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Become a Certified Peer and Family Support Specialist
CHOICES has pioneered peer recovery and peer support training since 2016. We provide evidence-based training and workforce development opportunities designed to meet state and national credentialing requirements while strengthening the peer support profession.
This growing profession is helping bridge critical gaps in behavioral health, recovery support, and community wellness services.
What Is CHOICES Recovery Training?
Peer and Family Support Specialists bring valuable lived experience as individuals in recovery, family members supporting loved ones, people navigating mental health challenges, substance use disorders, trauma, and other life experiences. Through their journeys, they offer hope, understanding, and practical support to those seeking improved health and well-being.
CHOICES Recovery Training offers comprehensive education designed to build a skilled, compassionate, and effective peer support workforce. Our expert-led trainings and community-focused approach serve as the foundation for supporting individuals navigating substance use, mental health challenges, and life transitions.
Why This Training Matters
Turning Experience into Purpose
Many people have powerful stories of growth, healing, and resilience. CHOICES Recovery Training helps trainees turn that experience into a source of encouragement for others.
The program teaches practical tools that help future peer recovery coaches listen well, support safely, communicate clearly, and guide others toward helpful resources.
CHOICES Recovery Training is a focused training program built around recovery principles, peer support, communication, ethics, and real-world service. The program helps trainees understand how to support individuals in recovery while honoring dignity, choice, and personal growth.
The training is designed for people who want to turn lived experience, community passion, or service-minded goals into meaningful support for others.
What trainees Learn
Recovery Principles
Trainees learn the core ideas that support long-term recovery, including hope, personal choice, empowerment, accountability, and community connection.
Ethics and Professional Boundaries
The training explains how peer support works and how trained peers can help others feel understood, encouraged, and supported.
Communication Skills
Trainees learn how to listen with care, ask helpful questions, build trust, and communicate in ways that support progress.
Ethics and Boundaries
Professional recovery support requires clear boundaries and ethical responsibility. This training helps trainees understand respectful support, confidentiality, role clarity, and safe practice.
Goal Setting and Recovery Planning
Trainees learn how to help individuals identify goals, take practical steps, and build confidence through realistic recovery planning.
Resource Navigation
The training helps trainees understand how to connect people with helpful services, community support, and recovery-related resources.
Introduction to Motivational Interviewing
Ethics and Professional Boundaries
Backstaging Goals and Goal Development
How to Meet People Where They Are At
Creating and Maintaining a Judgment-Free Zone
Recovery Capital and Strength-Based Support
Effective Communication Skills
Advocacy and Resource Navigation
Understanding the Role of a Recovery and Wellness Specialist
Building Practical Skills to Support Recovery, Wellness, and Community Connection
- Certification Benefits
Build a Strong Foundation for Peer Recovery Work.
Trainees gain valuable knowledge and support skills that can help them serve individuals and communities in recovery. The training provides a stronger foundation for people who want to work in recovery support, community service, outreach, or related fields.
Certification can help trainees feel more confident, prepared, and professional as they support others.
Who Should Join?
This training may be a good fit for:
- People with lived recovery experience.
- Individuals who want to become peer recovery coaches.
- Community members who want to support others.
- People interested in recovery-focused careers.
- Support workers who want stronger peer support skills.
- Anyone passionate about hope, healing, and community change.
A Training Experience Built on Compassion
CHOICES Recovery Training is not only about learning information. It is about preparing people to serve with empathy, confidence, and responsibility. Trainees are encouraged to grow personally and professionally while learning how to support others in a respectful and meaningful way.
Start Your Training Journey
Your story, your compassion, and your commitment can become a powerful source of support for someone else. CHOICES Recovery Training helps you take the next step toward certification, confidence, and meaningful service.
Reach out today to learn more about registration, training details, and how to begin.