National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) Practice Exam

In the Transtheoretical Model, the last stage is termination, which is reached when the person has fully integrated the new behavior and experiences no temptation to revert, with the change becoming automatic and permanent. This is why termination is sometimes considered the final stage: it signifies complete mastery and a permanently maintained behavior without ongoing struggle.

Maintenance, by contrast, is about sustaining the change over time and preventing relapse, but it does not universally imply that temptation has vanished forever. Preparation and Action are earlier stages focused on planning and actively making the change, respectively, while not yet guaranteeing permanent stability.