Supporting Peer Recovery Navigators Who Bring Lived Experience to the Work

A training for frontline peer recovery navigators, many of whom bring their own experience of recovery to the role, focused on the particular strain of supporting others through crisis while carrying a personal history that may closely resemble theirs.

At a Glance

Client: State of Michigan

Sector: Public Health

Format: Virtual Training

Audience: Peer Recovery Workforce

What we noticed

Peer recovery navigators work from a distinctive position. Their effectiveness often comes from having lived through recovery themselves, which allows them to build trust and offer a kind of understanding that cannot be learned through training alone.

That same proximity can also carry risk. Navigators may support people through circumstances that resemble their own histories, including crisis, relapse, grief, and instability. Across Michigan’s peer recovery workforce, people were doing this work with skill and commitment, but not always with support designed for the specific demands of the role.

Without shared language or consistent structures for support, the effects of the work can be difficult to recognize until strain has already accumulated.

The intervention

We designed a custom, experience-centered virtual training for frontline peer recovery navigators and the staff who work alongside them.

Rather than offering a general wellness session, the training focused on the dynamics specific to peer work: the closeness between a navigator’s own experience and the experiences of the people they support, the potential for secondary trauma, and the challenge of remaining present and effective over time.

The session used small-group discussion and practice rather than relying primarily on lecture. It concluded with a written report to leadership identifying the themes that surfaced and the areas where organizational support could make a difference.

Why we designed it this way

We built the training around the specific experience of peer recovery work rather than adapting a general wellness curriculum. The strain associated with this role is shaped by the closeness between a navigator’s own recovery and the recovery of the people they support, and that proximity requires support designed with it in mind.

We also kept attention on the conditions organizations could influence, including supervision, caseload, role clarity, and the support available between difficult moments. Sustainability should not depend only on each navigator’s ability to manage the effects of the work privately.

Questions for Consideration
  • When a role draws part of its effectiveness from lived experience, what responsibility does an organization have to address the strain that same proximity can create?
  • How can organizations distinguish support that treats wellbeing as an individual responsibility from support that treats it as a condition of the work?
  • What structures help a workforce grounded in lived experience sustain the people who bring that experience over time?

SELECTED ARTIFACTS