About Recovery Coaching
You are in your first year or two of recovery; feeling grounded enough to begin planning your next life chapter. Now that you're sober, things can be different. You have options that didn't exist until now, new choices to make, and goals to achieve. You want to revamp your career, improve your health and fitness, establish new relationships, take control of your finances, or more fully develop your spiritual life. You've got a new attitude, you're looking at life through a new lens, and you're ready to make some positive changes.
Are you in recovery asking yourself one of these questions:
- I'm sober. Now what? Am I being called to a higher purpose?
- Something is missing in my life. What is it?
- I'm ready to map out the next chapter of my life. Where do I begin?
- Work, family, sobriety, time for me – how do I balance it all?
- Now that I'm free of dis-ease, how can I be more authentic? How can I come home to myself?
- Now that I'm no longer addicted, I want to be truly healthy – mind, body, and spirit. How do I make that happen?
- Isn't there an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous?
- Addiction is not an issue for me, but I am working through a major life transition. How do I renew myself, plan for the future, and reengage with life?
If you are nodding your head "yes" to any of these questions, recovery coaching may be the answer you're looking for.
Do you see yourself in the following?
- You've been in a good space for a while and your life is manageable. But something is missing. You can feel it in your soul, just under the surface – a passion stirring, an idea bubbling, or a period of personal growth emerging – and you want to explore these feelings with someone who can help you clarify your vision and guide you gently toward action. You're ready to push the envelope and embrace life.
- You struggle with staying sober and feel guilty about relapsing, but you're tired of being told that you're "sick" that you're not working hard enough, or that you are a "hopeless case." You need support with more than just staying sober. You need support to better align your life so that staying sober will be easier.
- Addiction to a substance is not your issue. Either it never was or you’ve happily achieved sobriety. But now you notice a hole in your soul that seems to be filled by work, business, adrenaline, or life drama. Or, you've experienced a loss or transition such as a divorce, career setback, financial problems, or the death of someone you cared about deeply. You need to slow down and evaluate how you're living your life, a place to renew and reconnect with yourself, a place to receive support and guidance that will help you move forward with serenity and inner peace.
When you work with a Recovery Coach you gain the benefit of walking the path with someone who has gone before you. A Recovery Coach will work with you where you are currently, and help move you to where you want to be. You have a guide and confidant in a coach that helps you celebrate recovery achievements.
Coaching is an active, engaging and supportive process through which you become clear about what you want in your life then making a plan and taking action to achieve whatever that may be. This process may involve deciding what to let go of, what to hold on to, what to create, and what your next steps are at this point in time. Coaching may also include addressing limiting beliefs and self-defeating behaviors and finding strategies to overcome these.
My Approach to Recovery Coaching
I believe in health, wellness, and wholeness for anyone who has had a dependency to alcohol or drugs. I also believe there is more to life than just being sober. Living fully requires that we attend to ourselves physically, intellectually, emotionally, and financially. Being whole calls for awareness in mind, body, and spirit. I hold the vision that each person is whole perfect and complete and that every situation comes bearing a gift, offering an opportunity for us to become who we really want to be and live the lives we really want to live.
I honor and respect the tenets of all 12 step programs. I would probably not be where I am, doing what I'm doing, were it not for AA. At the same time, I recognize that the program does not suit everyone, and that even women who find tremendous value in the program often yearn for something more. I believe not in the concept of powerlessness, but that we hold within us divine power over what we are able to create and manifest in our own lives. Getting relief by using alcohol and drugs, in my mind, is a symptom that we need to search our souls at a deeper level to find our own strengths, gifts, authenticity, and inner wisdom.
I am willing to step into the unknown with my recovery coaching clients because, so often, that is where the answers are found. I consider myself a guide, not a guru; a coach, not a counselor; a motivator, not a task-master; and a catalyst to support women as they mature, grow, and create the lives they are imagining they can have.
My approach is holistic and my style is supportive and gentle. However, I can also be firm and hold clients accountable when that it what's called for. I believe that every person is unique and that my job is to help you find, embrace, and use your uniqueness to your best advantage. Having walked the road of recovery myself, I not only understand the struggles of individuals in recovery, but I also have immense compassion and admiration for them.
The Benefits of Recovery Coaching
- Regular, consistent, reliable access to a confidant and ally who listens to your issues and who genuinely cares about where you are in your recovery process.
- Support to dissemble beliefs and perceptions that have kept your stuck in the past.
- Increased clarity about your life and your goals.
- The confidence and inner peace that comes with knowing you are on the right path.
- Support to navigate obstacles to staying sober.
- Guidance to acquire or hone new life skills that are needed for daily living and that will enhance the quality of your life.
- Help with finding solutions to problems that find their way to your doorstep so that you can deal with them in a healthy, effective manner.
Executive and Professional Women in
Recovery: A Special Program
I have learned over the last five years that professional and executive women are uniquely challenged to find the help they need to get free from the grip of alcohol and other dependencies. We have a difficult time finding relief in a world that is actually quite foreign to the way we were created. We look for ways to relieve our deepest fears, inadequacies, and challenges that we face in the business world.
Women tend to enter treatment in greater psychological distress, with lower self-esteem, and with more depression. Once out of treatment, they often have a greater need for ongoing support due to the many demands they face in their lives, both at home and in the workplace.
Borrowing from the world of executive coaching and mentoring, Tapestry Coaching in designed to support women in continuing their course of recovery. I offer a special year-long program designed for executive women in recovery. It’s high touch, high value. You can download Executive Women in Recovery which describes this program in detail.
How Does Coaching Work?
First, you engage in an initial complimentary session to determine if recovery coaching is indeed what you need – if it is a "good fit." At that point, if you are fairly certain you would benefit from coaching, a series of telephone sessions are scheduled at your convenience over a period generally lasting 6-12 months. Sessions tend to run about 45 minutes in length and are conducted weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the needs of the client. Between session you will mostly like have action steps to take and you may be in touch with your coach via e-mail.
Are you ready to take the next step?
If you are connecting with what you're reading and you feel intrigued or inspired, you may be ready for recovery coaching. It's not for everyone, but it's perfect for many. Please contact me to arrange a confidential, complimentary recovery coaching session. Together we will decide if recovery coaching is right for you.
Please note: I do not work with individuals who are active in
their addictions (i.e., currently drinking or using). If you feel
you have a problem with drugs or alcohol and have been unable to achieve
sobriety, I strongly encourage you to seek help through your local
AA chapter or discuss your situation with your doctor or therapist.
Recovery Coaching is not a sober coach or a personal assistant, if
you are seeking that service please contact Hired Power.