All About the Behaviour Change Framework and the Crucial Stages that Facilitate Change
What is the Behaviour Change Framework?
The Behaviour Change Framework is a set of protocols that are applied to programmes of therapy, counselling or coaching to manage the stage of change that you are currently engaged in.
It is a scientifically established approach that has been proven to help people achieve more sustainable change across a range of endeavours.
Change is comprised of four distinct stages containing processes that build progressively towards the attainment of behavioural, psychological and goal-oriented change.
Effective change is governed by successfully implementing the stage-specific change strategies contained within each phase before moving onto the next step.
The four most important stages are:
- Preparing to change.
- Taking action.
- Maintaining new behaviours, and
- Ending the active change processes.
By utilising the correct processes at the correct time, behavioural change tends to be more sustainable.
Preparation
During the preparation phase you begin to identify your specific change goals, organise support and introduce baseline tracking.
Action
During the Action phase you gain new knowledge and develop new behaviours in response to old triggers or limiting beliefs.
Maintenance
You move into the Maintenance phase when you have adopted new behaviours but need to actively manage lapses and potential relapses.
Termination
Termination marks the phase in which you no longer need to manage lapses now that new behaviours have been permanently replaced with adaptive responses.
TTM & the Behaviour Change Framework
The Behaviour Change Framework is based on the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change, or TTM, that was developed in the 1980’s which describes SIX stages of change.
The first two stages of behaviour change, however, describe the mental processes that occur before even thinking about changing (Pre-contemplation) or actively thinking about changing (Contemplation).
Because these first two stages have less relevance to the actual process of change itself, we have excluded them from our behaviour change framework.
Because fundamental change requires at least 90 days of dedicated time and effort, we only use the framework for those programmes of change that involve multiples sessions, such as the CORE Programme.
