Engaging in treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be strenuous. The hard work and patience required to see success in treatment can make it difficult to maintain motivation for treatment. It takes a great deal of commitment for your clients to keep pushing forward in recovery.
If you notice your clients disengaging with recovery, it may be time for you to intervene and find out what they need to keep going. Of course, they may be resistant to making changes if they have lost motivation. You may want to use motivational interviewing when discussing the signs of disengagement you’ve noticed and the need for change.
Signs of Decreasing Motivation
It is important to be aware of your client’s motivation levels when working with them through their treatment journey. Noticing signs of decreasing motivation can help you step in before they give up. The following signs indicate that strategies to improve their levels of commitment may be needed.
Self-Isolation
If your client begins to show signs of self-isolation, they may be losing motivation to continue their recovery from alcohol addiction. Self-isolation usually involves increasing levels of disengagement in their interactions. Clients may self-isolate by missing meetings, not doing their therapy homework, avoiding eye contact, or engaging in risky behaviors that violate the boundaries they’ve set.
Lack of Incentives
If there is no rewarding factor for your client to move forward, they may lose interest in pursuing their recovery journey. Similarly, if the rewards are all long-term, your client may feel they are not worth the patience needed to reach them.
You might want to ask your client about the benefits they envision from recovery success and their level of motivation for them. Additionally, you can review your client’s treatment plans and ensure there are moments dedicated to your client celebrating their success points. If there are no incentives to move forward, they may have very little motivation to continue.
How to Motivate Clients
Each individual may require a unique approach to regaining motivation. The following steps can help you understand a client’s lack of motivation. Understanding the reasoning behind a lack of motivation can give you a clear insight into what to do moving forward.
#1 Reassess Why They Are There
Through the recovery journey, your clients may forget why they are going through all of these obstacles. When things start to improve, your clients may temporarily forget about their past hardships. This can potentially cause them to feel that treatment is no longer necessary. They may even feel that it was never needed in the first place. If this happens, it is important to review why the client originally chose to engage in treatment. Often, a simple reminder can help them stay on track.
#2 Validate Their Emotions
Many clients may feel the desire to give up in recovery because they feel the hardships of the recovery journey. Recovery is not easy, and it is okay to feel high levels of stress or discouragement. It is important to meet your clients where they are emotionally. Validating your client’s feelings toward this process can help them feel that they are not alone.
If you push their emotions to the side and only focus on the steps to improve in recovery, they may feel that they are following through with recovery for someone else’s benefit. It is important to keep your client focused on their needs and help them acquire the proper skills to manage these emotions.
#3 Refocus on Goals
In recovery, clients are required to set various goals for them to accomplish. If a client appears to be lacking motivation, take some time to reevaluate the goals they have in place. It may help to alter those goals or break them down into smaller steps. Breaking goals down into steps can help each action seem meaningful toward the end goal. If goals are too far out of reach, the small steps to accomplish them may feel unproductive, leading to a loss of motivation.
Setting aside the time to review your client’s goals with them and make necessary alterations can help them feel heard. A recovery plan is specific to each individual. They need to have a say in what that plan looks like and ensure they are engaging in goals that will better their lives. Looking at your client’s goals can also help with reassessing why they are in treatment and realigning their focus toward continued success.
Utilizing one-on-one care is a great way to further explore the current goals of the client and address the changes that need to be made. This form of care can help them receive individualized attention without an external influence impacting the goals they wish to achieve. Not all clients respond well to one-on-one care. However, building a foundation of trust can help clients open up to discussing these matters in an individualized setting.
Are They Ready to Change?
Assessing a client’s readiness to change is essential when working to improve levels of motivation. If a client never had the desire to engage in treatment, the steps you will take will likely be very different from a client who was previously engaged with treatment and has slowly lost interest. Assessing readiness to change is a great way to understand where the client is and meet their current needs. Learn what factors help to motivate the client through other aspects of life and work to incorporate those into their recovery journey.
Receiving treatment for AUD can be extremely challenging. Each client receiving treatment for the use of alcohol may be in a different state or cycle of addiction. It is important to be aware of where your client is and meet them there. Watching for signs of decreased motivation can help you determine when you need to implement tactics of motivation through your interactions. There are various ways to encourage motivation. It is important to assess what the client best responds to and work to improve motivation through means that are important to their success. To learn more about motivating clients through alcohol addiction treatment, reach out to Dream Recovery at (949) 732-1960.
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