The Recovery Files · Professionals
Recovery for Professionals
Printable workbooks for the work you do
Professional training builds real skills: staying in control, solving problems, keeping up appearances under pressure. In recovery, those same skills can get in the way. These printable workbooks set the recovery work in the language of your job: its pressures, its culture, the fear for your licence or career, and the strengths you already bring. Find your profession below, or start with one of the three workbooks written for every professional.
The scored self-assessments and mind maps that go with these programs stay in The Recovery Files app.
These workbooks support professional treatment and are not a substitute for it. In a crisis, call or text 988, or call SAMHSA at 1-800-662-4357.
Programs by profession
Pick the program closest to the work you do.
Aviation Professionals
Pilots, air traffic controllers, and aviation personnel
The first three steps told in a pilot's language: the pull between professional control and surrender, trusting what you can't yet see, and the decision to land. Built around the aviation culture of checklists, isolation and career fear.
Inside: Pre-Flight Check · The Control Paradox (Step One) · Flight Path Planning (stages of change) · Instrument Flight Rules (Step Two) · Navigation Charts · Air Traffic Control: building your support network · Flight Operations: daily recovery tools · Decision to Land (Step Three)
33 pages
Sales & Business Development
Sales professionals, account executives, and BD managers
Persuasion, negotiation and relationship-building are strengths, and they can turn recovery into one more deal to work. This seven-part program helps you notice that pattern and turn those skills toward honest recovery, with plans for quota pressure, business travel and client events.
Inside: Professional Identity & Authenticity · The Negotiator's Paradox · Communication Transformation · Building Recovery Capital · Professional Social Navigation · Professional Integration · Pattern Transformation
27 pages
Healthcare Professionals
Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and healthcare workers
For people who are good at noticing pain in patients and poor at noticing it in themselves. Four modules cover compassion fatigue, access to medications, working with a monitoring program, and going back to practice.
Inside: The Healer's Paradox · Access & Accountability · Navigating Monitoring Programs · Returning to Practice with Integrity · workplace safety-plan checklist · return-to-practice readiness checklist
16 pages
Legal Professionals
Attorneys, judges, paralegals, and legal staff
Legal training teaches you to argue, negotiate and win. Recovery asks for something different. Four modules look at how a legal mind resists powerlessness, and how to move from building the case to taking the next step.
Inside: Understanding the Legal Mind's Barriers · Professional Identity and Vulnerability · From Analysis to Action · Redefining Victory
6 pages
Education Professionals
Teachers, professors, administrators, and counselors
For educators carrying the weight of being a role model. Two modules work through credibility, shame and guilt, and the rhythm of the school year, including the risky stretch of summer, with printable worksheets for each.
Inside: Teaching Through Example (rebuilding credibility, disclosure decisions, shame and guilt, sharing your story, boundaries) · The Classroom of Life (self-care, school-year routines, summer, advocating for mental health, purpose) · Professional Credibility Rebuilding Plan · Shame & Guilt Processing · School Year Recovery Routine Builder · Emotional Labor Inventory · summer recovery plan
28 pages
Business Executives & Entrepreneurs
CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs, and business owners
Leading a business while staying sober. Starts with four pressures leaders face, each with strategies, then two modules on leadership and on separating your worth from the balance sheet.
Inside: High-pressure decisions · networking in a drinking culture · work identity and ego · delegating and asking for help · Leadership Through Recovery (early recovery at the top, team disclosure, client relationships, recovery-positive culture) · The Bottom Line (self-worth, healthy risk vs. reckless risk, work-life integration, sustainable business)
10 pages
Skilled Trades & Construction
Electricians, plumbers, contractors, and tradespeople
For people who build and fix things for a living. Takes on job-site drinking and drug culture, working through physical pain without pills, irregular schedules, and the pride of the trade, bringing the same work ethic to recovery.
Inside: Navigating Workplace Substance Culture · Pain Management Without Substances · Recovery with Irregular Schedules · Safety & Accountability on Job Sites · Financial Recovery for Tradespeople · Blue-Collar Identity & Recovery Pride · workplace culture self-check · union and trade resources
16 pages
Creative Professionals
Artists, writers, musicians, and creative workers
Takes apart the myth of the tortured artist. Six modules cover the fear of losing your edge, performing sober, the feast-or-famine money cycle, industry party culture, building structure into unstructured work, and using your art as part of recovery.
Inside: The Myth of the Tortured Artist · Managing Performance Anxiety Without Substances · Financial Stability · Navigating Industry Substance Culture · Creating Structure in Unstructured Work · Art as Recovery · creativity and substance use self-check · resources
17 pages
For every professional
Shorter workbooks that apply whatever your job.
The High-Functioning Fallacy
For every professional
You kept showing up, the work got done, the reviews were good, and that record is one of the reasons the problem went unnamed. This workbook looks at how competence hides addiction, and how to stop using performance as the measure of whether you're okay.
Inside: Why "high-functioning" delayed recovery · How the mask worked · Perfectionism in sobriety · Comparing recovery to career achievement · Letting go of the overachiever identity · My plan beyond performance
5 pages
Professional Identity & Authenticity
For every professional
Years of being "on" for clients and colleagues can make it hard to know who you are off the clock. This workbook separates the professional mask from the real person and gives a week-by-week plan for showing up honestly in recovery.
Inside: Professional facades and authentic recovery · a look at your own professional patterns · transformation strategies · two-week practice plan · ongoing check-ins
7 pages
Disclosure Navigation
For every professional
A readiness checklist for deciding if, when and how to tell people at work about your recovery. For education only: it asks you to talk with a lawyer and your support team before deciding.
Inside: Legal and professional considerations · personal recovery stability · workplace environment · next steps if you're not ready
4 pages