Top 12 Peer Support Specialist Skills to Put on Your Resume

Peer support thrives on connection, credibility, and steadiness under pressure. Put the right skills on your resume and you stop sounding generic—you start sounding like someone people can trust. Below are twelve skills that employers look for, the ones that mirror the real work and values of this field.

Peer Support Specialist Skills

1. Active Listening
2. Empathy
3. Motivational Interviewing
4. Crisis Intervention
5. Recovery Planning
6. Group Facilitation
7. Cultural Competence
8. Self-Care Strategies
9. Conflict Resolution
10. Peer Counseling
11. Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)
12. Mental Health First Aid

1. Active Listening

Active listening means giving someone your full attention—tracking words, tone, and meaning—while suspending judgment. You reflect back, clarify, remember. People feel seen, not sized up.

Why It's Important

It builds trust quickly, reduces misunderstanding, and surfaces what actually matters to the person. That trust is the runway for change.

How to Improve Active Listening Skills

1. Be fully present: Put the phone away, face the speaker, and slow your thoughts.
2. Show you’re with them: Small nods, brief encouragers, open body language.
3. Reflect and check: Paraphrase content and emotion; ask clarifying questions.
4. Hold back judgment: No interrupting, no fixing mid-sentence, no rushing.
5. Respond with care: Be honest and respectful; match tone to the moment.

Simple habits, practiced consistently, make listening unmistakable.

How to Display Active Listening Skills on Your Resume

2. Empathy

Empathy is the pull toward another person’s experience—grasping their feelings and viewpoint without taking the steering wheel from them.

Why It's Important

It shrinks isolation, validates pain, and strengthens hope. With empathy in the room, people risk honesty.

How to Improve Empathy Skills

1. Listen for layers: Words carry context—history, fears, values. Reflect both facts and feelings.
2. Use open questions: Invite stories, not yes/no answers.
3. Practice perspective-taking: Ask yourself what this moment looks like through their eyes.
4. Build emotional awareness: Notice and name your own emotions so they don’t hijack the conversation.
5. Reflective responses: “It sounds like…” “I hear that…” Keep it genuine, not scripted.
6. Seek feedback: Check in about what helped and what felt off.

How to Display Empathy Skills on Your Resume

3. Motivational Interviewing

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative style that draws out a person’s own reasons for change. Less pushing, more evoking. You explore ambivalence and champion autonomy.

Why It's Important

People move further when motivation comes from within. MI strengthens self-efficacy and increases follow-through.

How to Improve Motivational Interviewing Skills

1. Lean on OARS: Open questions, Affirmations, Reflective listening, Summaries.
2. Affirm strengths: Name efforts, values, and wins, even small ones.
3. Reflect change talk: Catch “I want, I can, I will” and mirror it back.
4. Roll with resistance: Avoid arguing; align and reframe.
5. Plan practice: Role-play, record mock sessions (with consent), review and refine.
6. Self-audit: After sessions, note where you guided versus directed.

How to Display Motivational Interviewing Skills on Your Resume

4. Crisis Intervention

Crisis intervention is immediate, steady support when someone is overwhelmed or unsafe. You de-escalate, stabilize, and link to the next right level of care—using calm presence and clear steps.

Why It's Important

Safety first. Effective intervention can prevent harm, reduce trauma, and keep people connected to care and community.

How to Improve Crisis Intervention Skills

1. Sharpen communication: Grounded voice, simple language, short sentences.
2. Use structured approaches: Safety checks, de-escalation techniques, collaborative planning.
3. Know your resources: Hotlines, mobile teams, urgent care, respite, community supports.
4. Practice cultural humility: Tailor responses to the person’s background and preferences.
5. Protect your capacity: Debrief, rest, and reset after high-intensity events.

How to Display Crisis Intervention Skills on Your Resume

5. Recovery Planning

Recovery planning builds a personalized roadmap—goals, supports, coping tools, and next steps—owned by the person, not the system.

Why It's Important

Clarity fuels progress. A living plan centers strengths, nurtures hope, and adapts as life shifts.

How to Improve Recovery Planning Skills

1. Start with the person: Preferences, values, daily realities—let these drive the plan.
2. Make goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.
3. Map supports: Family, peers, providers, community resources—who does what, when.
4. Build coping menus: Skills for stress, triggers, sleep, routine, and relapse prevention.
5. Review regularly: Check progress, celebrate wins, adjust targets.
6. Promote self-advocacy: Coach people to speak up, prepare questions, and make informed choices.

How to Display Recovery Planning Skills on Your Resume

6. Group Facilitation

Group facilitation means guiding a room so voices are heard, safety holds, and peers help peers. You set the frame, steer the flow, and spark mutual aid.

Why It's Important

Groups multiply support. When structure meets warmth, people learn faster and feel less alone.

How to Improve Group Facilitation Skills

1. Plan with purpose: Clear goals, norms, and time boxes.
2. Invite all voices: Open-ended prompts, round-robin shares, gentle redirection.
3. Track dynamics: Name patterns, soften conflict, balance airtime.
4. Mix methods: Brief teaching, pair shares, activities, reflection.
5. Close with clarity: Summaries, takeaways, and next steps.
6. Reflect after: What worked, what dragged, what to tweak next time.

How to Display Group Facilitation Skills on Your Resume

7. Cultural Competence

Cultural competence blends curiosity, humility, and skill. You recognize how culture, identity, and power shape experience—and you respond with respect and flexibility.

Why It's Important

Care lands better when it matches the person’s context. You avoid assumptions, reduce harm, and strengthen trust.

How to Improve Cultural Competence Skills

1. Learn continuously: Histories, practices, language, community norms—keep studying.
2. Check your lens: Surface your biases; notice how they show up.
3. Listen first: Ask what matters to them and how they want to be supported.
4. Adapt your approach: Adjust communication, goals, and options in culturally aligned ways.
5. Invite feedback: Make it easy for people to tell you what helped and what missed.
6. Advocate: Support policies and environments that welcome diversity and belonging.

How to Display Cultural Competence Skills on Your Resume

8. Self-Care Strategies

Self-care is not fluff; it’s fuel. It’s boundaries, rest, movement, reflection, and support—so you can keep showing up.

Why It's Important

Burnout blunts empathy and judgment. Sustainable self-care keeps your presence steady and your work ethical.

How to Improve Self-Care Strategies Skills

1. Protect basics: Sleep, nutrition, hydration, fresh air, movement.
2. Schedule decompression: Mindfulness, journaling, creative outlets, therapy if needed.
3. Set boundaries: Define availability, stick to scope, say no when capacity is tapped.
4. Use peer support: Supervision, consultation, and communities of practice.
5. Audit your load: Adjust caseloads and tasks to prevent chronic overwhelm.

How to Display Self-Care Strategies Skills on Your Resume

9. Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution means helping people navigate disagreements without damage. You surface needs, calm emotions, and co-create next steps.

Why It's Important

Healthy conflict work strengthens relationships and safety. It keeps focus on recovery rather than friction.

How to Improve Conflict Resolution Skills

1. Listen beyond positions: Find interests, values, and worries underneath.
2. Use plain language: Short, clear statements; slow the pace.
3. Validate first: Acknowledge feelings before problem-solving.
4. Brainstorm options: Generate choices together; look for “both/and.”
5. Agree on specifics: Who will do what, by when, and how you’ll check in.
6. Regulate yourself: Notice triggers, pause, and reset as needed.

How to Display Conflict Resolution Skills on Your Resume

10. Peer Counseling

Peer counseling draws on lived experience to offer practical support and nonjudgmental companionship.credibility through “I’ve been there,” not “I know better.”

Why It's Important

Shared experience lowers walls. People feel understood faster and try new steps with more confidence.

How to Improve Peer Counseling Skills

1. Clarify your role: Support, not therapy; empowerment, not advice-giving.
2. Strengthen boundaries: Confidentiality, scope, and ethics—know them cold.
3. Hone storytelling: Share lived experience sparingly and purposefully.
4. Deepen skills: Keep training in communication, recovery tools, and resources.
5. Reflect often: Supervision and peer consultation to keep practice sharp.

How to Display Peer Counseling Skills on Your Resume

11. Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP)

WRAP is a self-directed playbook for staying well and responding early when things drift. Created by Mary Ellen Copeland, it centers personal wellness tools, daily maintenance, triggers, early warning signs, and crisis plans.

Why It's Important

It boosts ownership and preparedness. People gain clear steps for staying balanced and navigating rough patches.

How to Improve Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Skills

1. Personalize deeply: Use the person’s language, preferences, and routines.
2. Co-create: Build it together; the person leads, you scaffold.
3. Think whole-life: Physical, mental, social, spiritual—include what sustains them.
4. Make it actionable: Concrete tools, contacts, and steps, not vague intentions.
5. Review and revise: Life changes; the plan should, too.
6. Plan for crises: Warning signs, supports, settings, and instructions clearly spelled out.

How to Display Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) Skills on Your Resume

12. Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) teaches you to notice signs of mental health and substance use challenges, offer initial support, and connect people to appropriate help.

Why It's Important

Early, compassionate response can reduce risk and stigma while bridging people to timely care.

How to Improve Mental Health First Aid Skills

1. Refresh regularly: Renew training and practice scenarios to keep skills sharp.
2. Know your local pathways: Crisis lines, mobile teams, clinics, and community options.
3. Strengthen communication: Nonjudgmental language, calm tone, clear next steps.
4. Mind your limits: Offer first aid, not diagnosis; hand off when needed.
5. Care for the caregiver: Debrief tough situations and support your own wellbeing.

How to Display Mental Health First Aid Skills on Your Resume