Which approach best supports a client who is ambivalent about change but wants to explore options?

• A. Present a fixed plan and push for compliance
• B. Encourage the client to articulate their own ideas and acknowledge changing conditions
• C. Dismiss the client's feelings
• D. Emphasize agency requirements

Answer: (B)

When a client is ambivalent about change but wants to explore options, the best approach is to adopt a collaborative, client-centered stance that invites the client to articulate their own ideas and to acknowledge how changing conditions influence decisions. This mindset aligns with motivational interviewing and person-centered practice, which aim to reduce resistance by honoring autonomy and curiosity rather than pushing toward a particular outcome.

Why this works: inviting the client’s own ideas helps them articulate what matters to them, weigh options, and voice concerns in a nonjudgmental space. Recognizing changing life conditions—such as finances, relationships, or work—helps tailor options to what is realistically doable, increasing motivation to consider one or more paths. This approach fosters engagement, builds self-efficacy, and moves ambivalence toward action at the client’s pace.

In practice, you’d encourage exploration with open-ended prompts like: what options do you think might work for you? how would changes in your situation affect these options? what are the pros and cons of each path? And you’d reflect and summarize to show you’re listening and to help the client hear their own motivations.

Other approaches—pushing a fixed plan, dismissing the client’s feelings, or emphasizing external requirements—tend to shut down honesty, escalate resistance, and undermine the client’s sense of control.