What Is CliftonStrengths? A Plain-English Guide
The short version
CliftonStrengths, which many people still call StrengthsFinder, is an assessment created by Gallup. It is built on research by Dr. Donald Clifton and is widely used in workplaces and schools. It does not measure how healthy or sick someone is. It describes how a person naturally tends to think, feel, and act.
The 34 themes
The assessment sorts talents into 34 themes, such as Empathy, Discipline, Learner, Positivity, and Responsibility. Your results rank the themes that come most naturally to you. Two people can share a top theme and still use it very differently, which is part of why the tool is useful as a conversation starter.
The four domains
Gallup groups the 34 themes into four domains, which describe how a theme tends to show up when people work toward goals:
Executing: making things happen and getting them done.
Influencing: speaking up, persuading, and taking charge.
Relationship Building: forming bonds that hold a group together.
Strategic Thinking: taking in information and thinking about what could come next.
No domain is better than another. Most people have talents in more than one.
Why a recovery program might use it
Many people in early recovery have heard plenty about what they did wrong. A strengths assessment gives them a different kind of language. Someone with strong Discipline may find that routines help them. Someone high in Relator may realize that one honest relationship does more for them than a room full of acquaintances. These are starting points for talking with a counselor, not diagnoses and not predictions.
What it is not
CliftonStrengths is not a test for addiction, a mental health screening, or a treatment on its own. It was designed for personal and professional development. In a treatment setting it works best as one part of a wider plan led by trained clinicians.
At Cherry Creek
People in treatment at Cherry Creek Treatment Center in Wichita are offered the chance to take the assessment and explore their results as part of their care. If you would like to know how that might work for you, call admissions at 316-330-7126.
CliftonStrengths, StrengthsFinder, and the theme names are registered trademarks of Gallup, Inc. Information about the themes and domains comes from Gallup's public pages. This page does not imply endorsement by Gallup.
