The Power of Peer Support
The question often asked is: “what is peer support?” As important as knowing what peer support is, knowing what peer support is ‘not’ is equally important.
Peer support is individuals with lived or like traumatic experience helping others with similar lived or like traumatic experiences.
Peer support is not a replacement for professional treatment and therapy such as but not limited to psychiatry, psychological counselling, occupational therapy, etc.
Peer support is a way of normalizing experiences and validating another’s traumatic experience.
Peer support is not used to diagnose mental health disorders.
Peer support is two or more individuals with lived or like experiences sharing strategies, camaraderie, and empathy.
Peer support is not exposure or processing therapy intending to have benefit backed with empirical evidence.
“Peer support is not a replacement for professional treatment and therapy”
Hopefully most readers can understand why first responders, service workers, and those in high-stress occupations may benefit from peer support as one method of managing their own symptoms, recovery strategies, and relapse prevention. As explained, peer support has its limitations.
Peer support has been shown to significantly reduce Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, suicide risk, and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) as a maladaptive coping mechanism. (Bora, et al, 2025).
The reason peer support is successful is people who have experienced a traumatic event appear to have their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours validated from someone “who gets it.” Rarely does a psychiatrist, psychologist, or other therapist know what it is like to aim a firearm at another person (let alone fire at another person), be responsible for another life in the back of an ambulance or regulate emotions and stay neutral in the case of child abuse. Those with lived experiences do.
“…people who have experienced a traumatic event appear to have their thoughts, emotions, and behaviours validated…”
Peers provide therapeutic listening and safe but helpful disclosure; there is also something therapeutic about helping another person. Helping others is why many first responders chose their vocation. The goal is not to be the healer as a peer supporter; however, peer support does make it easier for healing to happen.
What makes a good peer is not always having the right words to say. In fact, simply voicing one’s feelings releases some of the burden experienced after one or several traumatic experiences. Knowing it’s not ‘your fault’ reduces guilt and anxiety.
As with any level of ‘responder to responder’ dialogue, trauma ‘bragging’ and minimizing one’s own trauma comparative to another’s can happen and both are unhelpful.
These phenomena occur in Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery meetings or any community support group that includes two or more people attempting to manage their condition. Impact of trauma is perception. What has impact on one may not have equal impact on another. All must be validated.\
PSNC Updates
The Peer Support Network of Canada will be launching full services soon.
Face to face, 1:1, telephone, and video media for peer support will be offered.
Other services include assistance with recovery management planning, relapse prevention, finding local support, accessing financial support, insurance plans, online resources, and others to assist first responders and service workers, along with their families, who have experiences one or more situational trauma(s). The goal of PSNC is to have services accessed free of charge. In order to do so, donations, grants and other revenue streams are required.
To make a donation to the PSNC, visit www.peersupport.ca and click ‘DONATE’ followed by the donation menu. All donations are welcome and appreciated.
Behind the scenes, founders are working hard to bring this network to full capacity as soon as possible.
“Face to face, 1:1, telephone, and video media for peer support will be offered.”
Keep checking PEERSUPPORT.CA for information and important news.
June Online Resources
CBT Coaching Fitness App
Smart Recovery Canada App
Canadian PTSD App