“I just need one to get through this.” The client is not asking to go back to smoking. They are asking how to get through the next hour without it.

For clinicians, coaches and quit advisors

Plenty of worksheets let you print and use them with clients. This one does too. Here is what it adds.

You may give a client their own blank copy to keep, by email or through a secure patient portal.
You may use it in groups you run yourself.
You may print without limit, for as long as you practice.
And a written license page comes as a separate sheet in the download, so your practice has something to file.

One practitioner. Not transferable to a colleague, and not for resale.

The free page, and what this set adds

A one-wave version, The Craving Wave, is in the free library. You can use it with clients as it is.

This set adds what one wave cannot: anchors decided in advance for each part of the craving, five waves to compare, a thought record for what the craving says, and a page for you on how to introduce it in one appointment.

Written for smoking cessation

Not a mindfulness workbook with a line about cigarettes added. Every page is built around one moment: the urge to smoke or vape, arriving mid-afternoon with a reason attached — by a nurse with twenty-five years in pulmonary care who is also a certified quit coach. It works for smoking and for vaping.

Why ride the urge, and not fight it

A craving rarely arrives without words. Just one. This is different. I deserve it. Arguing back tends to make the argument louder, and giving in teaches the urge that arguing works.

Urge surfing comes from relapse prevention: the client notices the urge rise, peak and ease, without acting on it and without fighting it. The aim is honest and small. In a randomised study of smokers, a brief urge-surfing instruction did not make the urges weaker, but participants smoked fewer cigarettes over the following week. The goal is not a smaller urge. It is a different answer to it.

What you get

Four pages — US Letter and A4 both included — 107 fillable fields.
Plus the license page, in both sizes.

1 — My 10-Minute Plan
Three anchors chosen in advance, one for each part of the wave: the climb, the peak and the ease. Then the wave itself: ten circles to tick, one for every minute, with the date and what set it off. Strength before and after, from 0 to 10, and what to do if the urge is still strong — ride another wave, call or text someone, use NRT as agreed, or something else.

2 — My Five-Wave Practice Log
Five waves, one per craving. For each: date and time, trigger, the ten minutes, strength before and after, and what helped. Five waves is enough to see what works for this client, and where the peak tends to come.

3 — When the Craving Talks
A cognitive behavioral thought record in three columns: what the craving says, what the client actually knows from their own experience, and what they choose. Four rows, and one sentence to use at the peak of the next wave.

4 — For the Practitioner
How to introduce urge surfing in one appointment, in five steps. A short script to read aloud. What the evidence does and does not say, with references. Room for your notes on this client.

How it sits in a session

Page 1 is filled in together: the anchors are decided while nothing is happening, not in the middle of the afternoon when the urge arrives.

Page 2 is homework, one wave per craving until the next appointment. It is the page to open that appointment with: which anchor helped, and where the peak came.

Page 3 is for the craving that comes with a story attached. The client writes the craving’s sentence down and gets the last word.

Page 4 stays with you.

Nothing on these pages asks the client to disclose more than they choose to. There are no diagnostic items and nothing is scored.

Three ways to use it

Hand a client page 1 on its own, or all three client pages.
They type straight into it on a phone or tablet — cravings happen in the car, at work, in a queue, not next to a printer.
Or print it and use a pen.

Two sizes, both fillable

US Letter, 8.5 x 11 in — United States and Canada
A4, 210 x 297 mm — the standard size everywhere else

Both are in the download at no extra cost, and both work the same way: type on screen, or print. The fields do not show on paper.

Before you start

Open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader — it’s free, on iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows. A browser preview will show the pages, but it won’t reliably keep what a client types.

Keep the blank original blank. Save filled copies under a new name.

The practice license

One practitioner, unlimited clients, worldwide. Print for your own clients, use one-to-one and in groups you run yourself, send a blank copy to an individual client, and keep a filled copy in a client file where your recordkeeping rules require it. Not for resale, and not transferable to a colleague — each practitioner needs their own. The full terms come as a separate page in the download.

Personalized license copy, on request

The license page carries the name of this set and has fields for your name, your practice, and the date of purchase, so you can complete it yourself and keep it with your records. If you would rather have those details typeset into the page instead of typed into a form field, write to hello@cessationworksheets.com after your purchase and I will send one back. No charge — it is part of the license.

How buying works

Checkout runs through Gumroad, a payment platform used by independent creators worldwide. You pay on their secure checkout page, and your card details never reach me.

The price shown here is $3.99 before tax. VAT or sales tax is added at checkout, based on where you live, so the total can differ from country to country. You see the full amount before you pay.

Charges are processed in US dollars. Outside the United States, your bank converts the amount and may add a small fee of its own.

Straight after payment you get a download link on screen and by email, with both files — A4 and US Letter — and a receipt.

Who wrote this

I am a pulmonary nurse, trained in asthma and COPD. I work in a respiratory outpatient clinic, where I see people with asthma and COPD and run the smoking cessation consultations. I am listed in KABIZ, the Dutch quality register for healthcare professionals, which means I work to the national care standard for tobacco and nicotine dependence.

Evidence-informed and developed with reference to current tobacco-dependence and smoking-cessation guidelines, using CBT-informed behavioral tools to support structured cessation conversations.

Every page is built on national standards for tobacco dependence and on published evidence, and checked against the guidance in each. See the seven guidelines.

No lectures. No scare tactics.

Instant digital download. Nothing is shipped. No refunds once the download has been opened. If the file does not work as described, write to me and I will sort it out.
Support tool only — not medical advice, and not a substitute for the clinical judgment of the practitioner using it.

Access

The Urge Surfer

The Vape Micro-Trigger Audit

The Vape Micro-Trigger Audit (Teen)

The Withdrawal Curve

Three Moments a Day

Vaping in Seven Guidelines