Recovery Coaching for Treatment Centres

Recovery coaching is not an alternative to treatment, it can complement it by supporting people getting into treatment, helping them to manage their lives while they are there and offering continued support and reintegration into society when they leave.

A recovery coach can benefit the client by being a:

• Motivator and cheerleader
• Ally and confidant
• Role model and mentor
• Family mediator (assists individuals/families to develop new ways of living without addiction)
• Community organiser (helps develop and expand available recovery support resources)
• Lifestyle consultant (offers coaching in areas of career, relationships, health, diet and exercise, money management)

Research by Waldorf 1983; Prochaska, DiClimente & Norcross1992; Humphreys et al1995 supports the role of recovery coaching:

• New service roles sprout from the soil of unmet need. In the current worlds of addiction treatment and addiction recovery, a new role is emerging to bridge the chasm between brief professional treatment in an institution setting and sustainable recovery within each client's natural environment. This role is embraced under numerous titles: recovery coach, recovery manager, recovery mentor or recovery assistant, to mention but a few, however recovery coach is basically described as a peer-based recovery support services.”


• The growing popularity of the recovery coach is evident in both public and private health and treatment addiction organisations . Also research findings underscore the growing need for sustained recovery support and the potential of the recovery coach role, as addiction recovery begins prior to the cessation of drug of choice use and the factors that maintain recovery are different to the factors that initiate recovery.”