Righting reflex
Certified Financial Planner glossary · Certified Financial Planner
Definition
A counselor’s instinct to argue for the correct course, which reliably provokes the client to argue against it.
Righting reflex in plain English
A planner hears a shaky plan, blurts out why the client is wrong, and watches the client dig in harder. That is the righting reflex: the counselor's instinct to argue for the correct course, which reliably provokes the client to argue against it. Motivational interviewing teaches you to resist that urge and elicit the client's own reasons for change. On counseling stems, lecturing the fix is often the trap; exploring ambivalence is the better next move.
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