Start a Peer Support and Mental Wellness Coaching Practice

1. 1

   State what this is not, everywhere

   Peer support and wellness coaching are not therapy, and saying otherwise is illegal and dangerous. Your website, agreements, and first session state plainly that you do not diagnose or treat mental illness, that clients in therapy keep their therapists, and exactly what happens if someone is in crisis.

2. 2

   Build the crisis protocol before the first client

   Screening questions at intake, the crisis and suicide hotline numbers in writing, a decision rule for when you stop coaching and connect someone to emergency or clinical help, and documentation of any incident. This protocol is the professionalism of the entire field.

3. 3

   Get certified in your state

   Most states certify peer support specialists (training plus exam, often $100 to $1,000, with lived experience as an entry requirement rather than a barrier). Certification opens program contracts and reimbursed roles, and adds structure to what you lived.

4. 4

   Choose your people

   Recovery maintenance, returning citizens, new-diagnosis navigation alongside clinical care, or burnout rebuilders. Peer support works on 'me too'; the closer your lived experience matches the client's road, the more the work lands.

5. 5

   Mix private and program revenue

   Private coaching at $40 to $100 per session (priced for accessibility), small groups ($15 to $40 per month per member), and contracts with recovery programs, reentry organizations, and community health initiatives that hire certified peers ($25 to $50 per hour or per-cohort fees). Programs are the stable floor.

6. 6

   Protect yourself to protect them

   Liability insurance for coaching, supervision or peer consultation for yourself, and honest limits on caseload. Boundaried, supported peer specialists last decades; unboundaried ones burn out in a year, and the clients pay for it.

Do not take our word for the money. Put your own numbers in and see what this idea has to earn before it works. Free, instant, no account needed.

Best for: People with lived recovery experience and the steadiness to hold structure

Not for: Anyone who wants to practice as a therapist or who cannot hold a firm non-clinical boundary. Peer support is not therapy, and implying otherwise is illegal and endangers people in crisis. It also is not for anyone unwilling to build a crisis protocol and protect their own limits, because unboundaried peer work harms both sides.