Addictions Therapist BSc (Hons) Addiction Couns. Accredited Register MBACP.
As a professionally trained and experienced addiction therapist I am qualified to work with various addictions including alcohol, smoking, drugs, prescription and over the counter medications. gambling, internet and gaming, shopping and food addiction.
My speciality is substance misuse particularly alcohol misuse and dependency.
I provide an independent service as I realise that not everyone wants to engage with public funded local community based treatment programs or private residential rehab that are based on group work or 12 Step programmes. My private practice offers you confidential bespoke one-to one sessions. However, when demand is sufficient, I also offer abstinence based group therapy. I am unable to offer a ‘detox’ facility but can signpost you to appropriate professional services.
Please note: If you are physically dependent on your substance of choice, I am unable to offer a ‘detox’ facility but can signpost you to appropriate professional services.
I am a member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists, with twenty plus years experience in the field of addiction as well as further relevant experience in a more generic counselling practice. I also hold the NCSCT smoking cessation qualification, with experience as a stop smoking practitioner.
How I work
I am committed to excellence and I’m passionate about offering you a confidential, professional service embedded in evidenced based best practice as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence whilst incorporating any client preferences for a particular approach. I may also draw upon other approaches from my integrative counselling training where appropriate. I work in a very collaborative way that supports clients in accessing their own capacity for self-awareness and self-healing.
Clients will receive counselling sessions that are client centred, and facilitate them in exploring their relationship with alcohol or other substances/behaviours in a safe, non-judgemental environment and support them with their choices and goals.
Some clients choose to take back some control and reduce their consumption/change their behaviours and counselling may help them achieve this. For those that choose abstinence as their way forward, I can offer an evidenced based relapse prevention awareness program tailored to you that can support you in moving forward with confidence
Concerned?
If you are concerned about your alcohol consumption take a look at the calculator and questionnaires below. If you are regularly drinking more than the recommended levels or find there is always a reason for having a drink, then it may be time to explore your relationship with alcohol.
Not sure how many units you consumed yesterday or this week?
You can work it out with Alcohol Concerns calculator by clicking HERE
Worried you may be drinking too much? Take the test
To complete the alcohol self-assessment on the Drinkaware website click HERE or complete the fast alcohol screening (FAST ) questionnaire on the Public Health England website HERE
Some alcohol facts
After smoking and obesity, alcohol is the third biggest lifestyle risk factor for disease and death in the UK, (Alcohol 2015).
Alcohol can be linked to more than 60 medical conditions that include cancers of the mouth, stomach, breast and liver, as well as liver disease which is increasing at alarming rates and has reached record levels in the UK (Alcohol Concern 2015)
According to The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, middle-class, middle-age drinkers are sleepwalking their way into ill-health (ELSA 2015)
Adults over age 50 who are healthy, active, sociable and well-off are more at risk for harmful drinking than their peers, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. A higher income and a higher education level means someone’s more likely to drink too much, the study found. (2015)
One in five people over the age of 65 drink to “unsafe levels”, according to a study by King’s College London (2015).
Official figures showed alcohol-related hospital admissions among those aged 45 and over have more than doubled in the past decade. Among those in their 60s, admissions have almost tripled (Health & Social Care Information Centre 2013)