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The Underrated Superhero Tools for Substance Use Counselors

The Underrated Superhero

Resources
for Clinicians

Guilt and Shame in Recovery

Quick Overview

Three pages. Page one is clinician-only and never goes to the client. Pages two and three are the client-facing worksheet: definitions, four worked examples, a six-row personal inventory, and three reflection prompts. Part 1 is designed to be completed together in session; Part 2 works as homework or a follow-up. Revisit at 30 and 60 days — the reframes should get more believable over time, and that shift is itself clinical information.
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Resource Details

Format

PDF + PNG
Category
General
Best for
Clinicians working with clients stuck in a shame spiral, clients making global self-condemning statements, or sessions focused on the impact of substance use on children. It’s useful early, when you’re trying to understand what’s driving a client’s stuckness, and useful again later as a progress measure. It is not the right tool when a client is in acute distress or when the self-condemning statements suggest risk — in that case the clinician page tells you to assess first and come back to the worksheet after.

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Suicide Prevention Screening Guide

This two-page guide equips addiction counselors with the tools to screen for suicide risk directly and confidently. It opens with why universal screening matters for clients with substance use disorders — who are 5-10x more likely to die by suicide than the general population — and addresses the common fear that asking about suicide increases risk (it doesn't). The guide provides exact language for opening the conversation, follow-up questions when a client says yes, and what to say when they say no to keep the door open. The middle section lists warning signs to watch for, from talking about being a burden to sudden calmness after depression. The final section walks through what to do if a client is at risk: staying calm, reducing access to means, creating a safety plan, involving supports, following agency protocol, and documenting everything. Crisis resources are included at the end (988, Crisis Text Line, Veterans Crisis Line, Trans Lifeline, SAMHSA).
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Guilt and Shame in Recovery

Most clients carry both guilt and shame, and most can't tell you which one they're in. The difference matters clinically: guilt points at a behavior and can be turned into action, while shame collapses into identity and takes motivation with it. This worksheet gives clients a structured way to sort their own statements into one column or the other, then practice reframing the ones that have hardened into identity. It ships with a clinician instruction page you keep — purpose, when to use it, how to introduce it, what to watch for, and how to integrate it across sessions. The paired Guilt–Shame Cycle infographic shows how the pattern moves from shame to use and back again, and where it can be interrupted.
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