At the end of the preparation stage, clients make a plan for change to guide them into the action stage. This chapter focuses on negotiating this specific change plan with clients. Changing any long-standing, habitual behavior requires preparation and planning. As your clients move from contemplating to actually implementing change in their lives, they are in an intermediate stage in which they increase their commitment to change by exploring, clarifying, and resolving their ambivalence and making a decision to act. In the transtheoretical model, this stage is known as preparation. Clients must see change as in their best interest before they can move into action. The negative consequences of ignoring the preparation stage can be a brief course of action followed by rapid return to substance use.