Peer Pressure — The Recovery Push Only Someone Who Has Been There Can Give

Peer Recovery Coaching: What doctoral research and lived experience show about recovery support beside clinical treatment.

Maria Power wrote a doctorate on collaborative peer recovery coaching for people dependent on more than one drug, and brings more than 17 years as an addiction specialist doctor to what that research means in practice. The same need to belong that pulled Maria toward gangs as a teenager can pull a person toward recovery when the guide beside them has lived through addiction too. Maria explains what a coach who has been there adds to clinical treatment, and how that partnership runs in weekly sessions. Listeners leave knowing what to look for in a recovery coach, and why shared experience matters.

About Maria Power

Maria Power, podcast guest

Addiction Specialist Doctor

17+ years Addiction specialist practice16-40 Monthly client caseload1,400 People issued exemptions30M TV story viewers

Dr Maria Power is an addiction specialist doctor and transformation-focused recovery coach based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Through Dr M Power Pty Ltd, she works with CEOs, public figures, athletes and people affected by substance use and abuse issues, helping them move from trauma, addiction and emotional instability toward wellness, peace, stability, contentment and hope.

Her work combines addiction treatment, recovery coaching, mentoring, interventions, wellness coaching and executive coaching. She brings a broad educational foundation to her practice, including a Doctor of Professional Research Studies focused on collaborative peer recovery coaching for co-morbid polydrug dependence, a Master of Public Health in alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, and further study in psychology, philosophy, linguistics, training and assessment.

Maria has more than 17 years’ experience as an addiction specialist doctor with Dr M Power Pty Ltd, where her responsibilities have included weekly client sessions, mentoring, long-term vision planning, teaching teen drug education to high school students, and teaching healthy eating, meditation, healthy lifestyle, nutrition, Qi Gong and yoga. Her background also includes community services education, curriculum writing and training, and work as a drug and alcohol intern.

For podcast hosts, Maria offers a candid, clinically informed and lived-experience perspective on addiction, recovery and personal transformation.

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