Recovery coaching is intended for those who want to reach a future level of performance. People who feel they’ve lost time to life controlling problems, make committed and enthusiastic coaching clients because they are determined to change.
How is a Recovery Coach different from a Therapist?
Recovery coaching is not a substitute for therapy. If clients have deep-seated emotional or psychological pain, then a good coach will refer the client to the appropriate specialist (coaches are often Generalists). You will sometimes find that the coaching and the therapy can run side by side.Coaching focuses on the present and future, therapy focuses primarily on the past. In therapy the question is how are past issues affecting the present. In coaching the question is what can be done today to move the client forward to reach their goals.
How is a Recovery Coach different from a Doctor?
If there are physical problems, again a good coach will refer the client to a specialist. A client needs to be in sufficiently good physical and mental health to respond to the demands of recovery coaching – both to the relationship and the outcomes.
How is a Recovery Coach different from a Counsellor?
Counsellors are often in the business of giving advice, but coaches generally try not to. Counselling assumes a relationship where the counselor is the expert. Coaching assumes that the client is the expert (about his or her own life).
How is a Recovery Coach different from a Mentor?
Often, mentoring is seen as a model for coaching. A mentor is someone who can pass on knowledge based on experience, a wise person, an advisor or a trusted role model. A coach is a facilitator who can help develop new skills with an eye on the future. A coach helps people gain competence and confidence.
How is a Recovery Coach different from a Sponsor?
Sponsors are involved with 12 step programmes like Alcoholics Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, and Debtor’s Anonymous. They would have completed the steps themselves and then help others along the same road.Sponsors are not paid professionals; they benefit personally from the service they give by staying clean and sober or abstinent themselves. They stick with the steps and traditions. Often the focus is on cleaning up the past.
How is a Recovery Coach different from Family & Friends?
Coaches differ from personal helpers such as friends and family because coaches don’t have the same emotional investment. Coaches do not have pre-conceived ideas about their clients because they do not know a client in the same way that friends and family do. This means that a recovery coach can me more objective and non- judgemental. Coaches are not influenced by a client’s past.
Conclusion
Recovery Coaching can be distinguished from other professional relationships in that coaching is based on partnership. Counsellors, doctors, and therapists and mentors often have expert knowledge that they impart in the form of advice, diagnosis, or providing a solution. A coach’s job is to get the client to think in a different way! Coaches rarely give advice. Instead, they work with clients to arrive at their own solutions, and then support them to stay on track to bring about change.