A recovery coach helps recovering addicts make decisions and set goals that are personalized for their own journey to sobriety. They can work with those who are still in the midst of addiction or those who have already started their path to recovery.

Recovery coaches are non-clinical, meaning they cannot diagnose medical conditions or offer medical treatment for addiction. Recovery coaches are more action-oriented, helping their clients by consulting with them and motivating them through long-term goals to maintain sobriety.

How Do Recovery Coaches Help?

There are many ways that recovery coaches can help a person in recovery:

  • Providing emotional support
  • Offering companionship
  • Sharing information
  • Strengthening communication
  • Offering lifestyle support
  • Being consistently non-judgmental and flexible
  • Encouraging healthy family relationships
  • Discussing crucial life areas (i.e. family, education, employment, relationships, spirituality)
  • Using peer-based strategies and approaches

A strong support system is absolutely crucial to one’s recovery from addiction. Recovery coaches offer support that is personalized to the individual for the present moment of their recovery as well as for the long-term. Setting goals helps to hold their clients accountable for completing them, moving them forward in a life of sobriety.

Comprehensive Recovery Development Plans

There are various coaching methods that a recovery coach may use to help their clients. The method used will depend on the coach themselves and the needs of the client.

G.R.O.W. Model

This acronym stands for Goals, Reality of the Situation, Options Available, and Write a Recovery Plan. By taking these steps one at a time, it makes the process seem less overwhelming. It can also be tailored to a person’s exact needs.

SMART Model

This model focuses on goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Putting goals into perspective makes them more realistic and easier for the client to see themselves accomplishing them.

Strengths-Based Approach

Recovery coaches can use this model to analyze the strengths of their clients. Rather than focusing on the pathology that brought them to their addiction, the coach can take their known strengths and come up with a recovery plan that is based on those strengths.

Do I Need a Recovery Coach If I Already Have a Sponsor/Therapist/Addiction Specialist?

These three roles in recovery set boundaries to prevent them from getting too close to the recovering addict, and it is strictly a professional relationship:

  • Sponsors have ONE purpose in aiding sobriety. This purpose is to direct a newly-recovering addict or alcoholic through the 12-Step program offered by Al-Anon, Narc-Anon, or another organization. Sponsors are not meant to be advocators, motivators, or lifestyle consultants.
  • Therapists focus more on the client’s past to see how certain events and actions led to a life of addiction.
  • Addiction specialists focus more on biopsychosocial stabilization within a 30 to 90-day plan for recovery.

Recovery coaches, on the other hand, take the skills of these roles and use them to fill in the gaps by being more of an advocate, friend, and ally. They do this by working with the individual to set more personalized goals that can be achieved in the long-term.

Meeting with a Recovery Coach

Depending on your situation, you may meet with your recovery coach once or twice a week for check-ins or have them available 24/7 at a sober living house or other treatment centers. If you only have a couple of check-ins each week, this can be done in person or remotely via video chat or telephone.

These meetings start by learning the person’s history with addiction and seeing how they view their situation. Once this information has been established, the recovery coach can then work with the client to set goals. Over time, the two will figure out what is working and what is not. This way, they can monitor how the individual is progressing in their recovery. The recovery coach can eventually help the recovering individual transition to life without the need for their sessions.

Finding a Recovery Coach

More clinics across the United States are beginning to offer recovery coaching. To find a recovery coach, you can try Telehealth or see what treatment centers in your area offer this service.

Sober living homes may offer a recovery coach to aid in conjunction with the other structures in place for recovery. Homes like Camelback Recovery offer recovery coaching for free when you first begin your stay to see if it would be beneficial to you. Once the trial period has ended, you can decide to continue the recovery coaching with payments.

The cost of a recovery coach varies depending on where you are seeing them. For example, the cost of the service may be factored into your overall bill if you are staying at a sober living home or another treatment facility. The average cost of seeing a recovery coach can range anywhere from $300 per month to $1000 per day depending on your location, needs, and frequency of meetings.

Recovery coaching is a valuable asset to anyone’s journey to sobriety. Knowing your personal strengths and weaknesses and creating a plan based on that information can help you realistically achieve your goals in a timely manner.

You can find recovery coaches at clinics across the United States or at treatment facilities such as sober living homes. Here at Camelback Recovery, we offer a free trial period of recovery coaching to see if it might work for you. To learn more about how you can benefit from a recovery coach, call us today at (602) 466-9880.