Whether you are autistic, exploring a possible diagnosis, supporting an autistic family member, or looking for services, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. ASD resources aren’t only for young children—support may be helpful throughout adolescence and adulthood as needs, goals, and circumstances change.
1. Autism Help and Information | Autism Speaks You can find the information that you need by searching by topic or life stage. There is also the ability to apply filters such as the level of support needs (some support, moderate amount of support, intensive support) of the person with ASD.
4. Autistic Self Advocacy Network The Autistic Self Advocacy Network seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement with regard to ASD. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities.
5. 100 Day Kit School Age Children This 100 Day Kit was created to help you make the best possible use of the next 100 days in the life of your child. It contains information and advice collected from trusted and respected experts on ASD and from parents like you.
6. Autism diagnosis | Autism Speaks Whether you’re looking for information about the diagnostic criteria for ASD, navigating the process of getting an autism diagnosis for your child, or exploring the steps involved in getting a diagnosis as an adult, you’ve come to the right place.
7. Autism Navigator Autism Navigator® is a web-based instructional program developed by the Florida State University Autism Institute to increase the capacity of primary care, early intervention, and other service providers, as well as families, to better serve young children with or at risk for ASD.
8. Center for Parent Information and Resources All the materials found on the CPIR Hub have been created and archived for Parent Centers around the country to help them provide support and services to the families they serve.
9. Child Mind Institute | Transforming Children’s Lives The Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families experiencing mental health and learning disorders through excellence in science, education, and care.
10. Families | Organization for Autism Research The diagnosis of ASD is a life-changing event. Through informed action and the use of treatments and interventions that match your autistic child’s development, you can enhance your child’s quality of life.
11. Family Voices All children, youth, and families, especially those with special health care needs and disabilities, experience their best health and quality of life.
12. Organization for Autism Research | Helping Families Today The Organization for Autism Research (OAR) is dedicated to improving the lives of autistic individuals, their families, and supporters by funding practical research and providing valuable resources.
13. Sesame Workshop-Autism Sesame Workshop is a global nonprofit organization with a mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.
These resources offer practical information, tools, and support to help autistic adults navigate healthcare, relationships, independence, self-advocacy, and everyday life.
16. Adult Autism Health Resources Helping adults to navigate the health care system as well as communicate and advocate for high-quality care in collaboration with their clinical providers.
17. Adults on the Spectrum — American Autism Association The American Autism Association encourages healthy lifestyles, fosters independence and inclusion, and promotes personal empowerment to better the quality of life for people with ASD.
18. Autism Grown Up Autism Grown Up, Inc. is a non-profit organization that is entirely online. We create and provide resources for autistic people and all members of an autistic person’s support network, including family members, teachers, clinicians, therapists, professionals, peers, employers, and other important stakeholders.
19. Autism Resources for Adults (PDF) A comprehensive resource guide for autistic adults covering diagnosis, mental health, relationships, education, employment, benefits, housing, independent living, and community support.
21. Autistic Adults Welcome Pack (PDF) This booklet will be helpful for you if you have just found out you are autistic (through diagnosis and/or self identification).
22. Engaging Activities for Autistic Adults: A Comprehensive Guide Meaningful activities for autistic adults aren’t a luxury, they’re a proven lever for mental health, social connection, and daily functioning. The right activities reduce anxiety, provide sensory regulation, build genuine friendships, and create the kind of purposeful structure that turns an overwhelming week into a manageable, even enjoyable one.
ASDscreening tools can help identify signs and characteristics that may be associated with autism and indicate when a more comprehensive evaluation may be helpful. These screenings are not diagnostic, but they can be a useful first step for individuals and families who have questions or concerns. The following free screening tools are available for different age groups.
Autism and Therapy | Neurodivergent Insights Autism acceptance in therapy means recognizing that autistic people have unique strengths and challenges and tailoring therapy to be more autistic friendly. It means understanding that the goal of therapy is not to “cure” autistic people but to support us in achieving our goals and living fulfilling lives.
The internet is full of mental health resource lists, but they tend to feature the same websites, apps, worksheets, and crisis resources over and over again. This isn’t one of those lists.
For this collection, I went looking for the resources that are harder to find: tools buried on university websites, free workbooks from hospitals and government agencies, lesser-known mental health apps, clinical assessment tools, online support communities, professional training opportunities, and genuinely useful resources created by researchers, clinicians, and organizations doing interesting work in mental health.
The result is 100 free mental health resources you probably didn’t know existed in 2026.
Some are designed for therapists and other mental health professionals. Others are useful for anyone interested in improving their mental health, learning new coping skills, understanding themselves better, or finding additional support. Many could easily have remained buried several pages deep in a Google search.
Everything on this list is free to access at the time of publication, although some sites may also offer paid products or services. I’ve organized the resources by category so you can skip around, explore, and hopefully discover at least a few things you’ve never seen before.
And if you’re anything like me, you may end up opening far too many tabs.
Duke’s Department of Pathology has a collection organized around eight skills: mindfulness, boundaries, strengths, positivity, acceptance/reality, activation, effectiveness, and commitment. Each area has a downloadable handout and corresponding worksheet, plus a customizable self-assessment wheel.
The CBT+ Notebook from the University of Washington’s Harborview Abuse & Trauma Center offers a large collection of free, practical worksheets based on cognitive behavioral therapy principles. Resources cover topics such as identifying and challenging unhelpful thoughts, managing worry, problem-solving, behavioral activation, goal setting, coping skills, and relapse prevention. Many materials are also available in Spanish, making this an especially useful resource for both mental health professionals and individuals looking for structured tools to support emotional well-being.
Northern Illinois University offers a small collection of free worksheets and exercises designed to help individuals develop a more compassionate relationship with themselves. Resources include a Self-Critical Daily Log for recognizing patterns of harsh self-talk, a guided Self-Compassion Letter exercise, and a worksheet for developing personalized self-compassion phrases. The collection also includes meditation scripts and audio exercises for practicing mindfulness and self-compassion.
This resource page provides a curated collection of evidence-informed screening tools, clinical questionnaires, and therapeutic skill-building handouts to support assessment, treatment planning, and client education. Materials include validated screeners for mood disorders, anxiety, trauma exposure, substance use, sleep concerns, behavioral health conditions in children and adults, and primary care mental health integration.
The purpose of the American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation (PAE) is to assist and inform psychologists of best practice when psychological instruments, including psychometric tests and collateral information, are used within the practice of psychological assessment and/or evaluation.
Research in positive psychology demonstrates that deliberately applying character strengths in new ways leads to measurable increases in happiness, engagement, and meaning. Many people use their strengths instinctively in one area of life while underutilizing them elsewhere. This info sheet guides you to identify your strengths and then explore how to apply them more broadly across relationships, work, and personal fulfillment.
Values are your heart’s deepest desires for how you want to behave as a human being. Values are not about what you want to get or achieve; they are about how you want to behave or act on an ongoing basis; how you want to treat yourself, others, the world around you.
Basic Counseling Skills is geared to the needs of University and College Students, Health Care Practitioners, Volunteers, and New Counselors. This site is set up to read like a book. There are six major sections – A. Techniques, B. Theories, C. Practice, D. Self-Help, and E. Continuing Education. Each section has eight to twelve chapters.
A Clinical Documentation Cheat Sheet is a quick-reference tool designed to assist healthcare professionals in capturing all necessary information in patient records accurately and efficiently.
This fact sheet includes information about the grief response, common grief reactions, and the varying time frame for grief. It also provides insight on how live while integrating the loss into their lives, potentially beneficial coping methods, and suggestions for how someone might access additional help.
This Positive Parenting Tip Sheet from Vanderbilt University Medical Center offers simple, practical strategies for encouraging positive behavior and strengthening the parent-child relationship. The one-page handout covers specific praise, active listening, child-led play, redirection, offering choices, consistency, and the “when-then” approach. It also identifies practices to avoid, such as yelling, threats, and giving excessive attention to negative attention-seeking behaviors. A concise, easy-to-use resource for parents, caregivers, and professionals working with families.
A growing number of psychology practitioners are embracing feedback informed therapy and deliberate practice, and research is beginning to show it improves outcomes.
This manual provides managers and others responsible for planning and delivering services with practical guidance on how to implement manualized psychological interventions for adults, adolescents and children. It covers the five key implementation steps: make an implementation plan; adapt for context; prepare the workforce; identify, assess and support potential beneficiaries; and monitor and evaluate the service.
This guide helps clinicians influence the change process in their clients by incorporating motivational interventions into substance use disorder treatment programs.
The Assertiveness Workbook from NHS Health Education England is a free resource designed to help individuals communicate more confidently and effectively while maintaining healthy boundaries. It explores the differences between passive, aggressive, and assertive communication and provides practical strategies for saying no, expressing needs, managing difficult situations, and reducing conflict. The workbook also includes exercises focused on self-esteem, personal boundaries, and developing an individualized plan for practicing assertiveness in everyday life.
Beating Psychological Distress is a free self-help workbook from Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust designed to help individuals cope with overwhelming or difficult emotions. Drawing on skills from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), the workbook introduces practical strategies for managing distress, regulating emotions, and responding to challenging situations in healthier ways. It includes exercises and techniques that readers can practice when emotions feel particularly intense or difficult to manage.
The Bipolar Workbook from Carepatron is a free resource designed to help individuals better understand and manage the challenges associated with bipolar disorder. It includes structured exercises for increasing self-awareness, identifying mood patterns and triggers, recognizing warning signs, and developing strategies for managing symptoms. The workbook can also help readers reflect on their experiences, track changes in mood, and identify coping strategies that support greater stability and overall well-being.
The Glow Up Boundaries Workbook is a free resource designed to help individuals better understand, establish, and maintain healthy boundaries. Through guided exercises and reflection prompts, readers can explore their personal limits, identify areas where boundaries may be lacking, and consider how their needs, values, and relationships influence the boundaries they set. The workbook also offers practical guidance for communicating boundaries more clearly and confidently while building healthier, more balanced relationships.
Feel Better Fast is a fast-paced, 3-session seminar designed to help you make a change in your life by learning mindfulness techniques, as well as ways to cope with distressing emotions and thoughts.
Getting Unstuck is a free workbook from Cal Poly designed to help individuals better understand and manage depression. Using cognitive behavioral strategies, the workbook explores how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors can contribute to feeling stuck and introduces practical ways to begin changing those patterns. Readers learn skills for challenging unhelpful thinking, increasing meaningful activity, developing healthier coping strategies, and taking small, manageable steps toward feeling better.
The guide, available for download from the VA South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, focuses on practical strategies to combat feelings of depression and enhance overall well-being. It emphasizes the connection between daily activities and mood, encouraging users to track and modify their behaviors to improve their quality of life.
Stress First Aid for Healthcare Workers is a free workbook from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD designed to help healthcare workers recognize and respond to stress related to demanding or potentially traumatic work. The workbook introduces practical strategies for identifying signs of stress, strengthening coping and resilience, supporting coworkers, and knowing when additional help may be needed. It can be used individually or as part of a broader workplace approach to supporting mental health and well-being.
Understanding and Managing Anger is a free workbook from Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust designed to help individuals better understand their anger and develop healthier ways of responding to it. The workbook explores common triggers, thoughts, physical warning signs, and behaviors associated with anger while introducing practical strategies for managing intense emotions. It also includes exercises and activities to help readers recognize their own anger patterns, improve coping skills, and respond more effectively in difficult situations.
This course can help you get along better with people, control your reactions to irritating events, and avoid the negative consequences of becoming too angry.
The educational goal of this workshop is to train participants in assessing various presentations of OCD in order to assist with early recognition to improve client outcomes. Assessment requires nuance. Standard screening tools may miss atypical symptoms and clinicians can learn to ask targeted questions. ERP and CBT are effective across subtypes of OCD, but interventions must be tailored to the specific obsessional theme. Early recognition improves outcomes. Awareness of these presentations can reduce stigma and prevent years of untreated distress.
The educational goal of this on-demand workshop is to help clinicians navigate the complexity of self-concept: how to help clients differentiate between impulses that arise from ingrained, trauma-reactive survival patterns and those driven by self-destructive impulses or avoidance. Offers 1.5 free CEs.
The educational goal of this on-demand workshop is to teach participants how to identify eating disorders in their practice, assess the level of risk, and refer out when needed in order to ensure patient safety. Offers 1 free CE.
The educational goal of this on-demand webinar is to introduce clinicians to the conceptual foundations of Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment (TIST) as articulated in Dr. Fishers’ Embracing Our Fragmented Selves, with a focus on understanding fragmentation as an adaptive response to overwhelming experiences. Participants will learn how trauma is held in implicit emotional and somatic memory, how curiosity and mindfulness support stabilization, and how cultivating empathy and compassion for wounded child and protector parts fosters safety, internal cooperation, and healing. This webinar offers an early clinical look at how these principles guide a non-pathologizing, stabilization-focused approach to trauma treatment. Offers 1 free CE.
We wanted to create the best resource on the web for free continuing education units. There are many free CEU’s but there are scattered throughout different websites and different providers. We have done the hard part of getting these free courses together for you. So we might suggest taking a look around and seeing if you can take any of the free CEUS offered on the site.
This on-demand training series explores the lasting impact of early and recurring trauma on attachment, dissociation, and cognitive processing. Through clinically focused modules on fearful-disorganized attachment, dissociation, negative thought patterns, and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), participants will gain practical strategies and evidence-based tools to better support trauma survivors. Offers 3.5 free CEs.
This on-demand course will demonstrate a trauma-informed perspective to understanding the behavioral and physical effects of going through Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Attendees will learn about the history of the study of ACEs, understanding trauma effects, and exploring adaptations developed for coping. Offers 1.5 free CEs.
KVC West Virginia is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect. KVC helps children and families in crisis with personalized plans that give them the support, skills and resources to be strong and happy. KVC helps children and families experiencing mental health needs with caring treatment so they can embrace their worth, build resilience and thrive.
Ready to make a real impact? This online course is designed to teach practical, hands-on strategies to manage suicide risk in the clinic, the workplace, and at home. Expert instructors guide you through the best practices for assessing and treating suicidality in teens and adults, equipping you with the tools you need to make a difference right away.
As McLean’s education outreach program, Deconstructing Stigma continues to leverage and expand our global anti-stigma campaign while also developing public education programming and intervention curricula that increase understanding about mental health and encourage compassion for individuals and families directly affected by these disorders.
More Than Therapy and TEAMS™ is launching a groundbreaking initiative for 2026: a comprehensive training program offering up to 40 continuing education units (CEUs) at absolutely no cost to counselors and mental health professionals. This transformative program removes financial barriers to professional development while strengthening the support network our communities desperately need.
This on-demand course provides an in-depth overview of psychosis, exploring its underlying mechanisms, clinical features, and treatment approaches. Participants will learn to differentiate between primary psychotic disorders and substance-induced presentations, conduct thorough evaluations, and implement evidence-based management strategies. Emphasis is placed on practical assessment skills, collaborative care, and improving outcomes for individuals experiencing psychotic symptoms. Offers 3 free CEUs.
The program comprises six sessions of between 15 and 50 minutes duration. Each session includes a conversational mini-lecture and several practical exercises.
Free deliberate practice resources from Sentio University. Senior-trainer webinars, clinical exercises, supervision guides, and AI tools, built for therapists, supervisors, and students in the MFT program and beyond.
Access free continuing education opportunities through Sheppard Pratt, the nation’s top private, nonprofit provider of a full behavioral health continuum of care. Through Sheppard Pratt’s Center for Professional Education, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, social workers, nurses, counselors, and other behavioral health professionals can access clinically relevant continuing education at no cost—designed to support your practice and the people you serve.
This page features a monthly series, Free Mental Health Webinars for Social Workers and Mental Health Professionals: over 30 free webcasts curated each month in social work and behavioral health, some offering free CEs.
Suicide and Intimate Partner Violence: Screening and Safety Planning With Adults is a free, online, self-paced course available through the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. It is designed for crisis workers, clinical practitioners, supervisors, and trainees. Offers 1 free CE.
Calm Harm is an award-winning app funded by teenage mental health charity stem4, to help manage the urge to self-harm. It was developed by Clinical Psychologist Dr. Nihara Krause MBE, in collaboration with young people and uses principles from an evidence-based psychological treatment called Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).
CPT Coach is a free application (app) for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) that was created to increase convenience for clinicians and patients completing CPT. The app is downloaded onto a patient’s mobile device to be used as a treatment companion during CPT.
The Columbia Protocol, also known as the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), supports suicide risk screening through a series of simple, plain-language questions that anyone can ask. The answers help users identify whether someone is at risk for suicide, determine the severity and immediacy of that risk, and gauge the level of support that the person needs.
MindShift gives you science-backed strategies to shift your anxious thinking, settle your body, and approach your fears one step at a time. Developed in Canada by experts in the field.
myPlan is a free app offered in English and Spanish to help with safety decisions if you, or someone you care about, may be experiencing abuse in an intimate relationship. It’s private, secure, personalized, & backed by research with domestic violence survivors involved every step of the way.
This mobile app provides health professionals with information and tools to identify and assess a patient at risk of suicide. It also offers communication tips and resources for treatment and other support to which health professionals can refer patients.
Beck Institute is proud to offer an array of online and downloadable resources for health and mental health professionals and students. Our collection of resources is always expanding as we find and create new materials to share.
Free, instant scoring for validated clinical assessments. Calculate scores, view severity interpretations, and reference published guidelines — all in your browser with no data stored.
Administer, score, and track validated scales (PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5…) directly in the browser. Everything runs on your device: patient data never leaves the office.
Your theoretical orientation is the lens through which you will understand your clients, build therapeutic relationships, and choose interventions. It shapes what you listen for, the questions you ask, how you respond to a client’s pain, and how you define progress. Most counselors’ orientations evolve across their careers — this tool is a snapshot of where your convictions lean right now.
When implementing new interventions in your treatment or prevention program, it’s helpful to have tools to evaluate the impact of the new intervention on clients or therapists
These four videos present Motivational Interviewing as an evidence-based strategy used by providers to help clients recognize their own ambivalence to change and begin the process of change. The PowerPoint slides, motivational interview algorithm, and role playing exercises are provided as handouts. The videos are intended to be viewed in order, starting with Part 1. To view, click the “play” button in the video boxes below.
Practice Time! is Sentio University’s free YouTube series, hosted by Amy DeSmidt and Jamie Manser, demonstrating live deliberate practice sessions across the clinical skills taught in the APA book series The Essentials of Deliberate Practice. The 18 episodes below are organized by therapy model, so you can dive straight into the modality you care about, watch a focused skill demonstration, and then move into the longer-format deliberate practice page for that model. If you are a clinician building skills outside formal training, pair these episodes with the wider Free Therapist Training hub. If you are a licensed supervisor learning how to use deliberate practice in your own supervision, see the six- or twelve-month Clinical Supervisor Training.
Give Us The Floor (GUTF) is a US-based non-profit organization providing 2SLGBTQIA+ youth across the US with a supportive community of their peers when they need it most in a safe, online environment.
A professional support group series open to ALL gender-diverse individuals across Idaho. The series will be hosted virtually, so everyone can join—no matter where they are! Led by TranAffirm board member Lee Stewart, LPC (they/them), these groups are offered free or by donation. Donations go directly to Lee or to Trans Affirm to keep this vital program running.
WeeBe.org is an early-stage social impact project focused on reducing loneliness and enabling meaningful human connection through befriending. WeeBe is a peer-to-peer emotional support platform where people can connect for one-on-one conversations. It’s not therapy, not dating — just a safe, respectful space to talk and listen. The current version of WeeBe is a BETA service and is free to use for all participants. The platform is built around a volunteer-led model, with no commercial activity or paid participation.
Psychology.com has helped people understand their minds since 1995. Today it is run by two people you can meet below and overseen by an editorial board of licensed psychologists and counselors, each with a name and a profile you can check.
Meridian Clinical Tools offers a large collection of free, browser-based tools for mental health professionals and their clients. Resources include mental health screenings and assessments, treatment planning and documentation tools, safety planning resources, coping exercises, mood trackers, and other interactive clinical tools. No account is required for many of the resources, making this a convenient option for therapists looking for practical tools to use in sessions or share with clients.
We provide training (in-person and online), consulting, books, and free resources in the areas of trauma, mental health, counselling skills, and violence prevention.
At Vanderbilt University’s EARL, our aim is to advance knowledge of the measurement, development, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety disorders. Although these objectives encompass a broad range of topics, we are specifically interested in the role of emotions (i.e., fear, disgust, anger) in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety pathology.
Practice Hub is the free, source-linked library published by Ludara Health & Wellness. It includes guides, pathways, state research, technology profiles, tools, and clinician-facilitated session resources.
Our Psychotherapy Essentials Course and Psychotherapy Coaching Community help therapists free themselves from “branded” therapies by working directly with three change processes instead of following set methods. Compatible with all therapies and types of problems.
Located in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., region, Kennedy Krieger Institute is internationally recognized for improving the lives of tens of thousands of children, adolescents and adults with neurological, rehabilitative or developmental needs through inpatient and day hospital programs, outpatient clinics, home and community services, education, and research.
A list of links to videos of a variety of mental health professionals using various theories and techniques to help clients with an array of presenting concerns and mental illnesses. The videos are organized by Theory/Approach/Type of Therapy and sometimes by sub-category.
The mental status exam (MSE) is a structured approach to gathering a patient’s behavioral and cognitive information. Analogous to the physical exam, it provides a template to collect clinical data in a systematic fashion. The MSE is a core competency of undergraduate medical education (UME) and an entrustable professional activity in clinical psychiatry.
James Cornwell directs the Morality, Truth, and Motivation lab, which studies the ways in which morality provides us with a guiding framework for life in our social world, how the pursuit of truth provides our lives with meaning and strengthens relationships, and how differences in motivational dynamics can predict human flourishing as well as patterns of psychological distress. The lab’s research is based in psychological theory developed in conversation with insights from theology, philosophy, literature, as well as other sciences.
The Center for Psychotherapy Research (CPR) is a research unit of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Faculty members conduct a wide range of studies on the effectiveness and mechanisms of evidence-based psychotherapies and measurement-based care strategies. Our work is primarily focused on studies of evidence-based interventions delivered in community settings. We have partnered with community mental health agencies for over 20 years to develop, evaluate, and disseminate interventions to improve symptoms and functioning in these real world treatment settings.
PEARLS brings together a group of academics, clinicians, research fellows and postgraduate students whose research focuses on the evaluation of routinely delivered psychological interventions.
The OHIO lab utilizes a Common Factors perspective for understanding how clients improve through psychotherapy treatments through the research of various therapist and client variables. We have adapted a model for understanding how most forms of specific treatments have been equally successful, which we refer to as an integrated contextual model. The integrated contextual model explains how treatment successes are influenced by relationships, but are also heavily influenced by Culture, Theory, and Techniques.
The Shyness Institute is a non-profit research corporation founded in 1994 and is dedicated to research regarding shyness, social anxiety, and related anxiety disorders.
Crisis lines, scored assessments, modality references, and ZIP-based referrals — open in the tab next to your EHR, the moment a client actually needs them.
374 evidence-based worksheets organized by clinical approach (CBT, DBT, ACT, trauma-informed care) plus 13 validated assessments, all free to use and print. Pro adds the practice side: intake, consent, and treatment-plan builders, e-signatures, session tools, and client sharing under your own letterhead.
Our lab conducts translational research exploring factors that impact the development of trauma-related psychopathology and intervention strategies aimed at mitigating the impact of trauma.
These Trauma Pages focus primarily on emotional trauma and traumatic stress, including PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) and dissociation, whether following individual traumatic experience(s) or a large-scale disaster. The purpose of this award winning site is to provide information for clinicians and researchers in the traumatic-stress field.
For over four decades under Professor Marsha M. Linehan’s leadership, the BRTC was a clinical research center specializing in the development and improvement of effective and pragmatic treatments for individuals with severe, complex and treatment resisting mental disorders. Much of our research had focused on individuals with high risk of suicide, those with high risk comorbid with post-traumatic stress disorder, those addicted to heroin or other drugs, as well as individuals with borderline personality disorder. The primary treatment at the BRTC is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which is a cognitive behavioral treatment developed by Professor Linehan.
After months of writing, editing (not always well), second-guessing myself, and one too many late nights, Happy AF (And Flourishing) is officially live.
This is a book that’s meant to be used, not sit on a shelf, even (perhaps especially) when you’re feeling exhausted, burned out, or skeptical about happiness as a whole.
What makes Happy AF different?
No long chapters; instead, you’ll find short daily practices with suggestions on ways to complete them and helpful tools.
No toxic positivity or BS: clear “Why it works” explanations (scientific research to back up the practices).
Designed for helpers, educators, overthinkers, and people who want something practical without being preachy or for anyone who wants a little more happiness in their life.
Flexible enough for clinicians to use on their own or with clients/patients.
Just to be clear, despite the title, this book contains zero profanity. (No actual curse words were used in the making of this book.)
Companion page with free tools
To make it even more user-friendly, I created a companion page with printable tools, sample pages, downloads, and updates that expand on the book.
If you’ve already picked up my book, thank you, truly. If you’re still deciding, the companion page will give you a good feel for whether it’s right for you.
If this book or the companion resources help even a little, reviews and shares make a bigger difference than you might realize.
What’s coming next?
A companion journal is in the works. If you’re actually using the book, this guided journal is for you.
I promise it’s just as helpful, engaging, poorly edited, and steeped in science as the book. Be the first to know when it goes live by subscribing (to your right) or checking the companion page regularly. (I recommend bookmarking it!)
Part 2: Think You Can Ace This DSM-5-TR Quiz? Let’s See.
Think you’re ready for a deeper challenge? This DSM-5-TR (Part 2) quiz takes it up a notch, pushing you to apply diagnostic knowledge with sharper distinctions and more advanced clinical nuance. You’ll test your ability to spot subtle differences, identify key specifiers, and recognize patterns that trip people up on the NCE—and in real-world assessments. Stay focused, trust your training, and use this as a chance to strengthen the areas that matter most. Let’s dive in.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was designed for people who feel things intensely and don’t have great models for coping with those feelings. If that’s you, you’re not alone—and you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are excellent DBT resources out there, and many of them are free. The challenge is just knowing where to look.
The skills in DBT are learnable. They take practice. They take repetition. But they’re doable. And they work.
Let’s get into it.
20 Free DBT Resources
Disclaimer: The resources listed in this post are created and owned by their respective authors and organizations. I did not create these materials, and this post is not affiliated with or sponsored by any of the sites or creators referenced. Please use these materials responsibly and respect all copyright and licensing terms. When in doubt, refer back to the original source for use guidelines and attribution requirements.
DBT Self Help | Self-serve resources for the DBT community Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy that combines Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Zen Buddhism. Created by Marsha Linehan, it was originally used to treat Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Now it is used to treat many different emotional dysregulation and impulse control disorders and symptoms.
Free Resources | Online DBT Skills Free videos and downloads to help you learn or strengthen your Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills knowledge and support your mental health.
6-Module DBT Course | An educational course designed for professionals to learn the basic principles for the diagnosis and treatment of borderline personality disorder. There are six 20-minute modules.
DBT skills take practice, patience, and repetition—but they’re learnable. The resources here are a starting point, not a finish line. Take what’s useful, leave what isn’t, and keep going. Building emotional regulation is a process, and you’re doing the work just by showing up.
Resilience isn’t about avoiding hardship—it’s about growing through it. Whether you’re navigating personal loss, chronic stress, or just trying to stay afloat in a chaotic world, developing emotional resilience can make all the difference. To support your journey, I’ve compiled a list of free resilience workbooks for teens and adults—resources designed to help you build mental strength, emotional flexibility, and healthier coping skills. These guides are ideal for individuals, therapists, educators, or anyone looking to cultivate a stronger sense of inner calm and grit.
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
–Steve Maraboli
Please note: These are external resources and are not affiliated with my site. Be sure to review each for suitability, and as always, follow all copyright guidelines when using or sharing materials.
Hard knocks, misfortune and adversity are things all humans have in common. We all are asked to cope with difficult times at some point in our life. Resilience is defined as the ability to adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, loss or significant stress, bounce back from it and learn from it.
This resource is an initiative of Glasgow CHP South Sector Youth Health Improvement team developed in partnership with The South Strategic Youth Health and Wellbeing Group. This Emotional Resilience Toolkit provides practical guidance in promoting the resilience of young people as part of an integrated health and wellbeing programme. The resource is designed to be used by workers and volunteers working with young people aged 10 and over.
This workbook provides a practical and entirely educational approach to improve personal resilience. The material is organized as a series of resilience exercises that support World Health Organization recommendations for suicide prevention. The exercises and the learning methods develop problem solving abilities and bring awareness to the importance of social support by applying positive coping skills to create less stressful outcomes to real life challenges. The materials can be used with all audiences to include organizations, educational settings, and families.
The Resiliency Toolkit is a comprehensive, evidence-informed workbook featuring 73 tools and worksheets designed to help people develop the emotional, mental, and behavioural skills needed to overcome life’s challenges. Created by Angela M. Doel, MS, this resource blends therapeutic techniques from CBT, ACT, solution-focused therapy, and positive psychology to support individuals in becoming more resilient, hopeful, and emotionally well.
The simplest way to define resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from life’s difficulties – to adapt well in the face of adversity or significant sources of stress, such as family and relationship issues, major health problems or financial hardships.
“Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you.”
– Jeffrey Gitomer
Supplementary Materials
Disclaimer: The following supplementary materials are intended to be used exclusivelyin conjunction with corresponding workbooks which must be purchased separately. They are designed to support the content and exercises within the workbooks and are not intended to be a standalone resource. Unauthorized distribution, reproduction, or use of these materials without the accompanying workbook is prohibited. Please respect copyright and intellectual property laws.
For highly-rated resilience guides and workbooks that can be purchased on Amazon, see below:
4.7 stars on Amazon, 1,961 reviews
Publisher’s description on Amazon: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A masterpiece of warrior wisdom: how to be resilient, how to overcome obstacles not by “positive thinking” or self-esteem, but by positive action. The best-selling author, Navy SEAL, and humanitarian Eric Greitens offers a self-help book unlike any other. “Eric Greitens provides a brilliant and brave course of action to help navigate life’s roughest waters.”—Admiral Mike Mullen, seventeenth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff In 2012, Eric Greitens unexpectedly heard from a former SEAL comrade, a brother-in-arms he hadn’t seen in a decade. Zach Walker had been one of the toughest of the tough. But ever since he returned home from war to his young family in a small logging town, he’d been struggling. Without a sense of purpose, plagued by PTSD, and masking his pain with heavy drinking, he needed help. Zach and Eric started writing and talking nearly every day, as Eric set down his thoughts on what it takes to build resilience in our lives. Eric’s letters — drawing on both his own experience and wisdom from ancient and modern thinkers — are now gathered and edited into this timeless guidebook. Greitens shows how we can build purpose, confront pain, practice compassion, develop a vocation, find a mentor, create happiness, and much more. Resilience is an inspiring meditation for the warrior in each of us. “This book is a gift not only to Greitens’s comrades-in-arms, but to readers everywhere.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
4.6 stars on Amazon, 1,415 reviews
Publisher’s description on Amazon: These days it’s hard to count on the world outside. So it’s vital to grow strengths inside like grit, gratitude, and compassion—the key to resilience, and to lasting well-being in a changing world. True resilience is much more than enduring terrible conditions. We need resilience every day to raise a family, work at a job, cope with stress, deal with health problems, navigate issues with others, heal from old pain, and simply keep on going. With his trademark blend of neuroscience, mindfulness, and positive psychology, New York Times bestselling author Dr. Rick Hanson shows you how to develop twelve vital inner strengths hardwired into your own nervous system. Then no matter what life throws at you, you’ll be able to feel less stressed, pursue opportunities with confidence, and stay calm and centered in the face of adversity. This practical guide is full of concrete suggestions, experiential practices, personal examples, and insights into the brain. It includes effective ways to interact with others and to repair and deepen important relationships. Warm, encouraging, and down-to-earth, Dr. Hanson’s step-by-step approach is grounded in the science of positive neuroplasticity. He explains how to overcome the brain’s negativity bias, release painful thoughts and feelings, and replace them with self-compassion, self-worth, joy, and inner peace.
4.5 stars, 2,074 reviews
Publisher’s description on Amazon: In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness beautifully and persuasively reimagines our understanding of toughness. This is a must-read for parents and coaches and anyone else looking to prepare for life’s biggest challenges.”—Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and Talking to Strangers and host of the Revisionist History podcast. From beloved performance expert, executive coach, and coauthor of Peak Performance Steve Magness comes a radical rethinking of how we perceive toughness and what it means to achieve our high ambitions in the face of hard things. Toughness has long been held as the key to overcoming a challenge and achieving greatness, whether it is on the sports field, at a boardroom, or at the dining room table. Yet, the prevailing model has promoted a mentality based on fear, false bravado, and hiding any sign of weakness. In other words, the old model of toughness has failed us. Steve Magness, a performance scientist who coaches Olympic athletes, rebuilds our broken model of resilience with one grounded in the latest science and psychology. InDo Hard Things, Magness teaches us how we can work with our body – how experiencing discomfort, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action can be the true indications of cultivating inner strength. He offers four core pillars to cultivate such resilience:
Pillar 1: Ditch the Façade, Embrace Reality
Pillar 2: Listen to Your Body
Pillar 3: Respond, Instead of React
Pillar 4: Transcend Discomfort
Smart and wise all at once, Magness flips the script on what it means to be resilient. Drawing from mindfulness, military case studies, sports psychology, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, he provides a roadmap for navigating life’s challenges and achieving high performance that makes us happier, more successful, and, ultimately, better people.
Additional Therapist-Recommended Resources for Resilience
When most people think of therapy, they picture sitting in an office talking to a psychotherapist. But healing doesn’t always look like a conversation across a couch. While traditional talk therapy is incredibly effective, many people also find relief and growth through non-traditional therapy and alternative approaches.
If you’ve ever felt like talk therapy wasn’t quite enough—or you’re simply curious about what else is out there—this post will walk you through several non-traditional therapy alternatives that support mental health and overall well-being.
Digital Non-Traditional Therapy Alternatives
Sometimes, the biggest barrier is access. That’s where digital platforms can help as non-traditional therapy alternatives.
Headway connects you with therapists who take your insurance—removing one of the biggest hurdles people face.
BetterHelp and Talkspace offer flexible, online therapy that fits into busy schedules.
Online-Therapy.com combines live sessions with structured worksheets, making it a more hands-on, skill-based option.
These platforms expand therapy beyond a once-a-week session and can be more accessible for people who want affordable, convenient care.
Mind-Body Practices
Our bodies hold stress and trauma, so healing isn’t always about words—it’s also about movement and stillness.
Calm or Headspace can introduce daily mindfulness practices to reduce stress.
Insight Timer offers free meditations as well as paid programs with expert teachers.
Yoga platforms like Alo Moves or Glo help people reconnect with their bodies through breath and movement.
These practices support nervous system regulation, which is often the foundation for deeper healing.
Creative & Expressive Therapies
For some, the path to healing is artistic expression.
Platforms like Skillshare and CreativeLive offer classes in painting, writing, photography, and more.
Journaling programs and art-based workshops provide structured ways to process emotions without relying solely on words.
Self-expression can unlock emotions that are hard to articulate, making creativity a powerful therapeutic tool.
Lifestyle & Holistic Wellness
Mental health is deeply tied to sleep, nutrition, and daily habits. Apps and programs designed for whole-person wellness can provide the missing puzzle piece.
BetterSleepfocuses on improving rest, which directly impacts mood.
Noom Mood uses CBT-based techniques to manage stress and anxiety.
Devices like Muse orApollo Neuro use biofeedback to help retrain your brain and body’s response to stress.
Free Non-Traditional Therapy Alternatives: Evidence-Based Self-Help & Mental Health Websites
These are also great resources, including this site, for evidence-based workbooks, worksheets, and psychoeducation, often free or low-cost.
Some approaches may not be mainstream (yet) but are gaining traction:
Ketamine-assisted therapy (in approved clinics) shows promise for treatment-resistant depression.
Neurofeedback and biofeedback offer cutting-edge ways to change brain patterns.
Hypnotherapy platforms (like Grace Space) guide users into deep relaxation and change work.
While these approaches aren’t for everyone, they highlight just how many avenues there are beyond talk therapy.
Final Thoughts
Healing isn’t one-size-fits-all. For some, traditional therapy is enough. For others, combining it with mindfulness, creative practices, holistic wellness tools, or other non-traditional therapy approaches makes all the difference.
If talk therapy hasn’t clicked for you—or if you’re looking to enhance your current treatment—consider trying one of these non-traditional therapy options. Sometimes the most powerful healing happens in unexpected ways.
Disclaimer: A few of the links on this page are affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you—if you choose to make a purchase or sign up through them. These funds go directly toward keeping this site up and running. Please note that I do not specifically endorse any product, service, or organization listed here. The links are provided only as potential resources that may be helpful for your mental health and wellness journey.
Guest Post: Introducing a New Resource for Wellness
When we started A Meaning of Life (AMoL), the idea felt at once impossible and completely sane. Impossible because of its scope: to understand human wellbeing in its depth, nuance, and complexity. Sane because—really—what could be more practical than trying to understand what makes life worth living, and then sharing that understanding so others might put that wisdom into practice?
This project began with Randall, our founder, who broke his neck as a teenager, becoming quadriplegic. On the edge of death, Randall chose life—not just to continue living, but to live it fully and to share what he could about how to do so with others.
Decades later—after becoming a PhD psychologist, father, and living a life of many twists and turns—there was no silver bullet. The scientific insights were scattered, the practical applications were fragmented, and the guidance was often oversimplified. Out of that gap came a dream: to create a resource that could bring clarity, evidence, and practical insights together as one.
That dream became A Meaning of Life—a nonprofit and ever-growing library of practical-yet-science-based wisdom for a well-lived life. Today, our website hosts nearly a thousand pages of resources, organized so that it’s personal to you, and you can explore the factors that shape wellbeing in a way that is both grounded in research and deeply human.
Mapping the Web of Wellbeing
At the heart of our project are a handful of helpful mental models: each one takes a different angle of approach to map out the complex, interconnected elements that contribute to a flourishing life. There is the Happiness section, which clarifies the broken concept of wellbeing through both complex and simple lenses—complex like accounting for the inherent tangles in the web of researching wellbeing and providing an overview of Positive Psychology’s leading models, and simple like offering wellbeing in four basic elements: Pleasure, Flow & Engagement, Perspective, and Meaning in Life (the fourth and most important element).
And there are the four Cornerstones of Meaning, each cornerstone itself being a collection of factors that play a role in wellbeing. For most factors of wellbeing (there are 50 identified across the site), readers find detailed infographics, exercises, and curated web resources to guide their journey of learning wellbeing as a skill that can be practiced.
Each section of the site explores one of these factors in depth. For example, our Purposesection doesn’t just define the concept; it presents empirical research, practical exercises, and pathways to integrate it into daily life, making your dream life more life-like. It even has a deep-dive workbook for transforming one’s life into one that is rich with purpose.
Our goal isn’t to reduce wellbeing to a single formula, but to show its complexity—and to empower people to explore it in a way that resonates with their own lives.
From Theory to Practice: The Assessment Center
One of the resources we’re most excited about is our Assessment Center. This is where theory meets practice. Visitors can take evidence-based psychological assessments to measure every one of those 50+ factors of wellbeing, identifying which ones are strengths and which are growth zones. This is an incredible tool in its own right, and when paired with the content on AMoL, it can guide people towards what areas of life to study to get the biggest results on their wellbeing.
The assessments are more than just self-discovery, too. The data (always anonymized) has the potential to fuel research, giving psychologists and social scientists valuable insight into what well-being looks like across diverse populations. In other words, every visitor who takes an assessment isn’t just learning about themselves—they’re helping build a collective picture of human flourishing. And we’re committed to making the data free and open to researching… we are a 501c3 non-profit, and we stand by that intent.
We’re especially hopeful about the long-term research potential. Imagine being able to see, at scale, how gratitude impacts resilience, or how value alignment predicts life satisfaction. The Assessment Center opens the door to that kind of knowledge.
Visual Models for a Complex World
We know that wellbeing can feel abstract, so we’ve invested in creating visual models and infographics to make the science more accessible.
For example, our Crisis of Meaning infographic addresses the modern crisis that many people can feel, but few people have considered in detail.
Our visuals, fridge sheets, and printable exercises aren’t just decorative—they’re teaching tools. They’re designed to spark insight, conversation, and reflection, helping people see the bigger picture while also noticing the threads most relevant to their own lives.
Why We Believe This Matters
In a world overflowing with quick-fix self-help advice, our approach might seem unusual. We don’t promise instant happiness or one-size-fits-all answers. Instead, we embrace complexity. We honor nuance. We believe that cultivating a good life is a lifelong practice, grounded in science but enriched by story, art, and humanity.
And we believe this work matters because the stakes are high. Rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness are climbing. Many people feel disconnected—from others, from purpose, from themselves. In that context, our mission to explore and share the building blocks of wellbeing isn’t just an intellectual exercise. It’s an act of care.
Looking Ahead
We know our dream is ambitious. Sometimes it feels daunting to be building something so wide-reaching as a small nonprofit. But when we hear from people who found comfort in our pages, it reminds us why this work is worth it.
Our hope is that A Meaning of Life can serve as both a mirror and a guide: a mirror that helps people see their own strengths and challenges more clearly, and a guide that points toward practices and perspectives that support flourishing.
An Invitation
If our mission resonates with you, we invite you to explore A Meaning of Life for yourself. Browse our pages. Try out a few assessments in the Assessment Center. Share our resources with a client, a student, a friend, or a family member.
And most importantly, reflect on what you find. Because at the end of the day, the dream we’re chasing isn’t just about knowledge—it’s about transformation. It’s about helping people cultivate lives of greater meaning, connection, and joy. And we’re all on the journey toward that dream together.
Navigating love, intimacy, and relationships isn’t always easy—but it’s essential for our wellbeing. Whether you’re exploring your identity, healing from past experiences, improving communication with a partner, or just trying to understand yourself better, this collection of resources for love is here to support you. Below, you’ll find workbooks, guides, and tools that cover everything from setting boundaries and enhancing emotional intimacy to understanding consent and sexual health.
These resources are designed to empower people of all identities and relationship styles to create healthier, more fulfilling connections—with others and with themselves.
Disclaimer: All external content is the property of its respective creators. I am not responsible for the accuracy, content, or availability of linked materials. Please adhere to all copyright laws when using or sharing these resources.
Beducated Beducated offers free trial lessons on topics like tantric sex, sensual massage, oral sex techniques, and more. Courses are high-quality and video-based.
Emily Nagoski, Ph.D. If you’ve read Come As You Are, you know Emily Nagoski is one of the most influential voices in sex education. Her website features videos, worksheets, podcasts, and guides on sexual desire, body image, and pleasure science.
OMGYES While mostly paid, this evidence-based, pleasure-positive site offers free videos and science-backed insights into women’s pleasure. Great for couples looking to learn, not just guess.
Pleasure Mechanics Tons of free podcast episodes, guides, and email series on everything from sensual touch to kink curiosity. Smart, shame-free, and queer-inclusive.
Sexplanations with Dr. Doe A playful, science-based series of short YouTube videos covering everything from orgasms to aftercare to erotic novelty. Smart and entertaining—watch together and discuss after.
The Vulva Gallery An artistic, body-positive project that showcases real stories and illustrations of vulvas in all their diversity. A beautiful, affirming way for couples to explore body image, anatomy, and curiosity without shame.
Learn Your Love Language | Choose your version: Couples, Children’s Quiz, Teens, or Singles. An online assessment to determine your primary love language. (You are required to enter your information to get quiz results.)
Marital Satisfaction Scale | PDF assessment to evaluate marital satisfaction; click on link listed in “Interactive Section for Couples”
Disclaimer: The supplementary materials provided are intended to be used only in conjunction with purchased workbooks. These free resources are designed to enhance the learning and application of workbook contents and do not replace the full workbook itself. Distribution or use of these materials without the accompanying purchased workbook is not authorized.
Please do not duplicate, modify, or distribute these materials for commercial purposes. All content remains the intellectual property of the author and is protected under applicable copyright laws.
