Exploring importance and confidence for change
A motivational interviewing conversation aid with separate importance and confidence ratings. Evocative prompts invite the client's own reasons, concerns and ideas for support, without interpreting scores or requiring a decision to change.
Written by Tarun Vermani, Trainee Clinical Psychologist Last reviewed
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Exploring importance and confidence for change
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Your possible change
Use a specific possibility so both ratings refer to the same thing.
How much it matters to you
Rate importance today, separately from how easy or difficult the change might be.
How able you feel
Imagine you chose this change. Rate your confidence in doing it, even if you are unsure whether you want to.
What you want now
These numbers are prompts for a conversation. They are not a test, a total score or a judgement about readiness.
Try it here — nothing you type is saved. Sign up to assign it and let clients complete it on any device.
When to use ‘Exploring importance and confidence for change’
‘Exploring importance and confidence for change’ is an interactive motivational interviewing (MI) worksheet. Consider this resource when a client feels ambivalent about change and wants space to explore their own reasons, the importance of change and their confidence in it.
It is designed to be used within therapy rather than as a standalone self-help tool: a therapist introduces it, works through it collaboratively, and helps make sense of what it surfaces. You can preview the full worksheet above, then assign it digitally for clients to complete between sessions on any device or download it as a print-ready PDF.
How it works
Most people work through it in around 20 minutes. It moves through four short steps:
- Your possible change: Use a specific possibility so both ratings refer to the same thing.
- How much it matters to you: Rate importance today, separately from how easy or difficult the change might be.
- How able you feel: Imagine you chose this change. Rate your confidence in doing it, even if you are unsure whether you want to.
- What you want now: These numbers are prompts for a conversation. They are not a test, a total score or a judgement about readiness.
Completed on the Formulate platform, your client's answers are saved automatically and shared straight back to you, so you can review them before the next session rather than waiting for a paper copy to come back.
The MI approach behind it
‘Exploring importance and confidence for change’ draws on motivational interviewing (MI). MI is a collaborative conversation about ambivalence, including reasons to change and reasons to keep things as they are. The therapist listens for the client’s own reasons and respects their choice about what happens next. Exploring importance and confidence can distinguish wanting change from feeling able to attempt it, without turning the conversation into persuasion.
It is intended as one part of a wider course of therapy rather than as advice or a diagnosis. The therapist can help decide how it fits the work and discuss what emerges.
Evidence & sources
This worksheet draws on motivational interviewing. Key sources include:
- Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change. Guilford Press.
- Rollnick, S., Mason, P., & Butler, C. (1999). Health Behavior Change: A Guide for Practitioners. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
For use alongside professional support
Formulate provides educational CBT resources for use with a qualified therapist. They are not a substitute for professional assessment, diagnosis, or crisis care.
If you need urgent help now:
- Emergency services: 999 — if you or someone else is in immediate danger
- NHS 111 (NHS 24 in Scotland): 111 — choose the mental health option for urgent help, in England, Scotland and Wales (in Wales, press 2)
- Lifeline: 0808 808 8000 — for urgent help in Northern Ireland, free, day or night
- Samaritans: 116 123 — free, day or night, 365 days a year
- Shout: 85258 — text SHOUT, free, day or night
- SANEline: 0300 304 7000 — 4pm–10pm, every day
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