Mentoring & Education: Strategic Self-Disclosure Flashcards

What is the primary test a recovery specialist should apply before sharing part of their own recovery story?

Answer: Whether sharing it serves the peer's recovery goals rather than the specialist's needs

Self-disclosure should be purposeful and focused on the peer, offering hope, connection or a useful example. It should not meet the specialist's own emotional needs or shift attention to them.

Which self-disclosure is most appropriate during a session with a peer who is struggling with cravings?

Answer: A brief mention of a coping strategy that helped the specialist with cravings, followed by a return to the peer's experience

Good disclosure is brief, relevant and hopeful, and it hands the conversation back to the peer. Graphic "war stories" and current personal struggles are inappropriate.

Telling "war stories" (graphic details of past substance use) to peers is discouraged mainly because it:

Answer: Can glamorize use, trigger cravings, and shift focus away from recovery

Detailed using stories can trigger cravings or make use sound appealing. A recovery story should focus on what helped, what changed and what life is like now.

Role modeling as a recovery specialist primarily means:

Answer: Showing through one's own conduct that recovery is possible and sustainable

Role modeling shows that recovery is possible by living it: being reliable, honest, using wellness practices and following ethics. It does not mean requiring others to follow one pathway.

A peer asks, "Did you ever relapse?" The specialist did relapse years ago. What is the best approach?

Answer: Share honestly and briefly if it is useful to the peer, and highlight what was learned

An honest, brief disclosure focused on learning can show that relapse does not end recovery. The specialist decides how much to share based on what helps the peer.

Which is an example of the "education" role of a recovery specialist?

Answer: Teaching a peer how to find and use local mutual-aid meetings and recovery resources

Peer educators teach practical recovery skills and share information about resources and pathways. Prescribing, psychotherapy and diagnosis are clinical roles outside the peer scope of practice.