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Substance use recovery / SUR-A06-4

The Next Ten Minutes — Session activity

Facilitate a structured practice of the next ten minutes with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.

30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals

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Fictional example: Jordan plans to leave a stressful conversation and call a trusted support.

Use within your training and assessment of readiness. A short plan can reduce the burden of deciding everything at once.

0–5 min | Agree on purpose and fit

Explain the educational scope. Ask what would be useful, check readiness and access needs, and establish choices to observe, adapt, or pass. Use an ordinary example; do not solicit trauma narratives.

5–10 min | Orient with an example

A short plan can reduce the burden of deciding everything at once. Fictional example: Jordan plans to leave a stressful conversation and call a trusted support. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.

10–20 min | Practice and compare

Create an if-then plan for one manageable urge window, including an accessible activity and a person to contact. Offer quiet individual work, a supported conversation, or an observing role. Compare two possible responses without evaluating people as right or wrong.

20–25 min | Reflect on meaning

Which step is realistic when attention and energy are limited? Ask what fit, what did not fit, and how culture, power, disability access, or external conditions affect the options.

25–30 min | Integrate and close

Invite one optional next step or support request. Orient to the current setting, allow an unfinished question to remain unfinished, and agree how to revisit it. End early or adapt if activation increases.

Adaptations

For a group, use fiction and no compulsory round-robin disclosure. For remote use, allow off-camera reflection and private notes. For brief use, keep one example and one question while retaining opening and closing choices.

Prompts for this resource

  1. What outcome would make this practice useful?
  2. Which step is realistic when attention and energy are limited?
  3. What adaptation or follow-up is needed?

Conceptual background

Substance Use Disorders — National Institutes of Health

Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.

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