This module provides a brief overview of Recovery Coaching, including the coach's role in working with clients, comparisons of other treatment providers, tips to promote your coaching services, and an introduction to other topics that will be discussed in later modules. Upon completion of this course, you will have all the tools needed to work effectively with clients in need of recovery coaching services. Recent trends suggest that the demand for trained, qualified Recovery Coaches will continue to increase at a rapid rate in the future. We welcome you to your new, exciting career as a trained, professional Recovery Coach.

The Recovery Coach’s toolbox contains many useful techniques and skills designed to assist the client’s recovery process. The more often you oil and sharpen your coaching tools, the better they will serve both you and your clients.

The Recovery Coach’s main goal is to empower clients by focusing on their strengths, rather than their weaknesses. The Coach and client work together to identify the client’s interests, skills, talents and other strengths and use these assets to help the client achieve his or her goals. Although the Coach assists the client in identifying goals, it is the client that chooses them, based on their individual needs and desires.

Electronic Coaching, or eCoaching, is the wave of the future in Recovery Coaching. Advancements in technology now allow people to communicate in ways never thought possible just a few years ago. It’s both simple and affordable for most everyone to talk face-to-face over a computer using Skype or similar video chat software programs, and it’s equally easy and convenient to communicate via e-mail or text messages using a smartphone or other internet-enabled portable device. With each new day, more and more treatment centers, Recovery Coaches and counseling professionals are adding online and/or electronic access for their clients.

Advocacy meets clients and families where they work, live and interact with others – in their own backyards, so to speak - and recognizes that every client’s needs are individual and unique.

Explore the importance of culture and how it applies to coaching.

• The Definition of Ethics in Recovery.
• The Four Positive Elements of Recovery Coaching.
• The Values of Recovery Coaching.
• Modern Communications and Ethical Behavior.
• Definition of Telehealth Services and the Ethics of Provision.
• Understanding Your Area of Expertise.

• The Principles of Case Management.
• Client Assistance with Healthcare System Navigation.
• Disengagement.

• Circumstances Leading To Crises.
• Non-Violent Crisis Intervention.
• Techniques To Calm A Client In A Crisis Situation.

• A Working Definition.
• The Model.
• Working with the Model.

• An Introduction to the Basics of Pharmacology and Substance Abuse.
• Mood Altering Drugs and Their Classifications.
• Drug Interactions.
• Empowering Clients to Understand Drugs and Their Implications.

• A Brief Overview of Addictions.
• Signs and Symptoms of Addiction.
• Stages of Recovery.

The Learning Objectives: 

• Explain and use the model for resolution of ethical issues
• Identify and explain the concepts of respect for others and non-discrimination in practice and behavior
• Describe the issues involved in the maintenance of professional boundaries as it relates to properly ending the coaching relationship
• Develop and describe a program of self-care
• Explain and apply the proper boundaries and guidelines within the scope of your training
• Integrate recovery coaching into the continuum of care/working with professionals

• Identify and apply proper techniques in provision of and billing for services
• Recognize the boundaries of proper interactions with others
• Demonstrate the ability to avoid collusion and any improprieties in professional service or contracting with referral sources
• Engage in professionally appropriate marketing and advertising of services

Each professional association has published a Code of Ethics. The National Association of Social Workers, the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors and the American Counseling Association have all published Codes of Ethics unique to the professions that they serve. In addition, various states have published their own Codes of Ethics, applicable to licensed individuals practicing within their state.

People struggling with both substance abuse issues and mental illness are classified as having a dual diagnosis. Clients diagnosed with dual diagnosis issues can be notoriously difficult to treat because symptoms of each condition tend to overlap and impact on one other. Mental health treatment providers often aren’t equipped deal with substance abuse issues, while addiction treatment centers often refuse to accept clients with severe mental health issues. Treatment methods prescribed for mental health and substance abuse issues can be quite different from one another, although both are critical to the client’s recovery. As a trained recovery coach, you will often act as a bridge for your clients, assisting them to connect with both mental health and addiction recovery services.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines resilience as:
1. The capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress;
2. An ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Although the first definition applies to materials, such as a memory foam mattress, for example, the same principle applies to people. Resilience means to return to a normal, original state, whether it applies to mattresses or human beings.