The Most Reliable Way to Get Your Clients Talking About Change

Last updated February 2026

You sit down with a client, ready to dive in - but as the session unfolds, change never takes center stage.

You ask a question. Your client nods, gives a short answer, then looks back to you. The Q&A cycle repeats. They answer but don’t elaborate. They respond but don’t expand. You wonder if it’s something you said, the way you asked, or if they’re just not interested.

There’s an awkward pause, and you’re not sure what to do. So you fill the silence - offering tips, explaining concepts, reviewing handouts - hoping more information will move them forward. But it doesn’t.

It feels like you’re doing your part, but your client isn’t doing theirs.

As a dietitian, you’ve been trained to educate and support your clients, and you expect them to be engaged. When that doesn’t happen, it’s easy to assume your client isn’t ready or willing. But often, what shapes the conversation isn’t the client - it’s the questions you ask that set the stage for talking about change.

Want to learn what to say so your clients start talking about change? Keep reading to see why clients often stay on the sidelines - and how three types of questions can invite them to open up about the changes they want to make.

Table of Contents

• Why Clients Aren’t Talking About Change - Even When You’re Doing Everything Right

• What Change Talk Actually Is and Why It Often Gets Overlooked

• The Change Talk Navigator: A Reliable Way to Get Clients Talking About Change

  • NOW - Surface Your Client’s Concern

  • NEXT - Clarify Your Client’s Vision

  • NOT SURE - Explore Ambivalence

• Ask Questions That Put Your Client in the Lead

• Grab Your Free Copy of the Change Talk Navigator

Why Clients Aren’t Talking About Change - Even When You’re Doing Everything Right

Many dietitians are taught - explicitly or implicitly - that leading a good session means providing clients with solid education, clear guidance, and practical resources. You assess, you explain, you recommend, and you send clients home with handouts or next steps. On paper, this looks like everything a successful session should include.

And honestly, it seems like this should work. Clients come to you for expertise. You’ve spent years learning how food, health, and behavior intersect. Offering information, strategies, and support feels responsible, helpful, and professional. It makes sense to assume that if clients have the right information, they’ll know what to do.

And yet, that's not how it usually plays out. The more you explain, the more the client listens. The more you guide, the less they lead. The session feels productive, and yet the client leaves without saying much about what they want to change or how they plan to do it. Progress stalls - not because you did anything wrong, but because the way you learned to lead the session doesn’t invite your client into the driver’s seat.

What Change Talk Actually Is and Why It Often Goes Unnoticed

Change talk isn’t just “getting the client talking.” Most dietitians do that pretty well. Dietitians ask clients to answer questions and share important details. On the surface, the conversation looks productive - clients are talking about their health and nutrition - but discussing food preferences or providing a diet recall isn’t the same thing as talking about change.

Change talk happens when a client voices their own reasons, desires, or readiness to do something differently. It shows up when a client starts reflecting, weighing options, or naming what matters to them - not when they’re simply responding to prompts or listening to advice. Because it can be subtle, and because dietitians aren't always trained to notice it or create space for it, change talk can easily go unrecognized during client sessions.

A big reason change talk goes unnoticed is that most default questions don’t naturally invite it. Assessment-style questions gather data. Education-focused questions set you up to explain. Even well-intentioned questions can keep the client in a passive role, answering and waiting for the next question instead of leading the conversation.

So if change talk feels MIA during your client visits, it’s not because there’s something wrong with you or your clients. It can emerge naturally, but it often works best when it’s intentionally invited and recognized. Once you understand what change talk actually is (and isn’t) and why it gets overlooked, it becomes much easier to invite it when it’s missing - and adjust your response when it appears.

The Change Talk Navigator: A Reliable Way to Get Clients Talking About Change

When change talk feels absent in client sessions, it’s tempting to assume you need more training or a completely different counseling style. But often, what’s missing isn’t skill - it’s a clear starting point for leading change conversations.

Eliciting change talk doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right opening questions, you can set clients up to talk about change early in the session - without doing all the work yourself.

Introducing The Change Talk Navigator: a simple three-step approach to help you uncover what matters most to your client, clarify their vision of success, and create space for honest reflection.

NOW - Surface Your Client’s Concern

Start by uncovering what’s on your client’s mind right now - the concern that brought them to you today. This isn’t about checking off assessments or jumping straight into education mode. It’s about discovering what matters most from your client's perspective. Doing this sets a collaborative tone for the session and signals to your client that the session is built around their concerns, not your agenda.

These questions uncover not just what brought your client in today, but the context behind it - their past attempts, experiences, and frustrations. These questions can give you insight into what feels most heavy right now and help you appreciate your client’s lived experience.

Some NOW questions to start this conversation:

• “What brought you here today?”

• “What’s your biggest concern?”

• “What have you tried so far, and how did it go?”

• “What are your thoughts about being here today?”

• “What would make this session most useful for you?”

Use NOW questions as conversation starters that give your client room to reflect and guide the session. Surfacing your client’s concern sets the stage for change talk.

NEXT - Clarify Your Client’s Vision

Once you’ve surfaced your client’s main concern, the next step is to explore what success looks like for them. This isn’t about suggesting the “right” outcome or giving advice. It’s about seeing the change through their eyes and understanding what a meaningful result would be for them.

These questions highlight your client’s priorities, motivators, and personal definition of success. They also make it clear that the session is shaped around the outcomes they care about, not your quality metrics.

Some NEXT questions to guide this part of the conversation:

• “What result would you like to achieve?”

• “What makes that result important to you?”

• “What does success look like for you?”

• “What will be different when you succeed?”

• “How will you know when you’re successful?”

Use NEXT questions as prompts for your client to paint a clear picture of their goals. Clarifying your client’s vision keeps the session focused, collaborative, and centered on the outcomes they want to create.

NOT SURE - Explore Ambivalence

This step is about uncovering the hesitations, mixed feelings, or barriers your client may be experiencing. It’s not about pushing for answers or solving the problem for them. It’s about surfacing the uncertainty that can quietly stall progress.

These questions help reveal what’s holding your client back, uncover their doubts or obstacles, and invite them to consider what actually motivates them. They also communicate that it’s safe to voice doubts, making the session a space for honest reflection.

Some NOT SURE questions to open this conversation:

• “What do you wish were different?”

• “What do you wish would stay the same?”

• “What will happen if things change?”

• “What will happen if nothing changes?”

• “What if there was a 100% chance you’d succeed?”

Use NOT SURE questions to help your client explore both sides of their uncertainty. This creates space for reflection, highlights potential barriers, and gives them room to weigh both sides of a change before making a commitment.

Ask Questions That Put Your Client in the Lead

Client change can feel complex, but the Change Talk Navigator’s NOW → NEXT → NOT SURE framework gives you a clear way to guide these conversations with focus and intention. These three prompts invite your client to share what matters most, clarify their vision of success, and voice any doubts - so you can step back and follow their lead.

Eliciting change talk might feel unfamiliar at first, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. Questions that invite reflection can shift the energy of a session, helping clients feel seen, heard, and ready to talk about the changes they want to make.

Start with NOW to uncover their current experience, move to NEXT to define where they want to go, and use NOT SURE to explore what’s getting in the way. With these questions in hand, every session becomes a space where clients feel valued, take ownership, and explore progress toward their goals.

Change talk empowers clients to voice their own reasons, desires, and readiness for change while giving you the insight to guide the session without taking over. With practice, the pauses in client sessions don’t have to feel so awkward - they can become moments of reflection, clarity, and progress, transforming every session into an opportunity for your client to take an active role in change.

👉 Quick question: Which set of questions - NOW, NEXT, or NOT SURE - feels most useful for your next client session? Drop your pick below!

Grab Your Free Copy of The Change Talk Navigator

Want an easy way to spark change talk in client sessions? Grab your free copy of The Change Talk Navigator, a simple framework that turns one-sided sessions into client-led conversations about change.