Tag Archives: peer recovery support specialist

FOUNDATIONAL THINKERS IN THE RECOVERY COACHING COMMUNITY

Phillip Valentine

In the past few weeks, I have been presenting brief biographies of people that have been instrumental in developing the recovery coaching industry. As a field, recovery coaching had an odd path of growth. In the 80’s no MBA’s or PhD’s set forth to devise this new industry of recovery coaching. But a few people saw this as a bona fide profession. Yes, some of these Foundational Thinkers were drunks, dope fiends and ex-cons, like Bob Timmins. Others were dedicated professionals in the field of addiction recovery that saw there was a gaping hole between a client leaving treatment and achieving long term recovery that needed to be addressed. How does a person leaving a treatment center find, embrace and develop their recovery? The answer was for the client to find a 12-step meeting, find a sponsor, and pray to a higher power.   

Picture this, open the door of a treatment center, and send the client back into the environment that placed them into treatment in the first place, with these instructions “don’t drink (or pick-up, act out, or drug etc), find a meeting and get a sponsor” and with no other guidance except a list of 12-step meetings. Those in recovery know how hard that path is. For those who choose not to believe in a higher power or that could not find a sponsor or whose addiction did not fit into the typical AA or NA meetings, what should they do? Well, most likely, 80% of these people relapsed.            

William White’s model of a volunteer peer recovery coach began to fill that hole between treatment and long term sobriety. Treatment centers are now calling this model an aftercare program, and hiring recovery coaches to help their client through this transition period.  The outcome is that both of these models work and both use a recovery coach to assist the client on the path of recovery. There is, as you will read below, a discussion as to the efficacy of a coach that gives their time for free and a coach that is compensated. Is one right and the other wrong? Is the other type of coach is not trained well enough? Is one more legally liable than the other? In the next few posts, not only will I introduce these leaders of the recovery coaching field, but I will also feature their thoughts on this topic.

One individual, Phillip Valentine, chose the William White recovery model and began one community recovery support center in Hartford and has grown the Connecticut Community of Addiction Recovery into a nationally recognized leader in developing recovery support centers and recovery coaching training.

Phillip Valentine is the Executive Director for the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR). He has been an integral component in this recovery community organization since January 1999. He is recognized as a strong leader in the recovery community and in recovery himself. Valentine is on the Board of Directors of Faces and Voices of Recovery in Washington DC; the nationally-recognized voice of the organized recovery community. In 2006 the Johnson Institute recognized his efforts with an America Honors Recovery award. In 2008, Faces and Voices of Recovery recognized CCAR with the first Joel Hernandez Voice of the Recovery Community Award as the outstanding recovery community organization in the country. In 2009, the Hartford Business Journal named him the Non-profit Executive of the Year. Currently, he is spearheading CCAR’s effort to build a statewide network of Recovery Community Centers that feature innovative peer recovery support services like Recovery Coaches, Telephone Recovery Support, All-Recovery Groups and Recovery Works! –which is an employment services component to the recovery community centers.

In an interview with William White, as part of Perspectives on Systems Transformation: How Visionary Leaders are Shifting Addiction Treatment Toward a Recovery-Oriented System of Care, published by the Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), Valentine describes what he sees as the difference between peer-based recovery support services, treatment services and recovery coaches that are compensated:

White: How would you distinguish between peer-based recovery support services and treatment services?

Valentine: I see treatment as more sterile, professional, hospital-like, staff-focused. Treatment can be real effective in initiating recovery, where recovery support services are more focused on maintaining and enriching recovery. Recovery support services aren’t bureaucratically bound—at least not yet—by mountains of rules, regulations, and paper. Recovery support services are more free and unencumbered to sustain a focus on whatever it takes to support recovery. We’re trying to escape the coldness you feel when you walk into a place that seems only concerned with forms and money—the feeling that you’re just one more person in the assembly line, one more of the addicts or alcoholics coming through the system. It’s hard to be seen as a person in such coldness. Recovery support services are the warmth that can heat you back up. They’re the antidote to people being paid to be your friend. Frontline counselors are often warm and wonderful people, but they are constrained by the burdens placed upon them.

White: Are your recovery support services being provided by people in volunteer and paid roles?

Valentine: The vast majority of our recovery support services are provided by volunteers, and that’s the way we hope to keep it. That being said, if a director of a center is a very strong, powerful personality and very visible, people will be drawn to that person for recovery coaching. What we try to do is to get such people to train others so that we can expand the pool of recovery support resources.

White: Do you see a danger in the trend toward paid recovery coaches? Might we drift toward that same clinical coldness you described earlier?

Valentine: It’s always about the heart. There’s a real spiritual component. Some recovery coaches can get paid and handle it well and others cannot. Getting paid in this role elevates the level of authority and responsibility. I worry about the ego. I worry about coaches aspiring to that kind of life-and-death influence over others. That kind of authority can mess with a person’s recovery and humility. The longer I’m in recovery, the less I know. When you’re a paid recovery coach for a while, you think you’re starting to know all the answers, and that’s just not true. There’s always gonna be clients who are gonna teach you more than you teach them, and I hope we stay open to the lessons of such people. There are new ways to deal with things. The volunteer piece works in part because you have a whole network of other volunteers that you bounce things off of. With volunteers, the individual is served by a community of people—the volunteers being the welcome wagon of that community. What a difference it makes on the soccer fields! I’ve had six years’ experience as a travel soccer coach. I wouldn’t dream of getting paid. I love it, and I do it because the kids are so much fun. The sport’s great. I have something to contribute. Why do we think that a recovery coach should be any different than that? (White, 2006) http://vtrecoverynetwork.org/data/Recovery_Symposium/GLATTCInterviewValentine.pdf

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How many kinds of Recovery Coaches are there?

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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