What is Peer Support?
Recovery is a journey that is unique to each individual who makes the decision to embark on it, there are some commonly accepted ideas of what that process consists of. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has identified 4 major dimensions that should be addressed in the process of recovery - Health, Home, Purpose, and Community.
The mutual aid (peer support) model can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries when Native Americans held “recovery circles” that incorporated the entire community in the healing process. The first fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous was formed in the 1930s and has since led to hundreds of variant programs that follow the 12 step model. Despite being referred to as “self-help” programs recovery fellowships thrive and survive on the power of communities coming together to share the compassion and knowledge found only in shared-lived experience.
Peer Recovery Coaches are people who have life experiences similar to those they serve (recoverees) and offer support through the utilization of skills-building techniques, solution-based planning and ethical boundaries. Trained coaches help navigate the complexities of early recovery by bridging connections between their recoverees and supportive resources across communities. The primary goal of any coaching relationship should be the recoveree’s development of self-efficacy through role modeling and mirroring. This is essentially the difference between empathy and sympathy.
The mutual aid (peer support) model can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries when Native Americans held “recovery circles” that incorporated the entire community in the healing process. The first fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous was formed in the 1930s and has since led to hundreds of variant programs that follow the 12 step model. Despite being referred to as “self-help” programs recovery fellowships thrive and survive on the power of communities coming together to share the compassion and knowledge found only in shared-lived experience.
Peer Recovery Coaches are people who have life experiences similar to those they serve (recoverees) and offer support through the utilization of skills-building techniques, solution-based planning and ethical boundaries. Trained coaches help navigate the complexities of early recovery by bridging connections between their recoverees and supportive resources across communities. The primary goal of any coaching relationship should be the recoveree’s development of self-efficacy through role modeling and mirroring. This is essentially the difference between empathy and sympathy.
