"The professional stuff”
I trained as a doctor at the University of London and then became a GP in the Royal Air Force running my own medical centres on a variety of RAF flying stations both in the UK and abroad in conflict zones.
17 years ago I developed an interest in addiction and trauma with many of my patients predominantly troubled by alcohol, prescription medication and/or other compulsive behaviours around food, work, control and co-dependence. There was also a steady stream of soldiers presenting with PTSD following exposure in conflict zones.
I retired from the RAF in 2006 went to the Post graduate Centre for Addiction Treatment Studies, Clouds House, Wiltshire, UK, and completed a Bath University, Degree in Addiction Counseling. It was a different type of doctoring.
My counseling career started with a placement and then a full time position in a prison setting, working with addicted offenders from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, delivering a twelve-step day care program and relying heavily on motivational interviewing and interpersonal group therapy as interventions to facilitate engagement and relapse prevention.
I next worked with addicted health professionals within a therapeutic community setting, developing a twelve-step recovery program which ran alongside and interlinked with a second wave CBT based mindfulness and acceptance approach.
For the past seven years I have worked in residential rehabs in Thailand and Malaysia. I was initially Addiction Therapist at DARA (Drug and Alcohol Rehab Asia) in Thailand and then graduated to being their Intake and Medical Assessment Director. This was followed by a position as Addiction Program Director at a new start up treatment retreat called Solace in Borneo.
Lastly the Cabin Addiction Services Group asked me to run their Intensive Outpatient program in Hong Kong which I started as Lead therapist in May of 2016 until December 2019.
Qualifications
- BSc Physiology & Biochemistry - Westfield and Queen Mary's College London University
- MB.BS Medical Degree - St Marys Hospital Medical School London University
- MRCGP Membership - Royal College of General Practitioners London University
- FD Sc Degree in Addiction Counseling - Bath University / Post Graduate Center for Addiction Studies
- CSAT3 Certified Substance Abuse Therapist - Asia/Pacific Credentialing Board
Professional bodies
- FDAP (Federation of Drug and Alcohol Practitioners)
- SMMGP (Substance Misuse Management in General Practice)
- EMDR Association of Hong Kong
