31/07/2026
Psychosocial Recovery Coaching (PRC) is one of the most misunderstood supports under the NDIS.
A Recovery Coach is not simply a support worker with a different job title or a higher hourly rate. It’s also not counselling/psychotherapy, mentoring or life coaching.
Recovery Coaching was designed specifically for people with psychosocial disability to work within a recovery-oriented framework. Recovery is about building hope, independence, choice, resilience and self-determination.
A genuine Psychosocial Recovery Coach should be helping a participant to:
• Understand their mental health and how it affects daily life.
• Identify strengths, goals and personal recovery priorities.
• Develop practical strategies to manage challenges and prevent crises.
• Build natural supports with family, friends and the community.
• Strengthen decision-making, confidence and self-advocacy.
• Coordinate services and work collaboratively with clinicians, families and providers.
• Help participants build the capacity to manage their own supports over time.
• Support participants through periods of change, including plan reviews and transitions.
Recovery Coaching often overlaps with aspects of Support Coordination because both roles involve connecting services, building capacity and coordinating supports. However, PRC always approaches this through a recovery lens, recognising that recovery is personal and that people may experience periods of wellness and periods where they need more support.
Support work certainly has an important place in the NDIS, but it is funded under different support categories for a reason. Recovery Coaching funding exists to build a person’s capacity, reduce reliance on paid supports where possible and support participants to live the life they choose.
Recovery Coaching is a specialist capacity-building support. If your sessions look the same as support work every week, it’s worth asking whether you’re receiving the full Recovery Coaching service your NDIS funding was intended to provide.
Every participant deserves to understand what they’re funded for and to receive supports that genuinely reflect the purpose of that funding.