Helping other people grow into the people they want to be

Mackenzie became a Peer Recovery Coach and Certified Intentional Peer Support Specialist after overcoming her own struggles with addiction, and coming out of incarceration.  

What do you do for work, and what communities of people do you work with?

As a Certified Intentional Peer Support Specialists I work with people in the community [who are] trying to get through life, basically. We provide emotional and mental support. We’re working together with somebody. We’re right where you’re at, and we’re just trying to get you into a better space.

Plenty of people go to work every day and hate their job, and I go to work every day, and I love my job. I’m helping somebody else out, and that’s what really makes the difference. I don’t think I could imagine doing anything else. I love what I do.  I enjoy helping people.

How did you get into this line of work?

I actually spent seven years of my life in prison for drugs. When I got out, I had a really hard time finding a job. You continue paying for your crime for the rest of your life. That’s something that I found out very quickly.  I had already kind of known that I wanted to work in some sort of social field because I was really good with people. I could relate to people well, and I had a lot to offer because I’ve been through it, and I know exactly what it feels like to go through that—to come out of prison and to feel alone. I did my recovery coach training and was working with the Augusta Recovery Reentry Center and the Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network. At the time, we were going into the Kennebec County Correctional Facility, and that’s where I started recovery coaching. I think that was the most rewarding thing to me—to be able to walk into the jail, hear the door close behind you, be able to see somebody, offer encouragement and strength and hope, and say, “I’ve been there. I know exactly what it feels like, and you can have a good life, and you deserve a good life.”It feels like I didn’t go through it for nothing, that there was a reason I had gone through all the trials and tribulations that I had—.

What do you enjoy about your work?

None of my other jobs were ever rewarding. This job is unlike any that I’ve ever had before. I would go to work in the past, and I would just dread it, and I just wondered what it was I was good at and what I could possibly be doing. Being in peer support, recovery coaching, going in and helping people—that doesn’t feel like a job. It feels like I’m doing what I was meant to do on a daily basis, and I’m getting paid for it. It’s the best of both worlds, really.

What types of skills and qualities does it take to be successful in this field?

If you enjoy talking to people, if you like giving back—it’s rewarding work. It’s important. People appreciate you. You can learn to appreciate yourself. You can learn to appreciate other people. At the end of the day, we’re not alone. So, when I’m supporting somebody else, that helps me support myself, and they support me. You’re helping somebody grow into the person that they want to be or that they haven’t been before.

I do think that it definitely takes the right person to be a Peer Recovery Coach or Certified Intentional Peer Support Specialist. You might get a lot of fulfillment out of being with people, talking with people, or just seeing where somebody comes from—and not necessarily being from that type of world. Maybe you’re just curious about something—asking, “What is it that you’re lacking? What can I help you with? Who can I help you become?”

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in getting into the field?

[If you get into this line of work], just take time for yourself, and do things that you enjoy doing. For example, I enjoy walking out in the forest, so I make sure I take time for that—or it could be more simple things that just make you kind of fill your cup back up because it does tend to [get depleted]. Peer supports need peer supports. I didn’t realize that at first. I thought that I had to be so strong because I was helping other people develop in recovery. That’s not true at all. You just have to have a really good, tight-knit crew around you who you can call—and they’ll help.