Communication skills for health behaviour change
A self-guided foundation using quizzes, reflection, and interactive videos to hone your core skills in empathic communication.
This course contains 6 modules, equivalent to 6 CPD hours
It is focuses on changing health behaviours but trains skills that will be invaluable in all healthcare and business leadership settings where you want to empower people to achieve their goals.
Module 1 – Understanding individuals’ health behaviours
Meet our four case studies and delve into your own choices to understand why behaviour change is hard.
Module 2 – Exploring a person’s situation with open ended questions
Learn how to use open questions to understand the person's situation and incentives, to discover what they know, what they are finding difficult, and what they want to get out of their consultation with you. See the difference between empathic and coercive questioning.
Module 3 – Reflection
Reflection is the single most important skill for empathic listening. Learn how to identify examples of good and poor reflection in our interactive videos. Practice responding with reflections that demonstrate understanding and motivate change.
Module 4 – Affirmation
Explore how to use reflection to build someone’s confidence that they can overcome challenges and achieve success.
Module 5 – Change talk
So far you have learned how to use open questions, reflection, and affirmation to understand the person’s situation and to help them feel capable and in control, core elements of motivation. This topic teaches you how to recognise when the person is ready to move forward, for example to receive advice or start making some changes.
Module 6 – Consolidation of skills
This module levels up your skills with interactive videos and exercises that test your performance in more complex conversations. Learn how to repair a conversation and when to embrace silence. Hear from clients the difference that listening makes.