Published September 2, 2025 · Updated September 28, 2026
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Search for a sober coach and you get two completely different things on one page of results, described in nearly identical words.
One is a private service you hire. A sober coach or sober companion works for you directly, by the hour or the day, sometimes traveling with you. You pay them; they answer to you.
The other is a role inside a sober living program. You do not hire that person separately. They come with the housing, and part of their job is holding you to something you agreed to.
The second is what we do. Which one fits depends on a question worth answering before you spend anything.
What does a private sober coach actually do?
It varies more than most people expect, because nobody governs the term.
At one end it is a few scheduled calls a week: accountability, planning, someone to ring when a day goes sideways. At the other it is a sober companion who is physically with you, through a flight, a wedding, a first month at home, which is expensive and usually short-term.
The common thread is that it is private, paid directly, and built around you. There is no house, no other residents, and nobody else's schedule to fit. For someone with a stable place to live and a specific stretch to get through, that can be exactly right.
It is generally not covered by insurance, because it is not clinical treatment.
Is "sober coach" a regulated profession?
Mostly, no, and this is the part worth knowing before you hire one.
"Sober coach", "recovery coach" and "sober companion" are not licensed titles in most states the way a counsellor or a therapist is. Peer-support certifications do exist and vary by state, and plenty of good coaches hold one. Plenty of good coaches hold none and have years of lived experience instead.
Neither of those is disqualifying. What matters is that you ask, rather than assuming a title carries a qualification behind it. A coach who answers that question plainly is telling you something useful either way.
What does a coach inside a sober living house do?
Here it is specific rather than open-ended, because it is written into what a resident signs.
Every resident has a designated life coach and works to a plan developed with them. There is life-skills planning at 9am on business daysA fixed thing on the calendar, not an offer to check in when convenient. And there is an AMP coach alongside a phase program, which sets what you are working towards and what moving forward requires.
That is not our description of it. It is two of the twelve commitments every resident signs, published in full, and you can read the exact wording before you apply.
The practical difference from a private coach: this one is included rather than billed, scheduled rather than arranged, and part of a house where other people are doing the same thing.
Inside Rustic Creek, our Austin flagship
Which one do you need?
The question that sorts it is not about the coaching at all. It is about where you are going to sleep.
If your home is somewhere you can be soberThe people in it are safe, the drink is gone, the routine holds, a private coach can be the right addition and you may need nothing else.
If your home is part of the problem, coaching on its own is a lot to ask of a few calls a week. A house changes the environment, and the coaching comes with it.
People also do both: live in sober housing and work with a private coach as well. Nothing prevents that, and some residents arrive already doing it.
What to ask before you hire anyone
- What training or certification do you hold, and from whom?
- How many hours a week is this, and what does it cost?
- What happens if I relapse. What do you do, and who do you tell?
- Are you available between sessions, or only at scheduled times?
- How long do you expect to work with me?
The relapse question is the one that separates a coach with a plan from a coach with a calendar. Ask it before you need the answer.
How it works with us
We do not sell coaching on its own. The coaching is part of living in one of our houses, and the two do not come apart.
If that is what you are after, start from the city you want, our location pages each carry their own number and current availability, and we run men's and women's houses. It is worth reading what the house rules cover in the same sitting, because the coaching and the rules are the same program described from two sides.
Or apply online and ask what the coaching looks like in the house you are considering.
If what you actually want is a private coach and you already have somewhere to live, we are not the right call, and that is a better answer than a tour.
