Frequently Asked Questions

RECOVERY COACHES FOCUS ON THE PRESENT AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TODAY TO MOVE THE CLIENT FORWARD TOWARD THEIR GOALS AND THE REALIZATION OF THEIR VISION.

• Coaching can be distinguished from counseling and many other professional relationships in that coaching is based on partnership. 
• A recovery coach isn’t limited to using the steps and traditions and coaches don’t focus on the past. Recovery Coaching is not affiliated with any 12-step program and does not promote a particular path or way to recover.
• Because recovery coaches are extensively connected to the recovery community, they are the link between you and the local recovery resources available to you. Your coach can help you find a 12-step sponsor. 
• A recovery coach’s job is to challenge and support their client as they make lifestyle changes and begin to have a better quality of life.
• A recovery coach’s job is to get the client to think! Coaches rarely give advice. They don’t diagnose. Instead, they work with you to come up with your own solutions, to make your own choices, and they support you to stay on track and take the actions that bring about transformation. 

SPONSORS OFTEN FOCUS ON CLEANING UP THE PAST

• Sponsors come from 12-step programs such as: Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Cocaine Anonymous (CA), Heroin Anonymous (HA), and Crystal Meth Anonymous (CMA). They have a singleness of purpose—they stick with the steps and traditions.
• A sponsor’s job is to help their sponsee stay clean, abstinent, or sober by working through the 12 steps and using the program and fellowship effectively to stop the addictive behavior. Sponsors have a singleness of purpose—they stick with the steps and traditions. 
• Sponsors are not paid professionals; they benefit personally from the service they give you by staying clean and sober or abstinent themselves.

THERAPISTS/COUNSELORS FOCUS ON THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF SUBSTANCE USE ADDICTION AND THOSE WHO ARE SEEKING RELIEF FROM EMOTIONAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL PAIN/TRAUMA.

•  In therapy the concern is how unresolved issues are impacting the present. 
• Counseling refers to giving advice, which coaches rarely do. Counseling implies a “one-up” relationship where the counselor is the expert, whereas the coach is neither expert nor authority nor healer; rather, the client is the expert about his or her life. 
• Counselors, doctors, and consultants have expert knowledge that they impart in the form of advice, diagnosis, or providing a solution.
• Therapists, counselors, and other medical professionals are the trained to diagnose substance use addiction, treat it, and prescribe medications that may aid in a person's recovery.