Addiction
June 30, 2020
Sober coaching offers continuous, personalized support crucial for overcoming addiction. It guides individuals through the challenges of their recovery journey. This support takes various forms—therapy, counseling, group meetings, and one-on-one coaching.
A sober coach provides a unique blend of support, serving as both a cheerleader and a coach. They equip clients with tools for a healthier life and celebrate their victories.
By focusing on life skills, resilience, and a fulfilling life free from substance dependence, sober coaching represents a proactive and empowering approach to recovery and life transformation.
Coaches provide accountability, encouragement, and practical strategies to overcome obstacles, helping clients thrive in their recovery journey.
Sober coaches, also known as recovery coaches, guide individuals through addiction recovery. Many coaches have personal recovery experience, offering unique support and understanding.
They help clients stay sober, develop coping mechanisms, and embrace positive lifestyle changes.
Working with a sober coach has led to reduced substance use, relapse rates, and criminal involvement. Improvements in relationships, satisfaction, and treatment retention have also been noted.
Key duties include:
•Creating a recovery plan: Tailoring a plan that addresses sobriety goals, triggers, and coping strategies.
•Providing emotional support: Your sober coach has already been there. They use their own experiences to offer empathetic, nonjudgmental support as you navigate recovery challenges.
•Offering accountability: Helping clients remain committed to sobriety through regular check-ins, progress monitoring, and offering feedback.
•Teaching life skills: Equipping clients with essential skills for long-term recovery success.
•Offering intervention: Providing immediate support during setbacks.
A sober coach is an advocate, mentor, and friend. The role, however, is very similar to some other supportive roles:
•Sponsors: Unlike sponsors in 12-step programs, sober coaches have broader training and provide support beyond these groups.
•Therapists: While therapists focus on emotional well-being and learning from past experiences, sober coaches concentrate on future goals and overall performance.
This distinction emphasizes the broader, more proactive support offered by sober coaches, focusing on future-oriented goals and personal development.
Sober coaches require professional training and past experiences to be most effective. Here are a few ways to identify an effective sober coach:
•Training: They should have formal education or training in the field.
•Experiences: Most sober coaches were once clients. Those personal experiences are how sober coaches can remain empathetic.
•Empathy: Many clients approach recovery programs with doubts, guilt, and anxiety. Sober coaches know how to support clients empathetically.
Sober coaches play a crucial role in recovery for those struggling with substance abuse. Here are some of those personalized support systems clients benefit from:
Sober coaches help clients develop essential life skills. Those skills support sobriety and overall well-being. These skills might include:
•Stress management techniques
•Healthy coping mechanisms to overcome triggers and cravings
•Assistance with practical tasks like budgeting, meal planning, and time management to promote stability and self-sufficiency.
•Healthier relationships and improved communication skills, conflict resolution, and boundary-setting.
Setting goals is key to recovery. Sober coaches guide clients in setting and achieving realistic goals that align with their values and aspirations. This process provides direction and motivation during recovery. The goals might include sobriety goals, personal development goals, and mental health goals. They may also include educational and career goals.
Sober coaches assist clients in developing effective relapse prevention strategies. These strategies help clients maintain sobriety long-term.
The strategies include understanding triggers, navigating cravings and urges, and developing personalized relapse prevention plans.
Sober coaches offer flexible support. They can adapt to clients’ schedules and needs, providing assistance during critical times. Often, sobriety coaches are on-call 24/7, so patients are never alone. They are an accountability partner after rehab.
Sober coaching creates a sense of community. You have a coach who is ready to listen, support, and guide you like a friend. This provides both emotional and educational support, decreasing feelings of isolation.
Sober coaches are like librarians. They hold the key to nearly limitless knowledge and support. They can help clients connect to recovery resources and communities for ongoing support.
Mental health challenges often occur alongside addiction. About 25% of people with serious mental illness also have a substance use disorder.
Sober coaches provide a holistic support system, addressing both mental and physical aspects of recovery. They focus on encouraging, supporting, and holding clients accountable.
This approach helps dismantle negative thought patterns related to mental disorders. Coaches work with clients to build healthier thinking patterns that help avoid triggers, fostering both mental and addiction recovery.
Sober coaching supports anyone eager to heal and take responsibility in their recovery journey.
It proves particularly beneficial for:
•Newly recovered clients: Did you recently complete a treatment plan? Connect with a sober coach to continue receiving support as you transition into your new life.
•Those in transition: Are you transitioning between treatment or from treatment to work again? Those transitions, especially during the first few months after recovery, can be challenging and packed with triggers. A sober coach helps hold you accountable and offers additional support and coping mechanisms.
•People lacking support network: For those without a strong community, a sober coach offers companionship, support, and connections to broader recovery communities.
A similar support system to sober coaches is sober companions. Sober companions tend to spend more time with each other, providing more constant support. A sober coach, while available 24/7, usually gives the patient more space in daily life unless the patient reaches out or it is a pre-scheduled appointment.
For example, if you are newly recovered, a sober coach can help you transition by providing weekly accountability meetings, check-ups, and on-call support. But, if you were going through a loss, stress at work, or life transition, a sober companion might be a better option as they can remain at your side during that time rather than being a phone call away.
Working with a sober coach can bring with it some common challenges, including:
•Maintaining professional boundaries: Sober coaches must keep clear and appropriate boundaries with their clients. This ensures the integrity and effectiveness of the coaching. It also helps preserve confidentiality while avoiding unethical behavior.
•Dealing with relapse: Relapse is a common challenge in addiction recovery. Sober coaches must be prepared to support clients through setbacks without judgment or blame.
•Navigating countertransference: Sober coaches may develop strong emotional connections with their clients. This can lead to countertransference, the unconscious projection of the coach’s feelings, experiences, or biases onto the client.
•Managing realistic expectations: A sober coach may struggle with setting clear and realistic expectations about outcomes. They also manage clients’ emotions when disappointed or frustrated for not achieving their goals as quickly as hoped.
Support from peers, family, and friends is one of the most essential factors in addiction recovery. A sober coach ensures you have this support.
To find a suitable sober coach:
1. Research Your Coaches: Research credentials and qualifications for certifications beyond counseling that might help them be more relevant to your unique case. For example, different addictions require different specialties, such as alcohol counseling, drug counseling, or other addictions. Those with dual diagnoses, such as anxiety and depression along with addiction, may require extra support for those mental illnesses. Researching what qualifications, credentials, and experience coaches have will help you find someone who fully understands what you’re going through.
2. Ask for Recommendations: Ask for recommendations from trusted sources and industry leaders. If you have a peer mentor from your 12-step program or a support group, they may be able to recommend sober coaches. Recovery websites may also advertise sober coaches in your area.
3. Read Online Reviews: Read online reviews for personal experiences from other patients. You might look in public recovery forums or social media groups for reviews. Sober coaches may also publish their reviews, which you can go through to learn more about their style, experience, and expertise.
4. Interview Coaches: Interview sober coaches to ensure a good fit. The interview is a conversation to see whether you’re comfortable with the coach. It’s also a time to ask about their past experience and certifications if not already listed online.
Once you have chosen a coach:
•Set clear expectations.
•Define your goals for a clear endpoint.
•Regularly check in with your sober coach to monitor your progress and address challenges or concerns.
Studies show that individuals with support, such as sober coaches, achieve higher abstinence rates, improved coping skills, and reduced relapse risk.
Clients were able to maintain sobriety and thrive in recovery with the ongoing support of their coaches. As clients progress, sober coaching evolves to address changing needs, transitioning from crisis management to skill-building, goal-setting, and life enrichment.
Coaches reinforce positive behaviors, promote personal growth, and address new challenges, ensuring continued support and empowerment throughout recovery.
Ready to take the next step in your recovery?
Working with a sober coach from our sober living home can transform your life. You’ll receive consistent support, learn new coping techniques, and connect with like-minded communities that can all continue supporting you in your long-term recovery.
Contact us to learn more about our sober coaching services.