What is Recovery Coaching?

Coaching Support in Early,
Middle or Long-term Recovery

Coaching support in early recovery

Facing your life

If you’re new in recovery or just coming home from treatment, Recovery Coaching can smooth your transition. We know there’s a lot going on—most of us are in recovery ourselves. Stopping addictive habits or coming home from treatment can feel overwhelming. There is so much to face. Coaches will support you as you face the challenges before you. We’ll help you decide what your priorities are: returning to work or getting a job; taking time off to focus on recovery; getting a handle on money, debt, and bills so you don’t feel overwhelmed; getting a handle on relationships so you don’t feel isolated. Coaches can help you work on having healthy relationships with your children, friends, and partners. The support of a coach will help you develop healthy boundaries so you can say yes to yourself and no to unhealthy relationships.

Finding the right support group

Recovery Coaches can help you find a support group that is right for you. Addiction research has conclusively shown that we do better with some sort of group support than we do alone. Many choices are available. You may want to get involved with a 12-step group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous, or perhaps one of the alternatives such as Rational Recovery, LifeRing Secular Recovery, or Women for Sobriety can meet your needs.

Coaches can help you understand what to expect from meetings, how to get the most out of them, how to handle the “God-stuff” if you are an atheist, how to access on-line meetings, and how to find a really good sponsor.

But if meetings aren’t for you, coaching can still help you create a successful recovery. Bottom line: coaches are committed to supporting you in developing successful strategies for recovery that work for you. We want you to maintain and enhance your recovery and enjoy personal growth but we won’t tell you what to do.

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Even in early recovery you are the expert about your own life

Recovery Coaches know that you have strengths, resources, and creativity. We know you are the expert about your own life. Coaches won't tell you what to do—they will ask you to think things through, to look ahead at what you want, and to figure out what actions will get you there. We’ll help you brainstorm ideas, figure out your priorities, role-play talking to family, friends, co-workers—whatever is appropriate in your situation. We’ll give you our opinion if you ask for it, but you always make the final decisions. We support you as you go along and hold you accountable for your choices and your actions.

Coaching support if you are still using

If you want things to get better but you aren’t ready to quit, recovery coaching can help you decide what you’re willing to do right now to improve your life. That may involve finding a safer place to live, or tracking your substance use or behavior (as in eating, gambling, safe sex, etc.) to see if you can keep it at a safe level. Coaches believe reducing harm and suffering are important. So even if you're not ready to stop, a recovery coach can help you make better choices.

If you want to stop but don’t know what to do, a Recovery Coach can help you figure out what to do. We can help you get an assessment from a trained addiction specialist, find a 12-step meeting, choose a treatment center, or find out how to get low-cost treatment. We know that some people can stop on their own without outside help and others need professional addiction detox and treatment. We’re not affiliated with any group or organization. Coaches are committed to supporting you in finding out what help is available and helping you make making the best choice for you. 

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Coaching support in middle recovery

After a few years your energy can shift from figuring out how to stay sober to choosing what kind of life you want. A coach can help you reach your potential while maintaining stable recovery. We can help you shift your focus from the problems of the past to what you want your life to be like. We’ll help you harness the competence you have gained in recent years. You may be ready to look for a better job, or to find that special mate, or to buy a home. We can help you think ahead and plan ahead so you have a more balanced and pleasant life. With the help of a coach you can accomplish these things that you may have thought as being only for other people or out of your reach.

Recovery coaching can help you move beyond the limitations of living only “one day at time” without jeopardizing your recovery. Coaching clients learn how to plan ahead, how to set goals, and how to achieve them. When you work with a coach, you learn the art of breaking things down into small steps. You aren’t taking on a big project alone. Your coach is there with you cheering you on, brainstorming new solutions, encouraging and challenging you. Together you are able to accomplish so much more. You stop playing small and achieve things beyond your beliefs. Recovery becomes the joy of purposeful living.

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Coaching support in long-term recovery

If you're in long-term recovery, coaching can renew your outlook and energy. It may be time now to do what you’ve always intended to or become who you’ve always wanted to be. It may be time to face what has limited you. A coach can help you remember what is important to you, how to have fun, what your dreams are, and how to create a life worth continuing to stay clean, sober, or abstinent for.

Coaching can help you with the stagnation that can come with long-term sobriety. Some of us become bored or rigid going to the same meetings, doing the same things, talking to the same people. And doing more of the same doesn’t help. If you have settled for less than what you hoped for or have not yet achieved the things you want, working with a Recovery Coach can make all the difference.

We can help you make important changes in lifestyle such as exercising, eating well, or ending patterns of overwork and isolation. A coach can help you turn merely good intentions into positive actions and the achievement of your important goals and dreams

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For more specific information, please click the links below:

The Scope and Limits of Recovery Coaching

The Beliefs and Principles of Recovery Coaching

The Differences Between Recovery Coaching and Therapy, Counseling, or Sponsorship

Coaching Support in Early, Middle or Long-term Recovery

Find a Recovery Coach

Become a Recovery Coach