Models and Techniques of Change:
Changing for Good

Changing for Good by James Prochaska, John Norcross and Carlo DiCLemente (Avon:New York 1994) 

presents a six stage program for maintaining change particularly focusing on individual behavior.  The observations in the book are easily applied in the wider framework of changing to sustainable practices in individuals and organizations.   The authors describe nine techniques for change: 

1) consciousness raising – increasing information about self and problem

2) social liberation – increasing social alternatives for behaviors that are not problematic

3) Emotional arousal – experiencing and expressing feelings about one’s problems and solutions

4) self-reevaluation – assessing feelings and thoughts about self with respect to a problem

5) commitment – choosing and committing to act, or belief in ability to change

6) countering – substituting alternatives for problem behaviors

7) environment control – avoiding stimuli that elicit problem behaviors

8) reward – rewarding self or being rewarded by others for making changes

9) helping relationships – enlisting the help of someone who cares 

These techniques for achieving change are correlated to six stages of change which the authors have observed: 

                    1) Precontemplation or denial

2) contemplation – beginning to acknowledge a problem

3) preparation – planning to take action

4) action – modifying previous action

5) maintenance – sustaining new behavior

6) termination – new behavior is a habit 

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