"The Professional stuff”
Trained as a doctor at the University of London, became a GP in the Royal Air Force and ran my own medical centres on a variety of RAF flying stations both in the UK and abroad in conflict zones.
20 years ago I developed an interest in addiction and trauma with many of my patients predominantly troubled by alcohol, prescription medication and other compulsive behaviours around food, work, control and co-dependence. I also experienced 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 10 years I worked in residential rehabs in Thailand and Malaysia. Started as 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.
In January 2020, I returned to the UK, opened my own Online private practice, and began working in similar vein for Castle Craig Rehab in Scotland as one of their aftercare therapists.
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
- Internal Family Systems Trained
Professional bodies
- FDAP (Federation of Drug and Alcohol Practitioners)
- SMMGP (Substance Misuse Management in General Practice)
- EMDR Association of Hong Kong
- ADDICTION PROFESSIONALS Membership
- MNCPS Accred
