Tag Archives: sober coach

POWER OF PEER SUPPORT- an abbreviated chronology

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Melissa Killeen

by William White

The concept of “wounded healer”–the idea that people who have survived illness or trauma may have special abilities to help others facing similar challenges–has deep roots within the history of addiction treatment and recovery.  During the 1980s and 1990s, the perceived value of the wounded healer was eclipsed by the growth and professionalization of the addiction treatment workforce in the United States.  Between 1965 and 2010, the percentage of addiction professionals with lived personal/family experience of addiction recovery plummeted from more than 70% of the workforce to approximately 30% as educational credentials became valued more than experiential knowledge.  Today, there is growing recognition of the value of peer-based recovery support services provided to individuals and families outside the framework of recovery mutual aid societies.  A new generation of peer helpers is working in volunteer and paid roles within new grassroots recovery community organizations, within addiction treatment programs, and within such allied fields as primary healthcare, child welfare, and criminal justice. This trend reflects not a rejection of scientific knowledge and professional treatment, but an effort to integrate addiction science, cumulative clinical experience, and knowledge drawn from the lived personal/family experience of addiction recovery.

Working under such titles as recovery coach, recovery support specialist, peer helper, and recovery guide, peers are filling support roles across the stages of addiction recovery.  Their growing presence represents a historical milestone in the evolution of addiction treatment and recovery support in the U.S.–functions that falls outside the boundaries of the recovery mutual aid sponsor and the addiction counselor.   Given the increasing number of requests I am receiving for information on peer recovery support services, here is an abbreviated chronology of what I and my co-authors have written about such recovery support roles.

To explore how peer recovery support services are being implementing in diverse cultural contexts, readers may also wish to explore my interviews with:

  • Cathy Nugent on Recovery Community Mobilization and Recovery Support
  • Tom Hill on Recovery Advocacy and the State of Recovery Support Services
  • Don Coyhis and Eva Petoskey on Recovery Support in Indian tribal communities
  • Phillip Valentine on Recovery Support Services in Connecticut
  • Walter Ginter on Medication Assisted Recovery Support Services in New York City

There is a zone of energy, authenticity and effectiveness that characterizes the earliest stages of successful social and therapeutic movements.  These qualities can be diluted or lost as movements become institutionalized (e.g., professionalized, commercialized or colonized by larger forces within the culture).  The documentation of the earliest contributions of these movements thus takes on both historical and practical importance.

In recent decades, the addiction treatment field has been marked by a loss of recovery volunteers within the addiction treatment milieu, reduced recovery representation among addiction counselors, addiction counselor training that denies the legitimacy of experiential knowledge, and weakened connections between what are now defined as addiction treatment businesses and indigenous communities of recovery.  It is in this context that new peer recovery support service roles promise several unique contributions: living proof of the reality and transformative power of long-term addiction recovery, recovery attraction via mutual identification, a service relationship lacking any hint of contempt or moral superiority, knowledge of and assertive linkage to local communities of recovery, and experience-grounded guidance through the stages of recovery.

The advent of peer recovery support services is an important milestone within the history of addiction treatment and recovery.  Such services stand as potentially important resources to speed recovery initiation, enhance service retention in addiction treatment and facilitate the transitions to recovery maintenance, enhance the quality of personal/family life in long-term recovery and to support efforts to break intergenerational cycles of addiction and related problems.  Cumulative experience and scientific research will tell whether the promises of peer recovery support services are fulfilled and sustained.  If such service relationships achieve their promise but are then lost, their presence in this era will stand as a valuable artifact to be rediscovered in the future, just as this power is now being rediscovered.

 

This post was first presented on William White’s blog on August 22, 2014, and it is still an important reference article today. This post, was written by William White, an Emeritus Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems / Lighthouse Institute and past-chair of the board of Recovery Communities United. Bill has a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies and has worked full time in the addictions field since 1969 as a streetworker, counselor, clinical director, researcher and well-traveled trainer and consultant. He has authored or co-authored more than 400 articles, monographs, research reports and book chapters and 20 books. His book, Slaying the Dragon – The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, received the McGovern Family Foundation Award for the best book on addiction recovery. Bill was featured in the Bill Moyers’ PBS special “Close To Home: Addiction in America” and Showtime’s documentary “Smoking, Drinking and Drugging in the 20th Century.” Bill’s sustained contributions to the field have been acknowledged by awards from the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, NAADAC: The Association of Addiction Professionals, the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and the Native American Wellbriety Movement. Bill’s widely read papers on recovery advocacy have been published by the Johnson Institute in a book entitled Let’s Go Make Some History: Chronicles of the New Addiction Recovery Advocacy Movement.
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How many kinds of Recovery Coaches are there?

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Michael

A long history of different types of recovery support services exist in the alcohol and addictions treatment arena. Native Americans used a peer coaching model called a recovery circle in the 18th century to aid fellow alcoholics to recovery (White & Kurtz 2003).  Religious organizations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the White, Red or Blue Ribbon Reform Clubs in the 1870’s or the non secular Keeley Institute and Keeley Leagues in the early 1900’s embraced peer supported recovery processes for their members (White, 2007 & Eng, 2000 ). In 1932, Bill W began the largest recovery support service,  Alcoholics Anonymous, and from this model many other support groups were spawn.

 Today, numerous recovery advocacy programs utilize a twenty-first century model of peer recovery. A relatively new model uses peer recovery coaching within a community-based recovery support center. These recovery support centers are emerging with notable, documented models in Hartford, Philadelphia, and Chicago (White & Kurtz 2003).

 Recovery coaching is a growing field, emerging from the traditional grass roots models of the 19th century to current day volunteers in community-based recovery support centers and paid recovery coaching positions with high profile movie stars. The relationship between a client and a Recovery Coach could be 24/7 for a month, a face to face meeting with a client for one hour a week, or a 30 minute telephone call, everyday. A Recovery Coach may want to implement a treatment center’s recovery plan or adapt the client’s own plan for recovery, or use both. A Recovery Coach can work within 12-step program, a SMART recovery program with a client, or not. A Recovery Coach can be trained in a coaching program and have three credentials or have 25 years in recovery from crack cocaine and be an ex-con. Either way, it is a very exciting time to be a Recovery Coach.

Here are some examples of recovery coaching assignments:

 Travel or Sober Escort

 Transportation can be a significant challenge to a newly abstinent person. Whether the client is interested in maintaining an ongoing recovery or just needs to stay abstinent for a period of time, getting from point A to point B can be difficult. Commonly called Travel Escorts or Sober Escorts, this version of a recovery coach may be required for client transportation across town, across the state, or across the county.

 Many clients are introduced to a Travel or Sober Escort after an intervention, when immediate transportation to a treatment center is required. In the event a client is in a treatment center for rehabilitation and a death in the family occurs, or they must appear in court, a Travel or Sober Escort will safely transport the client. The Travel or Sober Escort accompanies the client to the event and returns the client to the treatment center after the event concludes. When a client is ready to leave a treatment center and return home, a Travel or Sober Escort will safely transport the client home (Parrish, 2009).

 Long Term or Companion Recovery Coach

 Some recovery coach roles have evolved from a travel or sober escort to a Long Term or Companion Recovery Coach. A Companion Recovery Coach works “full-time” with the client:  days, nights, weekends or extended periods where the coach is by the client’s side 24 hours a day. This long term option can begin with treatment discharge, the client’s first day or weekend home and may develop into a coaching relationship that continues for several weeks, months or longer.

 Returning home from treatment, the client trades a secure, drug-free environment for one where they know there are problems. A Companion Recovery Coach will provide the symbolic and functional safety of the treatment center. A Companion Recovery Coach will introduce the client to 12 step meetings; guide them past former triggers (e.g. liquor stores or strip clubs) and support the client in developing their recovery plan. A Companion Recovery Coach will help the client to make lifestyle changes in order to experience a better quality of life in the first crucial days after discharge from a treatment center.

 Peer Recovery Support Specialist 

 The term, Peer Recovery Support Specialist is purposely used to reflect the collaborative nature of a peer to peer recovery support system that is integral to a community recovery support center program. The Peer Recovery Support Specialist’s primary goal is to help people achieve sustained recovery from their addiction.  The Peer Recovery Support Specialist (sometimes also referred to as a peer recovery coach) is intended to imply a volunteer that will help “coach” people who are working on their recovery. The Peer Recovery Support Specialist will receive no monetary reimbursement for these coaching services (Loveland & Boyle, 2005).

 Today, this non-clinical Peer Recovery Support Specialist meets with clients in a community-based recovery support center, or will go off sight to visit a client. The Peer Recovery Support Specialist ensures there is a contract for engagement, and a personal recovery plan. This recovery plan is drawn up by the client and viewed by the Peer Recovery Support Specialist. The client centered recovery plan is instrumental for the client “buying into” the terms of their recovery. Part of this plan is the stabilization of the client’s recovery capital, e.g. housing stability, improved family life, as well as integrating job seeking or education goals. The plan always outlines a time table for coach monitoring, support and re-intervention when needed, to maximize the health, quality of life and level of productivity of the client.

 Peer Recovery Support Specialists are volunteers linked to client by the community based recovery support centers. This rather new concept of a community recovery support centers are just beginning is beginning to grow, as these centers are now supported by federal and state funding. Center’s contact volunteers from the recovery community and train these volunteers to become Peer Recovery Support Specialists. Slowly community recovery support centers are broadening their reach from urban into suburban communities nationwide (White, 2002).

Family Recovery Coach

The family plays such an important role for a person in recovery, yet is so often neglected by traditional models of recovery. Specially trained Family Recovery Coaches help the family to create a calm, objective, non-judgmental environment. These coaches are knowledgeable in specific models that aid the family coping with the changes that they have gone through living with an active addict or living with a recovering addict. Regardless of an addict’s choices, working with a Family Recovery Coach helps a spouse; partner; or loved ones avoid the mental obsession that plagues so many families affected by addiction and learn to lead sane and productive lives (Buncher, 2012).

 Telephone or Virtual Recovery Coaching

 A Telephone or Virtual Recovery Coaching relationship may be established to continue beyond the face to face meeting of a client and a recovery coach, sober escort or a sober companion coach. The prior face to face coaching relationship was built on trust and re-established honesty for the client, so the Telephone or Virtual Recovery Coach relationship can continue in the same light, with daily or weekly telephone or web based conversations (Bronfman, Fisher, Gilbert & Valentine 2006).

 Today, many treatment centers are embracing virtual recovery coaching and linking Telephone or Virtual Recovery Coaches to clients prior to leaving treatment as a way to continue the connection to the treatment center, as well as meeting guidelines of an ‘aftercare’ program. On line virtual coaching programs has also sprung up recently, either fee based or for free, that will help anyone apply the methods of recovery (e.g. developing a recovery plan and building recovery capital) whether the person has just embraced recovery through a 12-step program or departed from a 30-day stay at a treatment center.

 Legal Support Specialists

 Recently, lawyers dealing with criminal drug cases or drug courts have been requesting a type of recovery coaching to ensure a client, (perhaps under house arrest, enrolled in a drug court outpatient program or pending trial) stays sober as per the law’s mandate (Caine, 2008). Recovery Coaches with the required certification and legal knowledge are contracted for this purpose. Coaches licensed with Licensed Clinical Social Worker, or Certified with Alcohol and Drug Counseling training can perform these tasks. The courts request them to perform a client assessment, then in a letter to the court offer suggested placement in a residential alcohol/drug treatment center, an outpatient treatment program and/or a sober living facility. A Legal Support Specialist – Recovery Coach can also appear in court with the client, validate the assessment and provide transportation to or from courthouse (Caine, 2008).

 This is the second chapter of “Guide to Coaching People in Recovery from Addiction”. A book written by Melissa Killeen, and available as an eBook in January 2013 on Amazon.com

 Part Three: “The Foundational Thinkers in the Recovery Coaching Community” will be  posted next week.

 

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This coach gets down to business

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Michael

Issue Date: Addiction Professional-January-February 2010,

This coach gets down to business

by Gary A. Enos, Editor
Dave Lindbeck recalls that when he was rising in the banking industry in his 20s, he was the sort of person who would say whatever occurred to him, no matter its impact on others. He says that during his active addiction, he gave friends and colleagues plenty of reason to abandon him, only to receive patience and understanding instead.
“Thank God I didn’t get what I deserved,” says Lindbeck, now 50. One positive influence he lacked, however, was someone with whom he could discuss his career goals and how to keep them in balance during his recovery journey. Later in his banking career he would find himself playing that advisory role for others who somehow would find their way to his office, and he discovered that this put him in a comfortable place.
Lindbeck would leave his job to start a career as a business and life coach, and soon that would evolve into a specialty assisting individuals in recovery as they pursue their professional goals in all types of fields.
“The majority of my folks happened to be on the road to recovery, so I figured, ‘Why not focus on that?’” says Lindbeck, whose InStep Coaching unit of his company (http://www.instepcoaching.com) assists individuals in recovery. “I would hear clients in recovery tell me, ‘You understand me on a level that others aren’t going to.’”
Importance of balance
The name “InStep Coaching” sounds like a reference to 12-Step recovery, but Lindbeck says that’s not where the name originated. “The reason for the name is that my head as a banker was going one way, but my heart was going another,” he explains. “I wanted to see how to keep those in step.”
Likewise, he assists his coaching clients in maintaining balance between their professional and personal lives. “They need to keep their business goals in balance with personal growth, not trading one for the other,” he says.
His approach with an individual client might depend greatly on the person’s stage of recovery. Someone who has been in recovery for more than five years is well on the road and probably needs to talk mainly about maintaining balance, while someone with less than a year of sobriety might still be running into conflicts with work colleagues who remember the recent past and expect their colleague to behave in a certain way.
The presence of an employee in recovery can present numerous challenges in a workplace. A boss might be fearful of what could happen and might be more prone to micromanage. The employee might lack the maturity to deal with certain situations and could adopt a victim mentality. Lindbeck can discuss these scenarios frankly with clients. “Companies are just a big dysfunctional family,” he says.
Lindbeck, who is based in the Phoenix area, conducts his coaching sessions over the phone. Sometimes he will work with someone for whom one conversation will suffice, while others have developed a long-term professional relationship with him. Even in these cases, however, he makes sure that while he serves as a resource the client doesn’t become too dependent on the relationship-and he clearly points out that he is not serving as a sponsor. His work emphasizes the client’s professional life and goals.
“Sometimes I can be coaching the owner of the company and the top employee, and some of the challenges in the company are between the two of them,” Lindbeck says.
Experiences in youth
Lindbeck describes a somewhat familiar scenario in discussing his own progression into harmful substance use, from starting to drink in a public park in junior high school to attending keg parties with football teammates in high school to discovering drugs in college. A couple of important events occurred in his 20s. First, his alcoholic father committed suicide. He says he became determined not to be like his father, although his substance use and some of the bad behavior to colleagues that accompanied it would continue for some time.
Then, in his mid-20s, he and a colleague took a new hire to lunch. When the moment came to order drinks, and Lindbeck prepared for business as usual, the new employee said he didn’t drink and discussed openly his addiction and recovery. It was an epiphany for Lindbeck, who saw what his life had become and observed someone who had taken another path.
The employee would end up taking him to his first 12-Step meeting. It has all led him to defining his own helping role, now in the unique position of helping executives who are in recovery. “I wish I had had somebody with whom to have these kinds of conversations,” Lindbeck says.
Addiction Professional 2010 January-February;8(1):40

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