ABSTRACT
People experiencing substance use disorders (SUDs) and related concerns often engage in value-incongruent behaviors, leading to self-criticism and shame that perpetuate substance use as an avoidance coping strategy, making recovery difficult. Self-forgiveness may interrupt this substance–shame cycle by transforming shame into positive psychological outcomes and value-congruent behavior. Cornish’s self-forgiveness therapy intervention, adapted for people recovering from SUDs, was administered to men in early recovery. Pre–post results indicate decreased general distress, increased well-being, and improvements in most offense-specific and substance-use-related outcomes, highlighting the intervention’s potential to enhance current treatments for SUDs and supporting qualitative evidence reported by Carroll and colleagues.