Vital underpinnings of recovery coaching

Personal connection is the critical undercurrent of recovery coaching.

From that, everything else flows.

Our grads often acclaim the approaches used by skilled recovery coaches. And why not? The techniques are powerful. 

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is often extolled by practitioners, who describe it as the backbone of the practice.

Many say mindful listening and evocative questions are the linchpins to great recovery coaching.

One of our recovery coach mentorship students recently described cognitive dissonance as the “heartbeat” of great recovery coaching.

In isolation, none of these statements is wrong. These are all vital elements of good recovery coaching sessions.

But in recovery coaching (as in life), nothing happens in isolation.

These things require fertile ground to grow.

That ground is enriched with powerful connection, or as my partner Shelley Shadow accurately says: “Recovery Coaching is all about relationship.”

While all these other elements are crucial to recovery coaching mastery, none of them fully thrive without the fertile soil of relationship.

Time and again in our coaching drills, we see people struggle with MI, mindful listening, and creating generative moments, much of the time this is due to a failed launch in establishing relationship.

This relationship can’t be manufactured — its authenticity is everything. It is born of empathy and caring, and most often out of shared experience.

When coupled with deep curiosity and a beginner’s mind, great questions flow naturally.

With practice, the rest of it takes root naturally.

This leads to a type of connection a recoveree has seldom if ever, experienced.

The outcome is profound.