Recovery Coach Vs Smartphone Recovery Coaching App: Why Human Connections Will Always Win.

Smartphone Recovery Coaching Apps which aim to improve the quality of your recovery is currently the craze, but technology can never replace a live recovery coach.

It makes sense that recovery coaching apps are being developed exponentially because addiction affects 41 million people in the United States each year. The number is steadily growing. The market is huge. But a recovery coaching app favors isolation and not connecting to others.

Unfortunately, there is a major problem found in addiction recovery coaching technology. It doesn’t necessarily fail to enhance the quality of your recovery, but it can never be a replacement for your Recovery Coach.

At The Lighthouse Recovery 365, we wholeheartedly believe in Johann Hari’s phrase – The opposite of addiction is (new) connections.”

One of the main reasons addiction spreads so quickly in our lives is because of the need to isolate and hide our behavior from family, friends, and employers. The more our relationship to substances such as drugs or alcohol strengthens, the more we push those who love and care for us away.

When you accept and admit that your relationship to alcohol and drugs has become dangerous, and choose to live a lifestyle focused on recovery, you begin to crave human connection and belonging.

These new connections found in the recovery community, at home, work or school strengthen your recovery and help you manage cravings, irrational thoughts, and work through situations which cause stress in your life without drugs or alcohol.

Using a recovery coaching application is not realistic. Your recovery coaching application can never replace or provide you with the desired results from one-on-one coaching and the relationship you’ll establish with your recovery coach.

Why The Lighthouse Recovery 365 Coaching Program is superior to technology and Smartphone Recovery Coaching Apps

1 – In-person meetings

The Lighthouse Recovery Coaches meet with you as many times as you need per week. It is common for our coaches to meet with you 2 to 3 times per week when you initially begin meeting with your coach.

In-person meetings, to establish rapport and create a working relationship, help you achieve your recovery goals. You will decide, with your Recovery Coach, how often to meet in-person and when the frequency of meetings should be reduced or increased. Scheduled meetings will be determined by progress towards your recovery goals.

2 – Planning and Preparation

Early recovery is a vulnerable time. Processing feelings can create stress. Previously you likely managed stress and joy with the use of drugs and alcohol. Now that you are in recovery you need a plan to help manage stressful situations and foresee triggering events which create cravings. You and your Recovery Coach can meet in person, over the phone or connect through a text to discuss and prepare coping strategies.

Recovery coaching apps can help prepare you for triggering situations such as family reunions, travel, or stress. Alternatively, recovery technology can serve to keep you focused on your recovery. Unfortunately, recovery coaching apps are programs. The application is programmed to provide you with generic answers, suggestions, and tips.

Strength-based coaching is personal and built on established rapport. The advice and suggestions offered to you from a coach apply to your particular situation.

Generic solutions and pre-defined ‘canned’ responses, programmed to reply to specific questions, can be helpful and assist you in managing levels of stress. However, the path which led to your severe substance use disorder was as unique as is your path for recovery. Impersonal responses rarely meet the level of response needed.

To effectively manage stress, self-doubt, and cravings, you need a trained Recovery Coach who is prepared for the unpredictability of your actual human experience.

A professional recovery coach, employed by you is insurance against events which occur without warning because your recovery coach and yourself have discussed the areas of your life which cause stress and discomfort.

Your Recovery Coach will make it a point to learn the intimate details of your life, while an application provides responses based on knowledge programmed within it. Preparation and proper planning will help you succeed. Once you have established rapport with your personal Recovery Coach you can begin to plan and prepare for a successful recovery.

3 – Assessment

Progress towards your goals will be measured by applying our unique Recovery Capital Scale. during your scheduled in-person meetings you will review, assess, and make necessary changes to your plan for recovery based on your Recovery Capital score.

During inpatient meetings with your Recovery Coach, you will also discuss your fellowship and recovery support group meeting attendance, community event participation, exercise, health, wellness, nutrition, marriage counseling, safe transition from treatment to home or sober living homes, and multiple pathways for recovery.

Recovery coaching apps on the market today do NOT offer you this well-balanced program for recovery. Applications are aimed at doing well, but these apps fall short and cannot function superior to in-person recovery coaching. Human interaction, care, and concern are key elements of effective coaching.

4 – Accountability

The Lighthouse Professional Recovery Coaches hold our clients accountable to make progress toward the goals they have selected to achieve. You will be encouraged to stay focused and follow your planned journey of recovery.

Accountability is essential for a fulfilling life in recovery, so we perform regular drug and alcohol testing to safeguard against relapse. We attend to our your personal needs while building a foundation for recovery.

In early recovery, it is vital to have support, accountability, and encouragement. Development of a recovery plan and daily checklist of goals assist in holding you accountable towards achieving these goals.

You are expected to be accountable to your recovery process and randomly testing your BAC or toxicity level several times/day. The Lighthouse provides each client with a sober link tool for analysis for BAC. We also provide home urine screenings for our clients who struggle with substances other than alcohol.

5 – Mentorship

Our Sober Coaches live a life of recovery, so they can share their experiences with you as you embark on the road to a fulfilling life in recovery. The Lighthouse Recovery 365 Coaching staff are caring professionals who are also in recovery and have found the way to a life filled with happiness and hope.

Our coaches lead the way to a life of responsibility and true happiness. The use of recovery coaching is a pathway for recovery, which fosters mutual respect, and lasting peer relationships. Our Recovery Coaches work with you as mentors sharing personal recovery life experiences, strength, and hope.

Why you should consider a Professional Recovery Coach over a recovery coaching app

Using a recovery coaching app to help you succeed in recovery is beneficial, however, it is not likely to replace the care, concern, or accountability you would experience from investing in a professional Recovery Coach. The key element of recovery is connecting to others who share the same goal of living life free from the obsession inherent in addiction. A smartphone recovery coaching app defeats this purpose and further excludes you from the wealth of resources a professional recovery coach will introduce you to.

A professional Recovery Coach is far superior to a recovery coaching app because he or she provides:

Personalized recovery coaching
Focus on the individual in recovery
Weekly face-to-face meetings scheduled between coach and client and daily check-ins via phone or text
Development of a recovery plan and daily checklist of goals
Assessment of your individual progress
Use of Recovery Capital score
Mentorship
Recovery management, encompassing the individual’s total program of recovery

A Recovery Coach works with you to help you maintain and establish connections to other people in the recovery coaching community.

If you or someone you love wants to learn more about how The Lighthouse Sober Living Recovery 365 can help achieve and maintain a fulfilled lifestyle for recovery, please

call 203-246-9534.

The Lighthouse A Safe place to THRIVE in early recovery.