Recovery & Life Coaching
When creating a Coaching “alliance” with a client we custom create the support that is necessary.
The emergence of the Recovery Coach role in the past decade has emerged from the recognition of the need to reconnect treatment to the more enduring process of recovery; to effectively link clients from treatment institutions to indigenous communities of recovery, and to address complex co-occurring problems that inhibit successful recovery. These recognitions are part of a larger shift in the design of treatment from a focus on acute biopsychosocial stabilization to a focus on sustained recovery management.
The Recovery Coach is a:
- Truth Teller – Provides a consistent source of honest feedback regarding self-destructive patterns of thinking, feeling and acting
- Role Model and Mentor – Offers living proof of the power of recovery; stage-appropriate recovery education and advice
- Problem Solver – Identifies and helps resolve personal and environmental obstacles to recovery
- Resource Broker – Links to sources of sober housing, recovery-conducive employment, health and social services, and recovery support
- Advocate – Helps navigate the service system assuring service access
- Lifestyle Consultant – Developing sobriety-based rituals of daily living
Equally important, the Recovery Coach is NOT a:
- Sponsor – Does not perform AA/NA service work on “paid time”
- Therapist – Does not diagnose, probe undisclosed “issues”; does not refer to their support activities as “counseling” or “therapy”
- Nurse/Physician – Does not make medical diagnoses or offer medical advice
- Priest/Clergy – Does not respond to questions of religious doctrine nor proselytize a particular religion/church (Excerpted from White, 2004b)
When creating a Coaching “alliance” with a client we custom create the support that is necessary. Weekly 1 hour sessions are a starting point, or we can add additional phone support; even site visits and other structure/accountability pieces.