While this is a public page, it is intended for clients. This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical or professional advice. Consult a qualified health care professional for personalized medical and professional advice.
Greetings, clients!
Prior to Our Initial Appointment
Please complete as many of the following as seem useful to you and bring your results to the initial session. You may complete all, some, or none of them, your choice.
1. Please read these:
- Outline of an Initial, Evidence-Informed Treatment Plan for Substance Use Disorder
- A Guide for Clinicians to Initial Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder
- NIDA’s overview of the science of addiction
2. The readings in #1 are selected from this resources page. Please review other resources on that page and read what appeals to you. Please bring any questions or comments you have to our session.
3. Please access, print out, and complete this Self-Care Checklist for People with Substance Use Issues. (Link opens in a new tab.) Please bring your results to our session.
4. Please peruse the following assessments in the public domain, consider which ones might be useful to you, take the ones you prefer, print out your findings, and bring your results to our session.
- Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Score
- Checklist of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms begins on page 4: PTSD Checklist for DSM 5 (PCL-5)
- Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS)
- DSM–5 Self-Rated Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure, Adult (Scroll a bit to find this assessment listed; requires downloading and printing to answer.)
- If you have interest in other online assessments, these from the American Psychiatric Association are in the public domain. The Society of Clinical Psychology maintains a list of assessments in the public domain.
5. Please create a draft or illustration of a timeline with the following information. Please type a final version of the list and save it for future use. Please bring the draft(s) and a copy of the final version to our session. (These will be returned to you at the end of the session.)
- First use of caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, and/or other substances
- Substance use history: substances used, when, how much, and for how long
- Any traumas: deaths in the family, losses, moves, incarcerations, neglect, abuse, witnessing or experiencing an occurrence as memorably shocking or alarming, witnessing emotional, physical, or sexual violence, community violence or natural disaster
- Onset of any significant physical illnesses or occurrence of any physical injuries
- Onset of any mental illnesses
- Substance use and mental health treatment received
- Significant substance use-related and/or mental illness-related events
- Educational milestones
- Occupational milestones
- Anything else you think is important
Again, please bring any questions or comments you have to our first session. I so look forward to working with you!
Last updated 11/9/18
This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical or professional advice. Consult a qualified health care professional for personalized medical and professional advice.
