Modeling Success as a Peer Support Specialist --- Seven Strategies for Navigating the Tricky Part of Being a “Model”

Modeling success is one of the great contributions of Peer Support Specialists.  Hope is the foundation of the recovery process, and yet there is often not a lot of easily accessible evidence for clients that recovery is likely.  We know that people who believe that treatment is very likely to lead to recovery are more likely to work hard at it than those who think it is only somewhat likely.  Helping clients have contact with people further along in recovery builds confidence, which builds motivation.

 Smart clinical programs that include Peer Support Specialists, will keep you and your success very visible.  Your recovery represents one of the key things you bring to any Peer Support Specialist job.  There is a natural temptation to emphasize your success and to downplay the areas you still struggle with.  The tricky part is what to do with less “successful” parts of your experience.  Recovery is never straightforward – never easy.  There are often setbacks or challenges.  Painful challenges that don’t resolve quickly. 

 Emphasizing your success and not talking about the less successful parts of your recovery may work in the short run.  In the long run you can find yourself increasingly in a stance that is not genuine.  When facing that temptation, I remind myself of few key assumptions:  Speaking honestly is key to true recovery.  Talking about the truth of your recovery may be messy but it will always lead to benefits for your clients eventually.  People will almost always find out what is true.  If I am not honest about my experience, others will see that and know that I am not worthy of their trust.

 Consider the following strategies for modeling success:

1.     First Things First – Your recovery has to come before the recovery of others.  Neglecting your own recovery in order to better “serve” others can turn into relapse, which will undercut any opportunity to serve others.  I have worked with Peer Support Specialists who felt they had to hide their own struggles in order to be a “good” peer. Hiding their struggles left them vulnerable to relapse which threatened all of their work.

 2.     Develop a daily routine to check in on your own recovery.  When we get lost, we usually do it little by little over time….. not even noticing the change.  Find a way to check in with yourself each day to ensure you are on track to stay successful in your own recovery.

 3.     Develop relationships with others who are committed to recovery – they will model that core strategy and will help you keep your own recovery moving forward.

 4.     Be skeptical of yourself – We all have parts of ourselves that will twist things around in order to get an outcome we want.  Like anyone else who has been dishonest in the past, we should be skeptical of ourselves and our own honesty to ourselves.  Look for ways that you may be deceiving yourself.  Expect to need honest conversations with yourself to correct our own dishonesty.

 5.     Be aware of your own need for approval.  Much of what leads us astray is this common element to the human experience --- deep insecurity.  We all want others to think well of us and to care about us.  It leads us to portray ourselves in a way to get that approval.  Keeping an eye on that insecurity makes it easier to quickly spot when it tempts us to go astray.

 6.     Admit when you are wrong.  One of the great advantages of developing a habit of apologizing when we do something wrong is that it becomes a disincentive for future mistakes.  If we talk about our failures, we are likely to think twice before we launch into similar actions.

 7.     Educate others about real recovery and life.  Real recovery involves setbacks and struggles.  Any message from us implying that recovery is easy or involves no setbacks is poor education and will lead to pain for us and others.  Good Peer Support Specialists know that the reality of their lives is the real content of great education for others.

 KEY WORDS: Peer Support Specialist, Recovery, Modeling, Peer Support, Peer Support Training, Peer Support Certification, Peer Support Jobs