Revisiting Prochaska and DiClemente's stages of change theory: An expansion and specification to aid in treatment planning and outcome evaluation

Why People change and why they do not change is a question that therapists have asked for many years. For almost two decades one model of change has s tood as the standard bearer in conceptualizing the stages of change in ther apy, The need to modify the Prochaska and DiClemente model of change has co me out of our own experiences in working with patients with a variety of me ntal health issues. The addition of these new stages reflects the experienc es of clients and therapists both in and out of the therapeutic process. Th e original model has guided not only our therapy but our research as well. Me now face, times of increasing scrutiny of our therapeutic process and a reliance on research-based outcome evaluation. This increased scrutiny requ ires us to provide models with more precision to truly describe what ree do and how we do it. The development of this expanded model of change was des igned to fulfill that very purpose of more precision. This model will hopef ully provide the clinician, the researcher; the third party payer and ultim ately the patient with a more experience-centered focus from which to make their decisions.