The Outside-the-Box Recovery Workbook

Are you in recovery from drugs and alcohol? When it comes to treatment, do you need something new, something different?  Something serious… but with creativity, humor, cartoons, moving parts, and a mariachi band?  If you’re looking for a light-hearted but paradoxically demanding workbook chock full of traditional treatment handouts presented in a very different light….well, you’ve reached the right place.

Except for the moving parts and mariachi band. We’re working on those. 

Addiction counselor, creativity guru, and humorist in one, THE OUTSIDE-THE-BOX RECOVERY WORKBOOK balances evidence-based medicine with that right-brained energy one needs to survive addiction and create a life worth living. If you’re new to recovery or a provider looking for materials for clients, this book is written for you! 

It takes hard work to stay clean.  Recovery is about accountability, changing habits and environment, dealing with the consequences of using, and earning back trust.  THE OUTSIDE-THE-BOX RECOVERY WORKBOOK walks alongside as you navigate through this complicated world.

But recovery is so much more than staying clean: you’re starting something new, and new means silliness and exploration.  It means joy.  It means creativity. It means learning to love life without drugs and alcohol. 

The workbook takes you on a 120+ page journey through a world where sobriety and passion walk hand-in-hand.  It’s about relapse prevention.  It’s also about identifying and pursuing your dreams.

This book features 30 worksheets representing a wide range of treatment approaches: motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoeducation, matrix model, dialectical behavioral therapy, coping skill training, and positive psychology.  

But there’s more. 

Yes, you guessed it: Creativity and humor!  

But why creativity and humor? Because studies show they keep people in treatment and lower relapse rate. What does that mean? It means traditional treatment supplemented by narrative therapy, creative writing, art therapy, and the comical are clinically more effective than traditional treatment alone.  Taking this into consideration, this workbook balances hard work with passion and entertainment. That means alter egos, newspaper articles, movies, cartoons, drawing exercises, word searches, odd scenarios, bucket lists, and the occasional joke. And it’s all recovery-related.

With the OUTSIDE-THE-BOX RECOVERY WORKBOOK as guide, you’ll learn more about: 

• Grieving the loss of addiction
• Dealing with triggers and cravings
• Understanding change
• Processing mistakes
• Goal-setting
• What to do if you relapse
• Getting to know the new you in recovery
• And much more!