Recovery coaches/specialists are frontline workers. They are often parachuted into a client’s life to support them in their environment, and to help them begin to re-engineer the practical day-to-day, (and very necessary) foundations for recovery.
They are eyes on the ground for clinical teams, they are connective tissue to resources, they are practical solution providers and de-escalators, they are available in the late evening, through the weekends and first thing in the morning. They navigate living alongside individuals and their families, as they are exposed to all the contributing stimuli that led them to seek professional support.
Part of their responsibility towards those they support, is that they themselves are in a position to help. My opinion, synthesised through my personal experience, is that having access to supervision and support is a necessity, and a blessing.
Having the place to check in with someone who understands the demands of the role, discuss adaptations to the coaching approach, ensure that you, as a coach, are able to provide the most effective support that facilitates the treatment aims and goals is a core aspect of coaching best-practice.
When safeguarding concerns arise, new information is disclosed or revealed within the coaching setting, especially concerning topics that lie outside of the coach’s scope of work, having reassurance and guidance that the work a coach is conducting is ethical, appropriate for the client and remains in line with the wider care team is, or should be, the primary concern.
With this in mind we created a coaching supervision model that is consistent whilst also being flexible, in order to accommodate the changeable nature of coaching work.
The aim was to create space, for the big exhale, a forum to ask questions and to be witnessed and seen in the same manner in which they provide that space for their clients. My belief in the efficacy of recovery coaching is deep-rooted and is a driving factor in establishing widespread practice models.
(My belief in the benefits of supervision for coaches, led me to share our model with other organisations in pursuit of establishing a robust, widely-used approach to coaching oversight and supervision.)
