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One preset in this category — the Prochaska & DiClemente transtheoretical model (TTM), the foundation underneath most motivational-interviewing work.

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Stages of change

Five boxes laid out horizontally with arrows between them:
  1. Pre-contemplation (blue): not yet aware
  2. Contemplation (indigo): weighing it
  3. Preparation (amber): planning
  4. Action (green): doing the thing
  5. Maintenance (green): keeping it going
Below the row: a red return arrow labelled “Relapse — return to any earlier stage.” The relapse loop is part of the model, not a failure of it. Use it for: any substance-use or behavior-change work where the clinical question is “where is this client right now in their relationship with change?” The stages give you both a shared vocabulary and a way to match the intervention to the stage. The matching principle:
  • Pre-contemplation — don’t push for action. Stay curious; build awareness.
  • Contemplation — explore ambivalence; weigh costs and benefits.
  • Preparation — concrete planning; specific commitments.
  • Action — support and reinforcement; troubleshoot obstacles.
  • Maintenance — relapse prevention; reinforce identity shift.
Pushing for action when a client is in contemplation is one of the most common ways MI-rooted work goes wrong; the diagram makes the mismatch visible. The clinical move: drop the preset, ask the client to place themselves on the line. Often the first surprise is that they put themselves further back than you expected — or further forward. Either way, the conversation opens differently than if you’d asked “are you ready to change?”. The relapse arrow is clinically important. Normalizing return to earlier stages — especially from Action back to Contemplation — reframes relapse as a known part of the model rather than a failure of effort. Search keywords the picker matches against: Prochaska, DiClemente, transtheoretical, TTM, motivational interviewing, MI. Pairs well with the choice point preset (Mindfulness + ACT) — Action and Maintenance work is full of choice points; mapping the stages and the choice points side by side gives both the long view and the moment view.

Presets overview

All 29 worksheets.

Mindfulness + ACT

Choice point pairs with action-stage work.

CBT presets

ABC model for behavioral analysis.