A Peer Recovery Specialist (or “Peer” for short), is most often a person with lived experience, or an ally who supports people who have lived through mental health challenges, substance use, trauma, or co-occurring issues, and now uses that experience to support others walking a similar path. Peers are not therapists or clinicians. They’re people who have been in long-term recovery for at least two years, have done the work, gotten the training, and are ready to walk alongside others as they navigate their own healing. Peers can also include allies who support people who have lived through these experiences.
“I didn’t even know what a peer was. I had been going to treatment, and they said, ‘You’re doing really well in the program, and we think you’d be a great peer.’ I was like, ‘What’s a peer?’ and they said, ‘You help people who are where you used to be.'”
What Peers Do
- Bear witness
- Be authentic
- Remain curious
- Return power
- Trust the people they’re working with
- Suggest different perspectives
- Support recoverees to manage a crisis
What Peers Don’t Do
- Fix you
- Save you
- Act coercively
- Be the treatment police