My approach to addiction & recovery treatment

I worked alongside people affected by addiction long before and throughout my psychotherapy training, including within H.M Prisons and community recovery settings. My early training was with the Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust (RAPT), supporting individuals navigating substance use, recovery and the complex emotional realities that often exist beneath addictive behaviours.

My approach to addiction is deeply relational, trauma informed and grounded in compassion rather than judgement. I understand that addiction is not simply a problem of substances or behaviours - it emerges in response to emotional pain, disconnection, overwhelm, shame, loss, or the need to survive unbearable internal experiences. Many people develop ways of coping that once made profound sense within the context of their lives, relationships and histories.

I work with addiction through a lens of curiosity and connection, recognising that recovery is not about willpower. Often, the meaningful work involves gently exploring the emotional, relational and embodied experiences that sit underneath compulsive patterns, while also building safety, support, meaning and agency in the present.

I have a strong respect for recovery communities and for the transformative potential of connection with others who have lived experience. I value the principles of 12 Step recovery, including honesty, mutual support, accountability, spirituality in its broadest sense, and the possibility of change through relationship, community and connection. I also recognise that recovery is deeply individual, and that people may arrive with different relationships to abstinence, harm reduction, identity, faith, medication, or recovery language. We’ll begin where you are, and find our way together.

In this work together, I aim to create a space where all aspects of your experience can be spoken about openly and without shame. This may include substance use, relapse, dependency, attachment, trauma, self destruction, grief, dissociation, loneliness, anger, or the complicated feelings that can emerge in recovery itself.

I believe that healing is not being “fixed”, but being met differently. Therapy can offer a place where patterns that once felt inevitable can begin to loosen, and where new ways of relating to yourself and others gradually become possible.