Language of Care, Science of Change:
Peer Recovery Support Specialist Training
Language of Care, Science of Change: Peer Recovery Support Specialist Training gives peers not only the foundational theoretical knowledge they need to effectively support others on their recovery journeys. The program offers rigorous practical, hands-on training that enables peers to put what they learn into immediate practice.
The Language of Care trains peers in the nuanced conversational style that amplifies clients’ strengths and resources, builds their agency and self-efficacy, and moves them through the stages of change toward meaningful, long-term recovery.
The Science of Change incorporates insights from psychological and social sciences, human performance, behavioral economics, and behavior design. It gives peers a system, strategies, tools, and techniques grounded in solid science to support positive, lasting change.
The program is experiential, hands-on, and outcomes-driven. The ultimate goal of the program is to help peers make a difference, to help others help themselves.
Purpose
The purpose of Language of Care, Science of Change is to give peer recovery specialists the skills they need to help others:
Engage in their own journeys toward recovery and well-being.
Address the personal, social, and environmental factors that contribute to well-being and continued sobriety.
Increase their capacity to make positive, lasting behavior change using evidence-based strategies, tools, and techniques within a holistic, biopsychosocial-spiritual model.
Build resilience to manage the ups and downs of daily life.
Make kindness, gratitude, empathy, and respect the norm for interpersonal relationships.
3 Critical Topics
This 3-part program covers three critical topics to boost the skills of peer recovery specialists so they can effectively engage clients and guide them on a self-change process toward positive, lasting change and enduring sobriety.
1. Language of Care
How to engage and partner with clients, maintain a collaborative relationship, and instill hope and confidence. Based on motivational interviewing and solution-focused approaches.
2. Science of Change
How to marshal the personal, social, and environmental factors that promote lasting change, from just thinking about change to making and maintaining it. Based on health psychology; behavioral science, design, and economics; and social science.
3. Putting It All Together: Case-Based Application in Recovery
How the language of care and science of change apply to specific cases and situations in peer recovery support. Reinforces and expands on key concepts as they apply in real-life practice.
Topic 1: Language of Care
The Language of Care: What It Is and What Makes It “Simple, But Not Easy”
How Communication Happens: How the Brain Processes Language
Building Blocks of Caring Conversation
Listening: Not a Passive Activity, Nor a Spectator Sport
Responding: The Surprising Power of Small Details of Word Choice, Tone, and Phrasing
Asking Questions that Count: How to Build Client Agency and Self-Efficacy
Person-Centered Means It’s All About Them, Not You…About Boundaries and Self-Regulation
How to Build Skills Over Time: Practicing and Measuring What Counts
Topic 2: Science of Change
How Change Happens: Multiple Models and Common Factors
What Keeps People Stuck and How to Help Them Avoid the Traps
The Role of Motivation: Important, But Not the Only Game in Town
Personal, Social, and Environmental Factors that Support Positive Action
From “No Way, Jose” to “Let’s Go for It”: Matching Stages of Change with Strategies for Change
More than Rewards: How to Reinforce Change by Creating a Success Momentum
Designing for Change: A Six-Part Behavior-Design Framework to Make and Maintain Change
The Peer Recovery Specialist’s Toolkit: Practical, Powerful Tools that Support Change
Topic 3: Putting it Together:
Case-Based Application in Recovery
Engaging and Partnering with Clients
Addressing Ambivalence
When What You Think Is Right Isn’t What the Person Wants
Working with the Effects of Trauma
From Habits and Routine to Sacred Ritual: Spiritual Development
Beyond SMART Goals: How to Help Clients Set and Achieve Short- and Long-Term Goals
How Principles of Caring Conversation and Science of Change Can Transform Organizations
Not Just an Optional “Nice to Have”: Self-Care for Peer Recovery Specialists
Program Features
Flexible, Convenient, Practical . . . Effective
Live, experiential training
Online interactive module to reinforce concepts and skills practice
(self-paced)Live, weekly practice/supervision
Case consult to discuss cases from participants’ practices
Workbook and handouts
Orientation for regional directors/coordinators
Comprehensive outcomes report
Technical support prior to and during launch
How We Measure Outcomes
A. All IWE program outcomes are measured using multiple evidence-based instruments that collect quantitative and qualitative data in four domains:
Participant evaluation of the training program content, methods, and relevance to their own lives and their professional practice as peer recovery specialists
Participant competency to use in real practice the concepts and skills they’ve learned
Participant perception of ongoing gaps in knowledge/skills and need for training
Participant perception of the impact of the program on their personal and professional lives
B. Participants are trained to measure their own practice outcomes using simple client rating scales adapted from Scott Miller’s evidence-based Outcomes Rating Scale (ORS) & Session Rating Scale (SRS).
What Do Participants in This Program Say?
95% strongly believe they will incorporate what they learned into their work as a peer recovery support specialist
91% strongly believe that they increased knowledge and developed new skills
97% rated the practice sessions a "10" and called them "awesome," "enlightening," and "excellent"
98% said the online exercises and chats were helpful
99% agreed that what they learned can help them in both their personal and professional lives