Following this exercise, the patient is asked to rate their motivation to change on a scale of 1 to 10, with higher numbers indicating greater

motivation. Based on this score, the patient is asked to describe both (a) why the score is not higher, and (b) why the score is not lower. This allows the patient to observe their Selleck Trichostatin A ambivalence about behavior change, which often pushes the patient toward being more strongly motivated to make changes while acknowledging the barriers they may encounter in making changes. Typically, asking about why they did not score a lower number facilitates positive change talk about wanting to change, and asking about why they did not score

a higher number facilitates a discussion about barriers. In some cases, after eliciting all the pros and cons of both changing and not changing, therapists may want to only ask why they did not score a lower number to keep the focus of the conversation on motivations for change versus reasons for not wanting to change. Aaron” is a 25-year-old bisexual male who is in a relationship with another male, has a long history of depression, and was infected with HIV by a male partner 2 years ago. His experiences with depression pre-date his HIV-infection, but Imatinib in vitro his acquisition of the virus substantially impacted his symptoms. His depressive symptoms are maintained Mirabegron by various patterns common to many individuals with depression, including cognitive distortions (e.g., mind-reading, catastrophic thinking) and maladaptive behavioral patterns (e.g., inactivity, getting into arguments).These patterns further manifest themselves in terms of his thoughts and behaviors associated

with his HIV infection. For example, Aaron notes that when he has negative thoughts and feels hopeless, he does not feel motivated to stay healthy and often skips ART doses. In Video clip 3, the therapist describes the three components of depression and elicits personalized examples of thoughts, behaviors, and physiological reactions by asking Aaron to recall a specific and recent day when his depression was especially pronounced. In this example, Aaron recently had an art show that he perceives did not go well because attendees did not purchase his work. First, the therapist identifies several negative thoughts related to the situation (e.g., “I’m worthless”; “I’m never going to have the success I had before”), and Aaron notes that these thoughts triggered additional thoughts related to his HIV status (e.g., “I’m a loser for having HIV”; “I’m going to be alone”).