On this page

  • About Coaching at Emerging Whole

  • Who is coaching for?

  • Coaching vs. Therapy vs. Peer Support

  • Logistics: cost, format, scheduling

  • About Amanda’s Approach

  • Getting Started

About Coaching at Emerging Whole

Your questions about recovery coaching, trauma-informed coaching, and working with Amanda — answered.

If you're considering coaching — for yourself or someone you love — you probably have questions. This page answers the ones I hear most often: what coaching actually is, how it's different from therapy, what it costs, what to expect in a session, and how to know if it's the right fit for where you are.

If your question isn't here, reach out directly. I read every message.

  • Recovery coaching is a structured, goal-oriented partnership that supports people healing from addiction, maladaptive behaviors, trauma, or mental health challenges. It's not therapy and it's not a program — it's a space to clarify what you want, understand the patterns standing in the way, and build the skills and structures that make change sustainable.

  • Trauma-informed coaching integrates an understanding of how trauma shapes the nervous system, relationships, and behavior into every part of the coaching process. That means pacing the work to what your system can actually hold, recognizing when a pattern is a trauma adaptation rather than a motivation problem, and using approaches that don't re-traumatize. It's not trauma therapy — it's coaching that respects the reality of trauma.

  • No. There are no steps, no sponsors, and no required beliefs. Coaching at Emerging Whole is one-on-one, personalized, and built around your specific goals, history, and values. The frameworks used — CBT, REBT, trauma-informed care, neuroscience-based behavior change — are secular and evidence-based.


Who Coaching is For

Who is this coaching for?

Coaching at Emerging Whole is for people who are:

  • Recovering from substances, addiction, or maladaptive behaviors

  • Healing from trauma, including developmental or relational trauma

  • Managing or stabilizing around a mental health challenge

  • Working to break long-standing patterns that no longer serve them

  • Seeking secular, non-programmatic support

  • Ready for sustained, evidence-based work beyond symptom management

When is coaching not the right fit?

Is this coaching only for people ‘early' in recovery?

No. There's no timeline requirement. People come to coaching at every stage — from the first months of change through many years of sustained recovery. Healing isn't linear, and the work looks different at different stages, but all of it is welcome here.

Can I do coaching if I'm also in therapy?

Yes — and many clients do. Coaching often pairs well with therapy: therapy processes the clinical material, coaching helps translate it into daily action. If you're working with a therapist, let them know you're adding coaching so the two pieces can support each other.

Is this coaching for people who have never used substances?

Yes. The work applies to any long-standing pattern that no longer serves you — compulsive behaviors, relational cycles, trauma adaptations, or mental health challenges. You don't need a substance use history to benefit.

Coaching is not a substitute for clinical mental health care. If you're in active crisis, experiencing acute symptoms of a mental health condition, currently suicidal, or in the middle of withdrawal or acute detox — therapy, psychiatric care, or medical support should come first. Coaching works best when you're psychologically stable and ready to do the building work.

Coaching vs. therapy vs. peer support

Still have questions? Take a look at the FAQ or reach out anytime. If you’re feeling ready, go ahead and apply.

Book a Free Intro Session
Book a Free Intro Session

  • No. Therapy is a clinical mental health service delivered by a licensed professional; it diagnoses and treats mental health conditions and processes trauma clinically. Coaching is not clinical — it doesn't diagnose, doesn't treat mental illness, and doesn't replace therapy. Coaching works on goals, skills, patterns, and integration. Many people who benefit from coaching have a therapist or have completed clinical work.

  • A sober coach typically focuses narrowly on substance use and sobriety maintenance. A trauma-informed coach — which is Amanda's primary training — integrates trauma understanding into the recovery work itself, recognizing that addiction and trauma are frequently connected. At Emerging Whole, both lenses are active: the focus is on the full picture, not the substance alone.

  • No. Peer support and sponsorship are valuable, relational, often program-based forms of support — usually offered by someone with lived experience and no formal training. Coaching is a trained, structured, fee-based professional service. They can coexist; they do different things.

  • Many people find that therapy helps them understand what happened, while coaching helps them build what comes next. If you've done clinical work and you're ready to translate insight into daily life — to build the habits, structures, relationships, and identity of the person you want to become — coaching is often the right tool for that phase

Logistics: Cost, Format, Scheduling

  • Session pricing is available on the appointment page. Both package rates and single sessions are offered, including a free into. If cost is a barrier, reach out — there may be options.

  • No. Recovery and wellness coaching is generally not covered by health insurance because it isn't a clinical service. HSA and FSA coverage varies by plan and is typically not approved for coaching — check with your plan administrator if you want to try.

  • Coaching sessions can be conducted two ways: Zoom or in-person. The virtually Zoom option is a video chat, so you can work from wherever you are. In-person sessions are held in Amanda’s private office in southern Sacramento County.

  • Standard coaching sessions are 60 minutes. Intake sessions are longer to allow for history, goal-setting, and framework alignment.

  • Weekly is most common, especially in the first few months. Some clients move to biweekly or monthly as they stabilize. The cadence is a conversation, not a rule.

  • There's no set timeline. Some clients work with Amanda for a few months on a specific goal; others stay in coaching for longer-term integration work. Progress and goals are reviewed regularly to make sure coaching is still serving you, and you can end at any time.

  • Yes. Coaching conversations are confidential. Coaches are not licensed clinicians but are still held to the highest ethical standard. There are legal and safety considerations (for example, imminent risk of harm to self or others, or suspected abuse of a minor) that are reviewed in the intake paperwork so expectations are clear from the start.

About Amanda's Approach

Amanda brings both professional training and personal lived experience in long-term recovery to the work. That combination — clinical framework plus the felt understanding of what this road actually looks like — is part of why clients describe the coaching as both rigorous and deeply human.

Book a Free Session
Book a Free Session

  • Amanda Scott-Telford has certifications in Trauma-Informed Coaching, Addiction Recovery Coaching, and Mental Wellness Coaching through CPD / IPHM (International Practitioners of Holistic Medicine). She has a senior copywriting and communications background, a UC Berkeley marketing certificate, and personal lived experience in long-term recovery.

  • Coaching at Emerging Whole draws from:

    • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

    • Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

    • Trauma-informed care principles

    • Internal Family Systems (IFS)-informed approaches

    • The neuroscience of addiction and trauma

    • ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) research

    • Post-traumatic growth frameworks

    All of it is secular, evidence-based, and non-programmatic.

  • Selectively. Amanda has personal experience in long-term recovery and brings that lens to the work — but coaching sessions are about you, not her. Lived experience informs how she shows up; it isn't the curriculum.

  • Sessions are structured but not clinical. Expect a grounded, conversational space where you can be honest about where you actually are, not where you think you should be. Amanda is direct without being harsh, warm without being performative, and will gently push back when something isn't serving you.

    Practically, here's what that looks like:

    • Sessions open with a check-in — what's come up since last time, what's pressing now, what you want to focus on today.

    • You'll do real work in the session — frameworks, worksheets, thought experiments, pattern-mapping. Coaching isn't just talking; it's collaborative and building.

    • You'll leave with something to try — a specific practice, experiment, or reflection to work with between sessions. Change happens between sessions, as well as during them.

    • The pace is yours — nothing is forced. If something surfaces that needs slower care, the work slows down. If you're ready to push, it pushes.

    You won't be told what to believe. You won't be handed a script or a set of steps. You'll be met as someone capable of understanding your own life — with the support, structure, and evidence-based frameworks to actually make sense of it.

  • No. Amanda is not a licensed therapist and does not provide clinical mental health care. She is a trained coach who works alongside — not in place of — the clinical support you may need.

Getting Started

You don't need to have it figured out before you start. Coaching is how you figure it out.

Book a free consultation
Book a free consultation

Please note: Amanda does not provide coaching, personalized advice, or crisis support through social media DMs. If you're in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988 in the U.S.) or your local emergency services.

  • The first session is the intake. It's longer than regular sessions and focuses on history, current patterns, goals, and the frameworks you'll be working within. By the end, you'll have a clear picture of what the work ahead looks like.

  • No. Emerging Whole serves people healing from addiction, compulsive behaviors, trauma, and mental health challenges.

  • Book a free consultation at emergingwhole.org/appointments. To connect with Amanda with inquires, email her directly.

  • The fastest way to reach Amanda is through the contact form at emergingwhole.org/contact — messages go directly to her, and she responds personally, usually within one to two business days.

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