About Me

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I began my career in the voluntary sector, writing and delivering drug prevention programmes and developing drug and alcohol policies for businesses. 

I have many years of experience working in the NHS including the centre of excellence Leeds Addiction Unit. I was an honorary lecturer for the University of Leeds teaching on the Addiction Studies degree programme. This created an opportunity to both teach and practice evidence-based addiction therapy.   

I have assisted businesses implement drug and alcohol policies and more recently developed a package that enhances awareness in the work place about substance use, mental health and support.

I am an advocate of video recorded practice for supervision and setting up and delivering learning communities for continued professional development.

I began learning and practicing Social Behaviour and Network Therapy (SBNT) back in 2007 and have utilised this approach in various settings. 

I am also trained in Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Subsequently I have clinically supervised others learning these styles of therapy too. Typically I use a combination of these approaches to develop a treatment plan.

For a number of years, I specialised in working with those who have co-occurring mental illness with addiction problems, and previously in criminal justice, child protection and working with childbearing drug users. I was a clinical team manager for the Dual Diagnosis team and previously the Pregnancy and Parenting team in Leeds. I have a particular interest in enhanced risk assessments and responses to suicidality. My main interest lies in psychosocial interventions and how they can be optimised within a multi-disciplinary approach, and currently offer training packages to organisations to optimise positive outcomes.  

Education: Pg Cert, GDip, BA (Hons)