Counselling is most likely to be effective if the approach used reflects the stage of behavioural change for individual clients (see section 4.4.1). Motivational interviewing is an appropriate technique to help users in the pre contemplation stage to explore the advantages and disadvantages of their current patterns of drug use. In the contemplation stage, drug users will still be ambivalent about behavioural change. Motivational interviewing is again an appropriate technique for exploring this ambivalence. Once the client has moved into the preparation stage, goal setting, identifying internal and external supports and resources and identifying strategies to support change can help.