How To Find A Recovery Coach

Recovery coaching is a growing service in addiction treatment. A peer recovery coach helps people facing addiction by offering insight gained through his or her own recovery journey.

Peer recovery support has long been seen as a helpful supplement to substance abuse treatment that can give people encouragement throughout the recovery process.

A recovery coach provides a more personalized approach to this form of support and can be found inside or outside the structure offered by treatment centers.

What Do Addiction Recovery Coaches Do?

When looking for a peer recovery coach, you first want to have a good idea of what these coaches do.

Peer recovery coaches provide support and encouragement that comes from a combination of training and experience. These coaches are considered peers because they have experienced addiction themselves.

Having a coach, or even a coaching team, that has been on the path to recovery for a long period of time and can offer reliable support may be instrumental to your own recovery journey.

Practical Support

A peer recovery coach helps you with practical aspects of recovery. While treatment providers may teach you healthy coping skills and other life skills, for example, a recovery coach helps you apply those skills.

Practical support may include:

• help finding a place to live
• job searching advice
• applying life skills to things like managing your finances

Knowledge

A coach who has been through an addiction recovery program has a strong knowledge base to draw from.

Coaches can help you by:

• providing self-care tips
• connecting you to community support services
• connecting you to sober events and activities

Emotional Support

Sober coaches have more than just recovery knowledge. They also have experience.

This enables them to give you something that not many others can, at least not to the same degree: empathy and emotional support.

Having someone to turn to who has been in your shoes when you’re feeling alone, powerless, or shameful can help you remember that addiction may be powerful, but you can overcome it.

Relapse Prevention

Ultimately, recovery coaches are a great strategy for relapse prevention. But this strategy doesn’t have to start after you leave a rehab program.

Through the course of treatment, coaches help by:

• improving your relationship with treatment providers
• increasing your participation and retention
• guiding you to other social supports

For people who have been involved in the criminal legal system, coaches can also help you avoid further legal issues.

Does A Recovery Coach Provide Addiction Treatment?

When looking for a recovery coach, keep in mind that a coach will not be able to provide addiction treatment in the same way that a recovery program would.

If you are currently engaged in substance abuse, you may need treatment options such as detox, inpatient treatment, therapy, and other services.

A recovery coach cannot provide treatment but, when used as a supplement to treatment, can make treatment more effective and recovery more lasting.

Qualifications To Look For In A Recovery Coach

In addition to their experiences with addiction, peer recovery coaches also must have specific training and education.

Each state will have slightly different ways to go about becoming a professional certified recovery coach.

Research what the qualifications for becoming certified in your state are, and then look for peer recovery coaches with those credentials.

Where To Find An Addiction Recovery Coach

There are several ways that you can find a recovery coach in your area.

Since recovery coaches are sometimes offered through treatment programs, your local addiction recovery centers may be a good place to start.

Coaching Services In A Treatment Program

If you are currently enrolled in an addiction treatment program, start your search for a recovery coach there.

Treatment options for substance abuse often include some form of recovery support through peer support groups. Sometimes this also includes coaching services.

Even if you aren’t currently receiving treatment, checking with local treatment centers to ask about available coaches can be helpful.

Referrals Through A Rehab Center

If a rehab center doesn’t have options for recovery coaching, it still might be able to refer you to an independent coach in the recovery community.

Some treatment centers have a referral relationship with coaches who they can call on to be a part of your recovery plan.

Internet Search

The internet can also be a good place to find a sober coach to help you through the stages of recovery.

Look for a coach who is certified in your state, has good reviews from past clients, and has availability for the level of coaching you require, which will likely be more involved at the start.

Certification Boards

If a general search doesn’t turn up a recovery coach, you can try a more focused search engine through one of the certifying or accrediting bodies in your state.

Many states offer recovery coach training so that people can become certified professional recovery coaches. These certification bodies may have a database of recovery coaches that you can search.

Find Addiction Treatment Today

If you are facing substance abuse, you are not alone. Call us to learn about your treatment options and how to access them.