SUPPORTING A GROWTH MINDSET
MINDSET & HEALTH
Fixed Mindset & Health
-Hiding perceived flaws in physique and biology
-Puts idealist concepts of beauty above mental & physical wellbeing.
-Discouraged when little effort doesn’t result in big physical changes.
-Gives up easily
-Compares their progress to others.
-#1 Goal = WEIGHT LOSS & “IDEAL” PHYSIQUE AT ALL COST
Growth Mindset & Health
-Embracing & understanding their nature, strengths and biology
-Striving to learn how to support health in all aspects of life.
-Welcomes feedback and suggestions for improvement.
-Builds a support network and uses positive models as inspiration.
-Is willing to take small steps towards health.
-#1 Goal = SUSTAINABLE PHYSICAL & MENTAL WELLBEING, ENERGY & STRENGTH
NUTRITION COUNSELING TIPS:
#1: HAVE COMPASSION AND FLEXIBILITY WITH YOUR CLIENT. ALLOW FOR INDIVIDUALS TO START WHERE THEY ARE AND HELP THEM GROW IN HEALTH INCREMENTALLy.
When it comes to making a new healthy habit, we can be rather hard on ourselves, expecting the ability to come naturally. And when we don’t succeed in making the change on the first, second, or third try, the failure has a huge mental impact on our perceived ability to succeed, and we give up.
A Growth Mindset toward health allows the flexibility for a “start where you are and grow from there” approach to change. As a counselor, the key to their success will be to make sure that the language and dialogue that you use with your client has a high concentration of growth mindset-based language. You can help your clients to practice explaining events that happen in their life using a learning vocabulary.
In your counseling sessions make sure that you choose your words wisely. The words that you choose are extremely important; when thinking about cultivating an individual’s ability to grow in health, use the words grow, learn, develop, and stretch, instead of “you should have”, “you could have”, “you didn’t”.
Help your client to stay open to change and adjustments. Create opportunities for growth by changing your explanatory style. (i.e., instead of I can’t, say, I can’t yet. Instead of I haven’t done it, say, I haven’t done it yet). Give yourself the flexibility to grow by adding learning vocabulary when you are explaining areas of your life that you want to improve.
Your role is to help your client to build more self-compassion and be patient with themselves. You are the guide that can help them understand that making permanent changes is challenging, but through consistency, the effort they put into their health will enhance their quality of life.
Focus on:
Identifying Fixed Mindset language in your client and helping them to stop and practice re-framing the way that they explain bad events, challenges, and set-backs.
Establishing the concept of a learning curve in their journey towards health and supporting incremental growth, celebrating small wins, and strategizing growth from obstacles or set-backs.
#2: YOUR ROLE IS TO HELP CLIENTS LEARN HOW TO CRITICALLY THINK THROUGH DIFFICULT TIMES, RATHER THAN JUST LEARN TO AVOID THEM.
To create self-sufficiency, you must ask the right questions to help your client to learn how to critically think through how they would handle difficult times. Our natural tendency as an educator or counselor is to fix individuals by giving them the answers and telling them what to do next.
An effective nutrition counselor will ask questions that will guide the client to the correct answer, but let the client conclude on their own.
There are times where we will hold all of the hope for their client to make drastic changes, but this doesn’t mean that we have to hold them up without their ability to figure out how to navigate situations on their own in the future.
Your #1 Goal at the end of your counseling session is for the client to have come up with multiple strategies to develop healthy habits, navigate unhealthy situations, and learn to have positive healthy coping mechanisms. You want them to become self-sufficient and no longer need your support after you are done working with them. You do not want them to be co-dependent on your help to stay healthy.
Encourage your clients to study Growth Mindset further.
REFERENCE: Dweck, C. S. (2008) Mindset: the new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.
