Intentional Peer Support

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Shery Mead · 1995 · New Hampshire

What it is

Intentional Peer Support (IPS) is a framework for peer relationships, not a therapy. It was founded by Shery Mead, who began a peer support programme in New Hampshire in 1995 and, by her account, saw peer work sliding into "doing what had been done to us" in services; she responded by defining…

Format

• From individual to relationship.
• Formats in which IPS is used

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• IPS has no phases, session counts or fixed session format. Its structure is three principles (shifts in stance) and four tasks (things the relationship works on continuously, in any order).
• . IPS describes connection as a cycle of connection, disconnection and reconnection rather than a stage that is completed. Wording versions. The current Core Training page names the tasks Connection, Worldview, Mutuality and Moving Towards, and the principles Helping to Learning, Individual to Relationship and Fear to Hope. A 2018 IPS workshop (Dech & Penney, NARPA) words them as establishing connection,…
• Training and delivery requirements (programme-level).

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• "Another view" that is advice in disguise. Working: the person can hold your view alongside theirs, or tells you why it doesn't fit.
• Moving towards being used to skip over pain. Working: plans are phrased as wanted outcomes, and the person's energy rises when discussing them.
• Polite "it's fine" answers where power is uneven; ask in more than one way or at a later point. Working: concrete requests come from both sides.
• Feedback that is really a verdict or a managerial correction. Working: the other person engages rather than defends; the relationship feels closer afterwards.
• Withholding all input in the name of "not helping" (abandoning rather than co-learning). Working: the person generates their own direction; both people report learning.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.