Recently, James McInally, founder of Detox Today, reached out to share his free book, Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped., along with a collection of free alcohol recovery tools and worksheets. These free alcohol resources are designed to help people better understand their drinking habits, develop healthier coping strategies, manage cravings, and make meaningful, lasting changes.
At Mind Remake Project, I’m always looking for practical, accessible mental health and recovery resources that people can actually put to use. When James reached out to share his book, I appreciated that he was making not just the book, but also a collection of worksheets and recovery tools available for free.
I also liked that the resources acknowledge that changing your relationship with alcohol isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. Changing your relationship with alcohol isn’t easy, and figuring out where to start can feel overwhelming. Learn more about my own complicated relationship with alcohol here.
Whether you’re thinking about cutting back, considering quitting altogether, or working to maintain sobriety, having access to practical, reliable resources can make a difference.
Who Can Benefit from These Resources?
You don’t have to identify as an alcoholic or have a diagnosed alcohol use disorder to benefit from taking a closer look at your drinking habits. Maybe you’ve noticed that you’re drinking more than you intended, relying on alcohol to unwind after a stressful day, or simply questioning whether alcohol is adding anything positive to your life. Perhaps you’ve already stopped drinking and are looking for ways to maintain your progress.
Whatever your situation, these resources offer information, practical exercises, and strategies to help you make informed decisions about your relationship with alcohol.
A complete free book: Alcohol: Cut Down. Stop. Stay Stopped., which can also be purchased on Amazon, covering behavioral change, psychology, treatment options, and recovery.
A free Alcohol Change Toolkit: 15 practical, editable and printable exercises addressing cravings, triggers, drinking habits, and relapse prevention.
Educational guides: Information about alcohol withdrawal, medications, women and alcohol use disorder, and supporting loved ones.
A flexible recovery philosophy: Resources for people considering moderation, abstinence, or maintaining recovery.
Building a Life That Doesn’t Revolve Around Alcohol
An important part of changing your relationship with alcohol is learning how to feel better without relying on drinking. For many people, alcohol becomes closely tied to relaxation, stress relief, confidence, socializing, or coping with uncomfortable emotions. When you take alcohol out of the picture, you may find that something feels missing.
That’s why making lasting changes to your drinking habits involves more than willpower. It means discovering new ways to relax, enjoy yourself, manage stress, and find fulfillment. Spending time with people you care about, exercising, listening to music, exploring creative interests, getting outdoors, or working toward meaningful goals can all help you meet those needs without alcohol.
The goal isn’t simply to get better at saying no to a drink. It’s to build a life where you have other ways to feel good, cope with challenges, and enjoy yourself, so that alcohol becomes less necessary and less important over time.
Making the Most of the Free Alcohol Recovery Resources
You don’t need to work through every exercise or read the entire book in one sitting. Start with whatever feels most relevant to you right now. If you’re unsure about your drinking habits, begin by tracking how much and how often you drink. If cravings are your biggest challenge, focus on identifying triggers and developing strategies to manage urges. If you’ve tried to cut back or quit before, consider exploring the relapse prevention exercises. You can complete the worksheets independently, discuss them with a counselor, or revisit them as your needs and goals change.
Some people experience improvements in sleep, concentration, energy, and emotional well-being over time. Others initially feel more anxious, irritable, restless, or uncomfortable, particularly if alcohol has become their primary way of coping with stress or difficult emotions.
It’s also worth remembering that progress isn’t linear. You might feel motivated one day and struggle with cravings the next. You may discover that certain situations, relationships, or emotions make drinking more tempting. These experiences can provide useful information about your habits and what you need to change.
If you’ve been drinking heavily or regularly, it’s important to speak with a healthcare professional before stopping abruptly. Alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous and, in some cases, life-threatening. Symptoms can include tremors, sweating, anxiety, nausea, seizures, and confusion. Medical supervision may be necessary to withdraw safely. Severe confusion, hallucinations, or seizures during alcohol withdrawal require immediate emergency medical attention.
This post is dedicated to my late friend, DF. For him, “one drink was too many and a thousand was never enough.” Tragically, his final drink was also his last night on earth. I wish his story had ended differently. I miss you, think of you often, and carry your memory with me, my heavenly friend.
If you subscribed to Mind Remake Project for free, useful mental health resources, this free resource library is exactly what you’ve been waiting for!
If you’ve been following Mind Remake Project for a while, there’s a good chance you originally subscribed because you were looking for free mental health resources. Maybe you needed a worksheet for a client, an assessment tool, a treatment manual, or something new to bring into your clinical practice.
This is something I’ve wanted to put together for a long time. Over the years, I’ve come across thousands of useful mental health resources scattered across university websites, government agencies, research centers, nonprofit organizations, and other corners of the internet. Some are easy to find. Others are practically buried.
I wanted to bring as many of them as possible into one place.
What’s Inside the Clinical Resource Library?
Quite a bit, actually.
The library includes resources for counselors, therapists, social workers, students, other behavioral health professionals, and for self-help. You’ll find:
Mental health assessments: Screening instruments, symptom measures, rating scales, and other assessment tools organized by clinical topic.
Apps: Digital tools for clinicians and clients, including resources for mental health support and clinical practice.
Free and low-cost courses: Opportunities to learn new skills, explore clinical topics, and expand your professional knowledge.
Handouts: Psychoeducational materials, factsheets, and other resources to share with clients.
Manuals and guides: More in-depth materials covering therapeutic approaches, interventions, and clinical concerns.
Books: Recommended reading for mental health professionals.
Videos: Educational content, demonstrations, and other materials for learning and professional development.
Worksheets: Practical exercises and activities for individual or group work.
Workbooks: More comprehensive, structured resources covering everything from anxiety and depression to grief, relationships, emotional regulation, and personal growth.
Interactive tools: Online resources you can actually use.
I’ve organized the resource library into categories and expandable sections so you don’t have to scroll endlessly through hundreds of links to find what you’re looking for.
And with the exception of some recommended books and courses, the resources are free.
Why I Created the MRP Clinical Resource Library
One thing I’ve learned after years of working in behavioral health is that there’s no shortage of helpful resources out there. The problem is finding them. (When you need them.)
You might spend half an hour searching for a decent workbook, only to end up on a website asking you to purchase a subscription. Or you might discover an excellent resource from a university or research center that you never would have found if you hadn’t stumbled across the right search term.
I know because I’ve spent countless hours doing exactly that.
I also wanted to make it a little more enjoyable to explore. You’ll find interactive features and a few surprises throughout the page, because looking for clinical resources doesn’t have to be tedious.
The Resource Library Is a Work in Progress
Although the resource library is now live, it’s nowhere near finished.
I’ll continue adding resources, updating links, expanding categories, and improving the layout. My hope is that it becomes one of those pages you return to whenever you need something for a session, a client, a class, or your own professional development.
And if you know of a particularly useful free resource that deserves a spot in the collection, I’d love to hear about it.
Take a Look Around
If you’ve been subscribed to Mind Remake Project for months or even years, thank you for sticking around. I know everyone has plenty of emails competing for their attention, so I don’t take that lightly.
And if you originally signed up because you wanted access to practical, free mental health resources, this new library is definitely for you!
Take a look, bookmark the page, and come back whenever you need something. You might be surprised by what you find.
And if you find it useful, please share it with a colleague, classmate, or anyone else who might benefit. The more people who know these resources exist, the more useful this project becomes.
Personality tests are fun. There’s something strangely satisfying about answering a few dozen questions and being handed a tidy description of who you are. You’re an INFJ. High in openness. An introvert. Suddenly, parts of your personality have names.
But knowing your personality type isn’t the same thing as knowing yourself.
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
-Socrates
Real self-awareness is messier. It means noticing the things you avoid, the stories you tell yourself, what brings out the worst in you, what you secretly want, whose approval you’re still chasing, and whether the life you’re living actually resembles the one you want.
And those answers probably aren’t going to come from clicking “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree.”
The following 25 questions are designed to make you stop and think. Some are grounded in ideas from psychology. Others come from the kinds of questions that tend to reveal something when we’re willing to sit with them for longer than a few seconds. There are no scores, types, or results at the end.
You may not have an immediate answer to every question. In fact, the ones you struggle to answer may be the most interesting ones.
So, forget about figuring out what personality “type” you are for a moment.
Let’s figure out who you actually are. No personality test needed.
1. What do you pretend not to care about because you’re afraid you won’t get it?
Is it money? Popularity? Success? A relationship? Having close friends? Something else? This question gets at self-protection, avoidance, fear of failure, rejection, and the ways people sometimes downgrade their desires when pursuing them feels risky.
Think about the moments when you feel most natural and unselfconscious. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? What parts of you show up in those moments that you might suppress elsewhere?
The answer can reveal quite a bit about the environments, relationships, and activities that allow you to live most authentically.
3. What do you judge other people for most harshly?
Think about the behaviors or traits that trigger an unusually strong reaction in you. Laziness? Arrogance? Neediness? Attention-seeking? Selfishness? Weakness?
Our strongest judgments can sometimes reveal our own values, insecurities, fears, or traits we work hard to suppress. The point isn’t to assume every judgment is secretly about you. It’s to get curious about why certain behaviors bother you so much more than others.
4. What are you still trying to prove, and to whom?
Maybe you’re trying to prove that you’re successful, intelligent, attractive, independent, lovable, or that someone was wrong about you.
Now ask the harder question: If that person could never see what you accomplished, would you still want it just as badly?
5. What do you envy the most in other people?
Envy is uncomfortable, so we tend to dismiss it or feel guilty about it. But it can also contain useful information.
Instead of asking, “Why am I envious of this person?” ask, “What do they have that I wish I had?”
Maybe it’s freedom, confidence, recognition, close friendships, creativity, money, adventure, or simply the ability to stop caring what everyone thinks.
Sometimes envy points directly toward a desire you haven’t allowed yourself to admit.
6. What do you keep saying you want to change but repeatedly choose not to?
Maybe it’s leaving a bad relationship, setting a boundary, exercising, spending less, changing careers, going to bed earlier, or finally starting something you’ve talked about for years.
Instead of asking why you “can’t” change, ask what staying the same is doing for you.
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
-Lao Tzu
Even behaviors we dislike can serve a purpose. They may keep us comfortable, protect us from failure, help us avoid uncertainty, or allow us to hold onto something we aren’t ready to lose. Understanding that payoff can tell you more than simply labeling yourself as an unmotivated or undisciplined personality.
7. What makes you defensive?
Pay attention to the comments, questions, or criticisms that make you immediately want to explain yourself, argue back, shut down, or prove someone wrong.
Defensiveness doesn’t automatically mean the other person is right. But when something consistently gets under your skin, it may be worth asking why.
Sometimes the things we defend most fiercely are sitting close to something we’re not entirely comfortable admitting to ourselves.
8. Who are you when no one is looking?
Think beyond obvious behaviors. How do you spend your time when there’s no one to impress, disappoint, compete with, or answer to? What do you read, eat, watch, create, think about, or neglect?
The version of you that exists without an audience can reveal a lot. Sometimes it shows what you genuinely enjoy. Other times, it exposes just how much of your everyday behavior is shaped by expectations, approval, and the desire to be seen a certain way.
9. What are you tolerating that you know is making your life worse?
It could be a relationship, a job, a habit, an obligation, a cluttered home, a financial problem, or even the way someone regularly speaks to you.
We tend to think of major life problems as things that happen to us. But sometimes what drains us most is something we have gradually learned to tolerate.
Ask yourself: If nothing about this situation changed for the next five years, how would I feel?
Your answer may tell you whether something is merely annoying or whether you’ve been avoiding a decision that needs to be made.
10. Whose approval still matters to you more than you’d like to admit?
Maybe it’s a parent, a partner, an old friend, a boss, an ex, or even someone who is no longer part of your life.
Now imagine they never give you the validation you’ve been hoping for. They never acknowledge what you accomplished, apologize, understand you, or finally say, “You were right.”
What would you do differently if you stopped waiting for it?
Sometimes we don’t realize how much power we’ve given someone until we imagine living without their approval.
11. What do you complain about but never change?
Maybe you complain that people always ask too much of you, but you rarely say no. You resent being the responsible one, but immediately take over when someone else struggles. You say you want more time for yourself, but fill every empty space with another obligation.
This isn’t about blaming yourself for circumstances you can’t control. It’s about noticing where you might have more influence than you think.
“I’m not complaining. I’m just providing a detailed verbal report of everything that is wrong.”
Sometimes the patterns that frustrate us are also patterns we unknowingly participate in maintaining.
12. What would you do if you knew no one would ever know about it?
Not something unethical. Think about accomplishment and recognition.
Would you still write the book if your name weren’t on the cover? Get the degree if nobody knew you had it? Travel somewhere beautiful if you couldn’t post a single photo? Help someone if you could never tell anyone about it?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting recognition. Humans are social creatures, and being seen matters to us. But this question can help separate what you genuinely value from what you value partly because of how it makes you look to other people.
13. What version of your personality are you still trying to get back?
Maybe you miss who you were before a breakup, illness, loss, failure, career change, parenthood, or simply getting older. Or perhaps you miss a version of yourself who felt more confident, ambitious, carefree, attractive, energetic, or hopeful.
But what if that person isn’t someone you’re supposed to become again?
We can spend years measuring ourselves against an earlier version of who we were, without noticing who we’re becoming now. Ask yourself what you genuinely miss about that person, what you’ve gained since then, and which parts of your old identity you may be ready to stop chasing.
14. What are you afraid people would discover about your personality if they knew you really well?
Maybe you worry they’d discover that you’re insecure, needy, jealous, lonely, angry, less confident than you appear, or that you don’t have nearly as much figured out as people think.
Then ask yourself: What would it mean about you if someone knew this and stayed anyway?
The parts of ourselves we work hardest to hide can reveal where shame has taken root. And sometimes what feels like a terrible secret about who we are is actually an ordinary part of being human.
15. When was the last time you changed your mind about something important?
Think about a belief you once held strongly about relationships, success, parenting, politics, religion, mental health, yourself, or how life is supposed to work.
What changed your mind? New evidence? Personal experience? Someone you trusted? Or simply becoming a different person?
“I reserve the right to change my mind. It’s one of the few signs I have one.”
-Unknown
Being able to revise our beliefs is an important form of self-awareness. If you can’t remember the last time you were genuinely wrong about something important, it may be worth asking whether you’ve become very good at defending your beliefs rather than examining them.
16. What do you keep postponing until you become a different version of yourself?
Maybe you’ll travel when you lose weight. Date when you feel more confident. Write the book when you have more time. Apply for the job when you feel qualified. Wear the clothes when your body changes. Start living once you’re happier, healthier, richer, braver, or more put together.
Ask yourself what your life would look like if that future version of you never arrived.
Sometimes self-improvement quietly turns into self-rejection. You can work toward becoming someone different without requiring your current self to sit in the waiting room until then.
17. What are you doing because you actually want to, and what are you doing because it’s what someone like you is “supposed” to want?
Think about your career, relationships, home, appearance, hobbies, goals, and even how you spend your free time. How many of your choices reflect what genuinely matters to you, and how many reflect the life you learned you were supposed to build?
It can be surprisingly difficult to separate desire from expectation. Sometimes we pursue a goal for so long that we never stop to ask whether we still want the thing waiting at the finish line.
Think of someone you have a strong negative reaction to. Not someone who has seriously harmed you, but someone who simply gets under your skin.
Now get specific. What exactly bothers you about their personality? Are they arrogant? Loud? Needy? Fake? Self-centered? Overly confident? Attention-seeking? Passive? Controlling?
Then ask the more interesting question: Why does that particular quality bother you so much?
Sometimes dislike tells us about our values. Sometimes it points to qualities we fear in ourselves, traits we’ve been taught to suppress, or freedoms we don’t give ourselves permission to have. And sometimes, of course, we dislike someone simply because they behave badly.
The useful part isn’t deciding which explanation is correct. It’s being curious about why this particular person brings out such a strong reaction in you.
19. What are your biggest regrets?
Think about the decisions you wish you could undo, but also the things you never did: the chance you didn’t take, the person you didn’t tell, the place you didn’t go, or the version of yourself you were too afraid to become.
Now look for the pattern.
Do your regrets tend to involve playing it too safe? Trusting the wrong people? Staying too long? Leaving too soon? Caring too much about what others thought? Not appreciating something until it was gone?
Regret hurts, but it also contains information. Your biggest regrets can reveal what you value, what you wish you had prioritized, and what you may want to do differently with the life you still have.
20. What do you wish people understood about your personality without you having to explain it?
Maybe you wish people understood that your quietness isn’t disinterest, your independence doesn’t mean you don’t need anyone, your humor sometimes hides hurt, or that something others consider insignificant actually matters deeply to you.
Now ask yourself whether you’ve ever actually told them.
We often want other people to understand parts of us that we’ve never clearly shown them. The answer to this question can reveal not only what you want others to see, but what you may have difficulty expressing, asking for, or allowing yourself to need.
21. What are you most afraid of losing?
Don’t stop at the obvious answer. If you’re afraid of losing your job, what does the job represent: security, identity, status, purpose, independence? If you fear losing a relationship, is it the person, the companionship, the future you imagined, or the fear of being alone?
Our fears about loss often reveal what we’ve built our sense of safety and identity or personality around.
Then take it one step further: Who would you be without it?
That question can show you the difference between something you deeply value and something you’ve come to believe you need in order to be okay.
22. What do you keep forgiving in other people that you wouldn’t forgive in yourself?
Maybe you give other people permission to be tired, make mistakes, change their minds, need help, fall apart, or take time to figure things out. Yet when you do the same thing, you call yourself lazy, weak, selfish, or a failure.
Pay attention to that double standard.
The rules you create for yourself can reveal a lot about your self-worth, expectations, and where you learned that you had to earn the compassion you freely give to everyone else.
23. Are your beliefs actually yours, or did you inherit them from someone else?
Think about what you believe about success, money, relationships, marriage, parenting, religion, politics, work, morality, aging, and what makes someone a “good” person.
Where did those beliefs come from?
Your family? Your culture? A religious community? Friends? School? Social media? A painful experience? Someone whose approval mattered to you?
We absorb ideas about how the world works long before we’re old enough to examine them. Some become genuine values we would choose again. Others remain simply because we’ve never thought to question them.
Pick one belief you consider fundamental to your personality and ask yourself: If I had grown up in a completely different family, culture, or part of the world, would I still believe this?
You don’t have to abandon an inherited belief just because you inherited it. But there’s a difference between inheriting a belief and consciously choosing to keep it.
24. What would you do differently if you stopped worrying about disappointing people?
Think about the choices you might make if no one else’s expectations were involved. Would you change careers? End or begin a relationship? Say no more often? Move somewhere else? Create something? Rest? Speak more honestly? Stop maintaining a version of your personality that other people have grown comfortable with?
Now ask yourself whose disappointment you’re most afraid of.
Caring about other people is not a weakness, and our choices inevitably affect those around us. But there’s a difference between considering other people and organizing your entire life around avoiding their disapproval.
Sometimes the life we’re afraid to choose tells us something important about the life or personality we actually want.
25. If your life stayed exactly as it is now, would you be okay with how you spent it?
Imagine that nothing dramatically changes. You keep roughly the same routines, relationships, priorities, habits, worries, and ways of spending your time. Years pass.
Would that be enough?
Not every life needs to be extraordinary. You don’t need to travel the world, write a book, become wealthy, find your “purpose,” or reinvent yourself. But you should probably recognize your own life while you’re living it.
If the answer is no, don’t immediately ask yourself how to change your entire personality or life.
Ask something smaller and more uncomfortable:
What do I already know I need to change that I keep pretending I don’t know?
You probably didn’t come away from these questions with a neat four-letter code or a label that explains your personality. That’s the point. Human beings are complicated, contradictory, and constantly changing. You can be confident in one room and insecure in another. Generous and selfish. Brave and afraid. Completely certain about what you want, only to realize five years later that you were chasing something you never really wanted at all.
Self-awareness isn’t about arriving at a final answer about your personality. It’s about becoming curious enough to notice your patterns, question your assumptions, and occasionally admit something to yourself that you would rather not admit. You don’t need to change every uncomfortable thing you discovered here, either. Just pay attention to it. Because perhaps the most important question isn’t “What is my personality?” It’s “Am I paying enough attention to the person I’m becoming?”
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.
Safety planning isn’t about handing someone a form and hoping they stay alive. It’s a collaborative, honest conversation about what keeps a person here when everything in them is telling them to leave. A good safety plan is personal, specific, and written in a person’s own language.
I created this worksheet because many safety plans are either too clinical to be useful or so vague they don’t actually help in a crisis. This safety plan is designed for real-world use—in therapy sessions, crisis calls, hospital discharge planning, and at home.
If you’re someone who’s struggling, use with a professional or a support person you trust.
What Makes a Safety Plan Effective?
A safety plan needs to be clear, specific, and easy to follow in the moment when thinking feels scrambled. It should be written collaboratively and, in the person’s, own words, not in clinical language. The goal is simple: create a step-by-step path that keeps a person safe when they’re overwhelmed or in crisis.
While safety planning is important, suicide prevention starts long before a crisis. Taking care of your mental health, staying connected with supportive people, addressing problems before they become overwhelming, and knowing where to turn for help can all make a difference. Pay attention to changes in your mood, thoughts, behaviors, and ability to cope, and reach out early when something does not feel right. Keep your safety plan and crisis resources somewhere easy to find, and let trusted people know how they can support you. Most importantly, remember that you do not have to have everything figured out, and you do not have to carry the hardest moments alone. Sometimes the goal is simply to get through the next hour, the next night, or the next day. Give yourself the chance to see what comes next. Your story is still being written.
Knowing something about yourself and actually putting that knowledge into practice are two different things. You can understand why you procrastinate, recognize an unhealthy pattern, know that you can’t control everything, and still find yourself doing the exact same things you’ve always done. Being human is inconvenient that way.
I created these free worksheet packets to help turn reflection into something a little more practical. Each packet focuses on a different part of being human, including identity, relationships and connection, control and uncertainty, happiness and wanting, and fear and failure. The exercises are designed to help you examine your own patterns, beliefs, choices, and experiences rather than simply tell you what you should think or do.
There’s no right way to work through them. You can complete an entire packet, choose the exercises that interest you, use them for journaling and self-reflection, or return to them when a particular area of your life needs attention. Some questions may be easy. Others may make you stop and think longer than you expected. That’s probably where the interesting stuff is.
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
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.
Guiding with Purpose: A Self-Discovery Workbook for Counselors is on its way, and it’s full of helpful tools to make therapists feel stronger, more skilled, and more connected to
their work.
Great news for therapists and counselors! A new book is coming soon that will help mental health professionals learn, grow, and feel more confident in their work. Guiding with Purpose: A Self-Discovery Workbook for Counselors by Cassie Jewell, M.Ed., LPC, LSATP, is on its way, and it’s full of helpful tools to make therapists feel stronger, more skilled, and more connected to their work.
This workbook is for anyone working in mental health—whether you’re a student just starting out, a new therapist finding your way, or an experienced supervisor looking for fresh ideas for your students or residents and ways to reflect on your journey.
What Is This Book About?
Guiding with Purpose is not a regular textbook. It’s a hands-on workbook with simple exercises, questions, and activities that help therapists think, learn, and grow.
It will help therapists:
Build stronger relationships with clients
Improve counseling skills and techniques
Feel more confident in their work
Stop doubting themselves and overcome imposter syndrome
Avoid burnout and stress
Make better decisions in tough situations
Take care of their own mental health
Therapists spend their time helping others, but this book is here to help them. It gives professionals a chance to reflect, learn, and take care of themselves so they can continue doing their important work.
Who Is This Book For?
This soon-to-be-released workbook is perfect for:
Counseling students and new therapists
Experienced counselors looking for inspiration
Social workers, psychologists, and anyone in mental health
Clinical supervisors and teams in training
Anyone in the helping professions who wants to feel stronger and more confident
If you work in mental health or are studying to become a therapist, Guiding with Purpose will be a must-have book for your journey.
Why This Workbook Matters
Being a therapist is rewarding; it is also challenging. Many therapists feel tired, unsure, or stressed at some point in their careers. This workbook helps professionals pause, reflect, and grow, making sure they stay motivated and connected to their work.
Many counselors doubt themselves or feel like they don’t know enough. This book helps them see their strengths, build confidence, and find joy in their work again.
It’s not just about learning—it’s about feeling stronger, more balanced, and more prepared for the work therapists do every day.
About the Author
Cassie Jewell, M.Ed., LPC, LSATP, is a licensed therapist, substance abuse treatment practitioner, and clinical supervisor. She is also the creator of Mind Remake Project, a website that shares free mental health resources.
With years of experience in counseling, Cassie knows what it’s like to work in this field—the challenges, the doubts, and the joys. She has also written workbooks on grief and helping people heal after loss. Now, with Guiding with Purpose, she wants to help therapists reflect, learn, and keep growing.
When Will the Book Be Available?
The release date will be announced soon! Guiding with Purpose will be available in print and digital formats, making it easy for therapists to use. For updates and details, visit: https://www.mindremakeproject.org or email CassieJewellLPC@gmail.com.
The digital supplementary materials (discussion questions, quizzes, card decks and more can be downloaded/printed for free below, and utilized for educational, self-help, and therapeutic purposes. (Click the hyperlink after the preview to start download.)
Guiding with Purpose: A Self-Discovery Workbook for Counselors
Therapists do amazing work, but they also need time to pause, reflect, and care for themselves. Guiding with Purpose is coming soon to help professionals stay motivated, confident, and balanced in their careers.
If you are a therapist, counselor, social worker, or student, this workbook is for you! Get ready to learn more about yourself, improve your skills, and feel stronger in your work.
