What is recovery coaching?

Recovery Coaching is an ongoing professional relationship that helps people who are in or who are considering recovery from addiction to produce extraordinary results in their lives, careers, businesses, or organizations�while advancing their recovery from addiction.

Recovery Coaches affirm that there is innate health and wellness in each of our clients. We hold our clients creative and resourceful. We do not promote or endorse any single or particular way of achieving or maintaining sobriety, abstinence, or serenity or of reducing suffering from addiction. Our focus is on coaching our clients to create and sustain great and meaningful lives.

A Recovery Coach is a trained professional. Coaches are trained to listen, to observe, and to customize their approach to an individual client�s needs. Look for a coach who has graduated from a coaching school that is accredited by the International Coach Federation. To be a Recovery Coach requires additional training. Recovery Coaches are trained to help clients resolve ambivalence, increase confidence and motivation, and use a strengths-based approach to addiction recovery. Right now the only Recovery Coach training school approved by Recovery Coaches International is Crossroads Coaching.

How is a Recovery Coach different from a sponsor or counselor/therapist?

Sponsors come from 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, and Debtor�s Anonymous. Sponsors are not paid professionals; they benefit personally from the service they give you by staying clean and sober or abstinent themselves. A sponsor�s job is to help their sponsee stay clean, abstinent, or sober by working through the 12-steps and using the program and fellowship effectively to stop the addictive behavior. Sponsors have a singleness of purpose�they stick with the steps and traditions. Often the focus is on cleaning up the past. A coach�s job is to support you in creating and living a great life. A coach isn�t limited to using the steps and traditions and can work with you on your dreams and plans and help you effectively find solutions to problems.

A Recovery Coach isn�t a representative of a 12-step program. Recovery Coaching is not affiliated with any 12-step program and does not promote a particular path or way to recovery. Coaches don�t take get paid to take clients through the steps or tell them how to work a program to stay sober, abstinent, or serene. Like other addiction professionals some are members of twelve-step programs. They sponsor and do service work on their own time. Some coaches specialize in helping clients find alternatives to 12-step recovery.

A Recovery Coach challenges and supports their client to make lifestyle changes and experience a better quality of life. We have lots of tools in recovery tool kit that can help a person avoid the frustration that leads to drinking or using or going out again. We want our clients to avoid relapse and end the cycle of multiple trips to treatment. We can help our clients be more effective, stay serene, and or back to center. Recovery Coaches know it is normal for someone in early or even long term recovery to have a really tough time occasionally. This doesn�t mean the person needs therapy�but they do need more than having someone say �Get over it,� or just �Keep coming back.�

Recovery Coaches differ from counselors and therapists because we do not treat addiction or mental health problems. Coaches neither assess addiction nor offer diagnoses. We don�t work directly with either addiction or trauma. Some Recovery Coaches will ask that their client have a therapist as well as a coach. This is especially important if you have been diagnosed with a mental health problem or are seeking relief from emotional or psychological pain.

Coaching ethics and guidelines require that if a client is primarily seeking relief from emotional or psychological pain they must to be referred to a therapist. Recovery Coaching works great along with therapy but should not be considered a substitute for therapy because they are different. Coaching focuses on the present and future while therapy focuses on the past. In therapy the concern is how unresolved issues are impacting the present. A coach will challenge you to drop the story about how messed up you are and to focus on what you can do today to move forward. Coaching focuses on establishing goals and developing a strong community support system while enjoying quality of life, balance and wellness�even after drug rehab!

I just finished treatment� what can you do for me, Alida?

I can help protect your investment of time and money in treatment. Rehab is expensive and completing it takes a huge investment of time and energy. Most people relapse shortly after leaving inpatient treatment because they have no support transitioning back home. There are people to face and bills to pay. A Recovery Coach can support you as you find you way in a new a different life. We can help you figure out what to say to your family, to your old friends, to your boss or prospective employer. We can help you find a really good 12-step sponsor or look for alternative support such as Rational Recovery. We can help you avoid frustration and isolation. Having a Recovery Coach is a wise investment that prevents relapse.

Will you coach me through early recovery?

In early recovery the focus in on getting stable. Having strong support community helps. For instance, research has shown that alcoholics and other addicts getting out of addiction treatment who attend AA are two times more likely to be sober three years later than those who don�t attend AA. I can help you find a good meeting and get hooked up with a sponsor. I can help you find other support as well, such as therapy, parenting classes, or medical care. Together we can figure out what makes for a good day besides not using (protein for breakfast? exercise? enough sleep?) and put together a plan for a better life (school? job? trekking in the Himalayas?)

I hate 12-step meetings�will you coach me?

Of course. AA is not the only way. There are many roads to addiction recovery and having a good life. I can help you find alternatives to 12-step programs such as Women for Sobriety, or develop your own support system from community, family or church. What is important is that you have companions who honor your choices and path. What is import is that you become complete with your past so that you can reach your recovery goals and enjoy quality of life. Recovery Coaching will help you identify and live the life you want on your own terms.

I am in long-term recovery�what can you do for me?

I love old-timers who have worked the steps a gazillion times and are ready for something else! Coaching can help you leverage the strengths you have gained in recovery into something really wonderful. Coaching will help you get clear about what you want to do with the rest of your life and then do it. With a coach at your side you will find the courage to reach for your dreams.