5 Crucial Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Sober Companion
Sober companions are professional addiction specialists whose primary responsibility is to provide the necessary resources, guidance, and support for individuals at any stage of their recovery journey. In many cases, they are also in recovery themselves, which allows them to offer valuable input while aiding you through your recovery.
If you or your loved one are trying to recover from alcohol or drug addiction, you can choose a sober companion program to receive one-on-one support to help you heal. However, not all sober companion programs are the same. What might have worked for one person may not work for you. So, carefully choose the companion (whether an organization or individual) and ask these crucial questions.
1. What is their background?
It is always recommended that you perform intensive background checks before hiring a sober companion. Additionally, you should check references and review credentials for any individual or organization you are considering working with. One of the crucial elements of a successful sober companion partnership is trust, which comes from transparency. Talk to the potential candidates and try to learn about their past experiences. It is better to clarify if you find any flags in their past. Otherwise, this could lead to trust issues in the future.
2. How long have they been in this line of work?
Having an experienced sober companion can be helpful during your recovery phase. If a sober companion has successfully served several clients in the past, they can also help you achieve the same level of success. An inexperienced individual is not necessarily bad, but there is no past experience of the companion you can refer to. On the other hand, an experienced individual fully understands the pitfalls, nuances, and mindset commonly experienced by clients during recovery. Thus, they are more likely to be helpful.
3. What kind of training does the companion have?
Becoming a sober companion requires no mandatory training or certification. In this case, training is optional. When choosing a sober companion, it is better to select an individual who has done some training. Your therapist or the medical expert looking after your treatment can tell you what level of training a sober companion should have in your case. You can ask the candidates about their skills and training levels. The higher and more specific the training requirements, the more confident you can feel about their commitment.
4. What standards and values does the program uphold?
While enrolling in a sober companion program, you need to understand the treatment philosophies that set them apart from other programs. While interviewing, you will discover that every program has different priorities, values, and standards. You must get accustomed to what matters to them and see if they align with your requirements. This will help you understand whether you are interviewing the right programs that can aid your recovery process.
5. How do the companions work with clinical teams?
A sober companion plays a crucial role in your recovery by filling gaps in your clinical treatment. For optimum results, you need to utilize the services of both professional clinicians and paraprofessionals (like sober companions) who have lived experience to guide you through the recovery process. However, a lot of sober companion programs leave out the clinical component of their plan and focus solely on the experiential part. So, when researching the available sober companion programs, ensure they have some level of clinical integration if you want them to be effective.
Find the Right Companion for Your Recovery
Whether you are planning to hire an organization or an individual for sober companionship, you need to be very particular about who you want to trust with your recovery process. While you pay attention to their background, past experiences, level of training, work standards, and more, you must also evaluate whether you trust them without hesitation. You can understand what they bring to the table by asking the questions above. Also, you can get a decent idea about whether they can help you achieve your recovery goals.
