Codependency worksheets

Looking for codependency worksheets to use with clients? You’re in the right place. 

This article provides an overview of codependency, tips to overcome these behaviors, and a free, downloadable codependency worksheets PDF.

Codependency worksheets can give mental health therapists a concise overview of codependency or enmeshment traits to share with clients. 

This article describes the benefits of using codependency worksheets and includes a free printable codependency worksheet to save to your electronic health record (EHR). 

What is codependency?

Codependency is a term that is common in addiction treatment, which describes specific characteristics and behaviors of a person in a relationship with someone who has substance use disorders. 

The codependency meaning is similar to the idea of enmeshment—being overly focused on other people, fixing their problems, and ignoring one’s own needs. 

Codependency can negatively impact a client’s mental health and the well-being of their relationship. 

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Key characteristics of codependency include:

• Excessive caregiving: A codependent person may have an exaggerated sense of responsibility for the care and actions of others. They may take on a caretaker role, often centering the needs of their partner over their own to the point of neglecting their well-being.
• Poor boundaries: Codependent people have difficulty in setting and maintaining personal boundaries, which can cause them to feel overwhelmed or resentful. They may also overshare and take on the responsibility of others’ emotions.
• A need for approval and recognition: Codependent clients often have low self-worth and may seek external validation or approval from the person they are trying to manage.
• Control issues: A codependent person feels they need to control, fix, or rescue the other person and their problems.
• Denial: Ignoring one’s issues to focus on their partner’s problems.
• Emotional suppression: Minimizing one's emotions to avoid conflict or overly focusing on their partner’s emotions.
• Blaming: Using the other person’s substance use or other behaviors as a way to explain away an overdeveloped sense of responsibility and control. For example, saying, “If I didn’t take care of X, it wouldn’t get done.”
• An unhealthy dependence on others: Codependent people exhibit a fear of rejection or abandonment, which can lead to staying in unhealthy relationships or situations.
• Poor mental health: Symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and even narcissism may be prevalent in a codependent person.

Benefits of using codependency worksheets

Codependency worksheets can be helpful in therapy for several reasons:

• Improved self-awareness: Noticing signs of caretaking and recognizing codependent behavior can positively impact their relationship and well-being.
• Redefined responsibilities: A 12-step codependency worksheets PDF might help clients identify that they aren’t responsible for their partner’s recovery or related behaviors.
• Developing healthy boundaries: Through exploring personal boundaries, clients learn to separate their needs, emotions, and responsibilities from others.
• Builds self-esteem: Self-reflection and detangling from a codependent relationship encourages individuals to refocus on meeting their own needs and well-being rather than being overly focused on others.
• Better self-care: Learning to prioritize themselves over others is a form of self-care.
• Reduced stress: Codependency worksheets for adults help clients focus on identifying and managing their own emotions and less on what others are doing, which may reduce stress and improve their ability to manage their own feelings and emotions. 
• Improved communication skills: Codependency often involves poor communication, such as difficulty asserting one's needs and desires. Therapy and codependency worksheets can help individuals practice assertive communication, reducing poor communication styles, like passive or aggressive communication.
• Enhanced ability to set and achieve goals: Using the codependency worksheets PDF can affirm to the client that they have identified a problem and are seeking treatment. 

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Steps to avoid codependency in relationships

In addition to using codependency worksheets, clients can avoid codependency by cultivating healthy relationships and improving self-awareness. 

Some other positive steps may involve:

• Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries
• Having a strong network of support
• Prioritizing self-care
• Cultivating independent interests and behaviors
• Working through unhelpful thoughts or an overdeveloped sense of responsibility in therapy
• Strengthening distress tolerance and emotional regulation skills
• Practicing mindfulness and self-awareness

Download the codependency worksheets PDF for free at the top of this article. You can share the codependency worksheets with clients in session, or provide it as homework to read on their own time and discuss in your next session.

Sources

• Beattie, M. (1986). Codependent no more: How to stop controlling others and start caring for yourself. Hazelden.
• Bacon, I., McKay, E., Reynolds, F., et al. The Lived Experience of Codependency: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Int J Ment Health Addiction 18, 754–771 (2020). 
• Lancer, D. (2016). Symptoms of codependency.
• Mental Health America. (n.d.). Codependency.
• Panaghi, L., Ahmadabadi, Z., Khosravi, N., Sadeghi, M. S., & Madanipour, A. (2016). Living with Addicted Men and Codependency: The Moderating Effect of Personality Traits. Addiction & health, 8(2), 98–106.
• Stafford L. L. (2001). Is codependency a meaningful concept?. Issues in mental health nursing, 22(3), 273–286. 
• Springer, C. A., Britt, T. W., & Schlenker, B. R. (1998). Codependency: Clarifying the construct. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 20(2), 141–158.

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