Motivational Techniques & Coaching Flashcards

After a Graston session, which home-program instruction best supports adherence?

Answer: "Do 3 sets of 15 calf eccentrics each evening after brushing your teeth."

Specific dosing tied to an existing daily habit makes the exercise easier to remember and do.

Which acronym describes the core skills of motivational interviewing?

Answer: OARS

OARS stands for Open questions, Affirmations, Reflections, and Summaries.

What is an affirmation in a patient-coaching context?

Answer: Recognizing the patient's strengths, efforts, or values

Affirmations recognize real effort or strengths, which builds rapport and self-efficacy.

A patient rates their confidence in doing a home stretching program at 4 out of 10. What is the best follow-up question?

Answer: "Why did you pick 4 and not 1, and what would move it up to 6?"

Asking why the score isn't lower draws out strengths, and asking what would raise it finds next steps.

In motivational interviewing, what does "change talk" refer to?

Answer: Patient statements that favor movement toward change

Change talk is the patient's own speech about desire, ability, reasons, need, or commitment to change.

A patient with plantar fasciopathy feels discouraged after 3 sessions. Which coaching approach best restores motivation?

Answer: Review objective gains such as morning first-step pain and walking tolerance compared with baseline

Showing measurable progress from baseline builds the patient's belief that treatment is working.

A patient receiving Graston Technique for lateral epicondylopathy says, "I know I should do my eccentric exercises, but I never find time." Which motivational interviewing response is a reflection of ambivalence?

Answer: "Part of you wants to do the exercises, and part of you feels too busy to fit them in."

A double-sided reflection states both sides of the patient's ambivalence without judging it.