Taking Action

To make any situation better, the woman must be willing to do the necessary work.

To help the women you are working with to get committed and be motivated, you should be positive and encouraging. You might say something like:

That’s great. You have really thought about what you want and how you might get there. I know from what you’ve told me that you have real strengths and skills already.

Then you can ask something like:

When do you want to start?

Are you ready to make a plan? Together we can figure our ways to reach that goal.

For example:

A woman wants to learn to communicate better with her husband. She will need to:

learn effective ways of talking about her feelings and what she wants;
practice the new communication skills with the counsellor;
try them out in real life situations; and
evaluate if they worked and make changes if necessary.