Recovery Resources

Forms and Activities to Support Recovery

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire

The ACE questionnaire is a 10-item measure to quantify instances of adverse or traumatic experiences during childhood. This self-scoring questionnaire has been used in large scale studies exploring the impacts of childhood adversity on health outcomes.

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Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief-COPE)

This is a 28 item questionnaire which describes a person's style of coping when exposed to a stressful event. This includes problem-focused, emotion-focused and avoidant coping.

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When your thinking takes you places you would prefer not to go...

This form provides a scripted handout to enable people to deal with 'broken record thinking'. The activity involves shifting attention to particular memories. The form enables people to write down or associate pictures with memories which they can rehearse when they find themselves ruminating or preoccupied with thoughts or cravings.

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Mindfulness-Based Self Efficacy Scale (MSES-R)

This is a 22 item scale which explores mindfulness skills and capacities. It includes 6 subscales including emotion regulation, social skills, equanimity, distress tolerance, taking responsibility and interpersonal effectiveness

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The PERMA Profiler

The PERMA was developed by Martin Seligman to encourage the development of a flourishing life. There are five building blocks that enable flourishing – Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (hence PERMA™) – and there are strategies to increase each. The PERMA Profiler quantifies the strength of these areas and aspects of vitality (Sometimes called the PERMA +)

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The Self-Defeating Beliefs Questionnaire

This is a 96 item questionnaire which is a downloadable self-scoring form supporting the online programme, Understanding and changing self-defeating beliefs. This illuminates the strength of Albert Ellis's 12 core beliefs. Users can click on the beliefs that may be relevant to them and explore their impact or access alternative, more helpful beliefs.

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Sleep Hygiene Questionnaire

This brief self-scoring form addresses key factors which impact sleep quality and quantity. Further details about sleep hygiene and mental health as well as an online version of the questionnaire can be found here.

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SMART Goals

This is a standard worksheet to enable the formulation of smarter goals. SMARTER stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound, Exciting and Reviewable.

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Thought Diary

This is a one page thought diary which is often used in cognitive behavioural Therapy. It encourages people to explore specific Activating events (situations), Beliefs about the event (automatic thoughts) and Consequences (Feelings, behaviour and body sensations). WIth coaching, one can identify and intentionally change beliefs and behaviour which may become problematic.

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My R & R Plan

My plan to Restore a sense of safety & detail resources for Recovery and Relapse prevention

The R&R plan represents a systematic, comprehensive, individualised and collaborative approach to planning for mental health recovery. Specifically the R&R plan addresses:

• Restoring and maintaining a sense of safety;
• Identifying and responding proactively to signs and symptoms suggestive of relapse (sometimes called a relapse signature);
• Identifying and scheduling activities which are necessary to maintain optimal mental health and wellbeing;
• Focusing on positive mental health such as evidence-based practices to enable thriving and enhancing resilience;
• Enabling communication between individuals and their supporters / allies about the best way to support recovery and;
• Enabling useful conversations between health professionals, individuals and their supporters about needs and treatment.

All or some of the R&R plan may be completed by you and should be written in "I" language. This was designed by Dr Richard Lakeman, an academic and psychotherapist for use by people who may be engaged in therapy or interested in improving their wellbeing.

You may need to download and open this document in Adobe Acrobat and save the file when you fill it in.

The R&R plan draws on a range of evidence-based practices and principles to restore and maintain a sense of safety and plan for a thriving future. Some or all of these are routinely introduced to individuals and families, students and groups whom Dr Richard Lakeman works with.

Download the R & R Plan

Resources to assist with tolerating distress and regulating emotions

How to deal with overwhelming emotions

Have you ever 'flipped your lid', or been so emotional or angry that your thinking brain appeared to switch off? It has happened to all of us. This module introduces you to some strategies to rapidly return to a more reasonable frame of mind. In particular some it introduces you to the TIPP set of skills, derived from DBT. TIPP stands for Tip the temperature, Intense exercise, Paced Breathing paired with Progressive muscle relaxation.