. So, he came to the conclusion he needs to put exercising at the top of his priority list. As the questioning continued, I became more relaxed and self-assured. In general, my use of the skill of …show more content…
First, I asked how many times in the past month Jeff worked out. In particular, I wanted to identify the frequency of Jeff’s workouts and check out his perception as a way to illuminate Jeff’s lack of motivation. To explain, Jeff admitted to previously working out between 4-6 times in a week. However, he only exercised six times total in the past month. This discrepancy allowed me and Jeff to further investigate the barriers keeping him from exercising more often. In my following attempts, I asked Jeff to explain what he meant by the terms “sore” and “core”, I applied the skill of seeking concreteness to prompt Jeff into clarifying the meaning of an unfamiliar term. Admittedly, during my interview with Jeff I demonstrated suitable examples of seeking