Inherent in addiction and mental health disorders is trauma, shame and vulnerability. Individuals have experienced or done things which they are not proud of and have received messages that they are not good enough or have made up stories about their lives that have allowed them to survive. As we move into engagement, we help them create new powerful narratives with Sara Lawrence Lightfoot’s “Portraiture” as a method of qualitative inquiry along with Brene Brown’s “Rising Strong,” which can allow others to become. Case examples will be given and the ways in which clinicians are gifted in return will be extrapolated.