Our Services
Coach-Mentors deliver tailored and individualized, practical in-person support to help individuals across the life span integrate treatment goals into daily life. By providing assistance following discharge and/or between therapy sessions, we bridge the gap between therapeutic discussions and real-world application. The frequency of sessions ranges from scheduled meetings twice a week to live-in, round-the-clock support. We also provide an alternative to “away-from-home treatment, allowing clients to remain at home near family and community resources while still receiving the necessary level and intensity of support they require.
Clients are supported in their own home and community, in settings that are most directly relevant to the therapeutic work they are doing, and we meet clients at times that are most relevant, including evenings and weekends. For individuals in therapy, we facilitate the application of therapeutic goals through real-world activities. These sessions foster a relaxed, conversational atmosphere, and phone support between meetings offers additional encouragement, follow-through, and accountability.
Who We Serve
Our services are ideal for adolescents, young adults, and adults who:
- Struggle to implement therapy goals effectively.
- Need more structured support post-discharge or to augment levels of outpatient services (PHP, IOP)
- Seek to maintain sobriety.
- Face life transitions or mental health challenges requiring structured support.
- Are struggling with developmental challenges that create challenges with achieving desired levels of growth and independence.
At Coach-Mentors, we focus on empowering clients to develop independence, sustain recovery, and overcome challenges, ensuring they thrive in their daily lives.
Our Approach
Our approach is goal-oriented, action-focused, and rooted in fostering positive change. We employ a hands-on methodology that breaks down goals into practical, achievable steps. Collaborating closely with therapists, families, and referral sources, we help clients implement therapeutic strategies, build essential life skills, and establish healthy lifestyles and relationships.
Our work is person-centered, strength-based, and grounded in real-world application, helping clients build the skills, routines, and confidence needed to thrive in daily life. This therapy-aligned, forward-looking, strengths-based orientation encourages meaningful progress and lasting change.
Collaboration with Clinicians
Coach-Mentors work in close partnership with clinicians to extend therapeutic progress beyond the session and into the client’s daily life. By supporting clients in real-world environments, reinforcing treatment goals, and maintaining therapeutic momentum between appointments, Coach-Mentors strengthen the effectiveness of clinical work and help clients achieve meaningful, sustainable change. This collaboration ensures that therapy does not exist in isolation, but is actively practiced, supported, and integrated throughout the week.
Key Benefits for Therapists
- Therapeutic Goal Follow-Through Between Sessions Mentors help clients practice coping skills, exposure tasks, DBT strategies, communication skills, and other therapeutic goals in daily life—reducing regression and increasing generalization.
- Support During Discharge or Step-Down When clients transition out of PHP, IOP, residential, or intensive outpatient care, mentors provide stabilizing structure that maintains gains and prevents relapse while new routines are established.
- Waitlist Support For clients waiting to begin therapy, Coach-Mentors offer regulated routines, emotional support, and skill-building that preserve therapeutic readiness and reduce deterioration during gaps in care.
- Consistency for Clients with Irregular Attendance When clients miss sessions due to avoidance, dysregulation, transportation barriers, or life instability, mentors maintain continuity and keep therapeutic goals active.
- Real-World Skill Application Therapists often teach skills that clients struggle to apply outside session. Mentors bridge this gap by coaching clients through real-life implementation in home, school, work, and community settings.
- Enhanced Treatment Engagement Mentors help clients prepare for therapy, reduce avoidance, complete homework, and follow through on clinician recommendations—improving attendance and engagement.
- Meaningful Observational Feedback With consent, mentors share observations from home and community environments, giving therapists valuable insight into patterns, triggers, and progress that may not appear in session.
- Stabilization During Crisis or Regression Mentors provide structured support during periods of dysregulation, helping maintain safety and therapeutic continuity while clinicians adjust treatment plans.
- Alignment Across Systems For clients with school-based supports, mentors reinforce IEP/504 strategies, coordinate with educational teams, and reduce fragmentation across care systems.
- Improved Outcomes Through Team-Based Care When therapy is supported by consistent, real-world coaching, clients progress more quickly, maintain gains more reliably, and experience fewer setbacks.
Supported by Research
The Promise and Perils of Using Peers and Other Paraprofessionals as Mental Health Service Professionals
Recent research supports the value of paraprofessional roles, such as therapeutic coach/mentors, when they are well-trained, clearly scoped, and integrated into a client’s broader care team. Studies published in JAMA Psychiatry highlight that paraprofessionals can effectively reinforce treatment goals, support skill development, and provide consistent, real-world coaching that complements clinical services. When paired with appropriate supervision and collaboration, as we do at Coach-Mentors, this model strengthens follow-through, enhances emotional support, and helps clients apply strategies in the environments where they matter most. This evidence aligns with Coach Mentors’ approach: practical, relationship-based support that complements and amplifies, not replaces, formal therapeutic treatment.
Citation: JAMA Psychiatry by Areán, O’Connor, and Sherrill of the National Institute of Mental Health, as reported in The Chronicle of Evidenced-Based Mentoring, by Alexandra Werntz, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Associate Director of the UMass Boston Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring.
Personalized Client Matching
We carefully match clients with Coach-Mentors based on their individual clinical and life skill needs, ensuring tailored support and understanding. This personalized approach fosters a strong connection between clients and mentors, creating a solid foundation for progress.
Once matched, the Coach-Mentor collaborates as part of the client’s interdisciplinary team alongside therapists, families, and other professionals. By implementing therapy strategies in real-world settings, Coach-Mentors empower clients to practice life skills and achieve personal development goals outside traditional therapy sessions.
Individualized Action & Support Plans
Each client’s Action & Support Plan serves as a structured framework, enabling the Coach-Mentors team to provide consistent and timely support that fosters positive change. These plans are tailored to the unique needs of each client, considering family objectives, clinician directives, and our community-based approach to service delivery.
Every Action Plan is individualized, addressing goals across a wide range of areas, including:
- Independent living
- Employment/volunteerism
- Money management/budgeting
- Mental Health
- Social-emotional skills
- Communication
- Therapeutic skill implementation (exposure, DBT skills, etc)
- Community integration and activities
- Social relationships
- Substance use and recovery
- Health, wellness, and nutrition
- Structure and routine
- Family relationships
Testimonials from Clinicians
“As a therapist in solo private practice, working with Coach Mentors has been a very positive experience. It’s important for me to be able to collaborate with other providers involved with my clients. Coach Mentors have proven to be excellent collaborators, with well-trained and compassionate mentors. I regularly and easily give and receive updates about our mutual clients. We work jointly with each other and with the client about their goals in therapy and how coaching could support those.
Mentors can act as my eyes and ears on the ground and give meaningful feedback on what they are seeing during their community-based visits. Sometimes it takes more than therapy alone. Sometimes it takes a team. And Coach-Mentors play an important role on that team, supporting the client outside the session and enhancing the effectiveness of clinical interventions.”
– Jennifer Klingner, LCSW-C
“I have heard wonderful things about your work with Sara and have been very impressed with the coaching plan you set up. You nailed the areas and ways Sara would benefit from support. I am looking forward to collaborating with you.”
-Angelique Kleer, MSN, APRN, Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
“As a clinician myself, finding quality support for my clients is critical. With CM and a particularly unique client on my caseload, we were struggling to find the right person for her. But CM was able to pull through and find the perfect fit for her. We have been able to collaborate so well, she has organized team meetings to help us all stay on the same page, and my client absolutely loves her, even though she’s still maintaining great boundaries with her. If I could have coaches like this with my clients across the country, my life would be so much easier, and my clients would be so much healthier. It truly takes a team, and I’m so glad to be using CM to help with this client.”
-Cecily Mitchell, LPC