I Am the Problem… It’s Me?
I was so determined to help people hear that I didn’t realize I might be driving them to talk themselves out of hearing aids.
I genuinely wanted to help. I tried to convince them to treat their hearing loss, but in doing so, I may have unintentionally steered them away from hearing aids. In my eagerness to encourage action, I inadvertently shaped the conversation—guiding patients to focus on their doubts rather than their needs.
Consider this common scenario: A patient says, “I’m struggling to hear a bit, but hearing aids seem unnecessary.”
My usual response? Anything from:
“You’re worth the investment.”
“It will improve your relationships.”
“Can you put a price on hearing your grandchildren?”
“They’re discreet and easy to use.”
It took time to realize that by responding this way, by trying to pull them down my path, I was prompting them to defend their hesitation. Their replies almost always began with “Yes, but…” followed by a justification:
“Yes, but I’m on a fixed income.”
“Yes, but I don’t really get out much anyway.”
“Yes, but I only see them once a month.”
The result was that the patient had now created a list of all the reasons they did not need to treat their hearing loss. And I had to ask myself: Do I really want patients to spend our valuable appointment time listing reasons they may not need or want hearing aids? That didn’t feel productive.
So, I systematically changed how I responded—and what I found was that it completely transformed the conversation.
Now, when a patient says, “I’m struggling to hear a bit, but hearing aids seem unnecessary,” I respond with curiosity. I ask questions like:
“When are you struggling to hear?”
“How do you cope when you can’t hear?”
“How has that affected your relationship with them?”
These questions prompt patients to reflect on the impact of their hearing loss and often encourage them to articulate why treatment is important to them. Over the course of an appointment, these motivation-building reflections add up. A patient who spends an hour expressing why they want hearing aids is far more likely to proceed than one who spends that time explaining why it’s not feasible.
After all, patients are far more likely to believe themselves than they are to believe me. And truthfully, letting them convince themselves to take action is far less work for the clinician. I felt lighter.
Understanding the science behind this psychological shift is the foundation of my new book, Motivational Interviewing for Hearing Care Providers. If you want to understand how your responses may be helping (or hindering) your practice, and ultimately affecting hearing aid adoption, I encourage you to read it.
Alternatively, you could spend more marketing dollars to attract new patients or offer discounts on your services as incentives. But what I’m offering is essentially free: a simple shift in wording with the patient already sitting in front of you.
Motivational Interviewing for Hearing Care Providers is a practical, evidence-based guide designed to transform how hearing care professionals communicate with patients. Drawing on the proven success of motivational interviewing in health care, this book breaks down MI into actionable strategies explicitly tailored for hearing care settings. It includes real-world transcripts, reflection prompts, and learning activities that help readers shift from advice-giving to patient-led conversations.
Whether you're a clinic owner, audiologist, hearing instrument specialist, student, or front desk staff member, this book offers tools to enhance patient engagement and increase treatment uptake. It also features hearing care-specific dialogues, bolded key terms, and chapter-end exercises to reinforce learning. Educators will find resources to support training, and practitioners can test their skills and plan next steps with built-in assessments and implementation guides.
This isn’t just a book; it’s a blueprint for reshaping your practice from the inside out.
Together, let’s treat hearing loss sooner.
We are the solution. It’s us.