Change the Story to Change the Behaviour

Sometimes, helping someone identify a new behaviour isn’t enough. If the story they’re telling themselves stays the same, their old response can still feel like the obvious one. Change the Story helps participants work on the thinking behind their behaviour. Start by asking them to describe the story that would make their preferred behaviour feel natural. Then help them question their old story: Is it always true? When is it not true? What else could be true? Ask them to look for evidence that their new story might be true and identify small experiments they could try to test it. The aim isn’t to convince themselves of a new story overnight, but to build belief in it over time so a different behaviour becomes easier to choose.