Boundaries Are Not Walls

This three-page worksheet helps clinicians identify where their professional boundaries are thin and take action to protect their energy. It starts with a self-assessment checklist covering common boundary issues (working through lunch, saying yes when you mean no, absorbing client emotions), then moves into a reflection on what those thin boundaries are costing you physically, emotionally, and relationally. The middle section offers ready-to-use scripts for saying no in softer ways, and the worksheet ends with a commitment section where you choose one boundary to set or strengthen this month.

Best for: Clinicians who struggle with overcommitting, feel guilty saying no, or notice they're running on empty. Especially useful for new counselors who haven't yet learned that boundaries aren't about caring less — they're about caring sustainably.

Mother's Day Check-In Guide

This two-page guide helps addiction counselors proactively check in with clients before Mother's Day — a holiday that can surface grief, estrangement, parenting guilt, and painful memories. It identifies who might struggle (clients who've lost mothers, lost custody, experienced abuse, or associate the holiday with past use), offers conversation openers for different situations, and provides planning questions to help clients think through the day before it arrives. There's also specific guidance for navigating grief and estrangement, plus a list of protective factors to strengthen before the holiday hits.

Best for: Addiction counselors who want to get ahead of a high-risk holiday instead of doing damage control after. Useful for any clinician working with clients who have complicated relationships with motherhood — whether as daughters, as mothers, or both.

Mental Health Awareness Month

Screen for the whole person, not just the substance. SUD rarely travels alone. This month, recommit to checking what's underneath.

• Are you screening for depression and anxiety routinely?
• When was the last time you asked about trauma history?
• Do your clients know you're a safe person to talk about mental health with?
• Are you addressing your own mental health, or just your clients'?

Co-occurring disorders are the rule, not the exception. Treat the whole person.

End-of-School Stress for Parents in Recovery

Trend: As the school year ends, parents in recovery face unique stressors. Childcare arrangements shift, summer schedules are unpredictable, and routines that supported recovery may fall apart.

Watch for: Clients canceling more as summer approaches. Kids home, schedules shift, treatment becomes "one more thing to manage."

Try this: Proactively discuss summer planning. What's their childcare situation? How will their routine change? What support do they need to stay engaged in treatment?

Student Clinician?

Summer break brings its own challenges—loss of structure, returning to triggering environments, identity shifts. June's resources are for you. Hang in there.