Specialist in Addiction Therapy & Trauma
Professional Drug & Alcohol Counselling and Treatment
Begin Your Journey to Recovery.
” I started counselling sessions because I needed someone to point me in the right direction. Someone to tell me what I was doing right, and what I needed to change to make things better. My family were supportive but did not have the ability to help me. Sam was able to do this. Through his supportive listening, and a caring approach, he was able to put me back on track. Thank you.”
-Chris O'Neil-
Meet Samuel
As a qualified professional Addiction Therapist and a specialist in this field, I help people to reduce their use of substances, or obtain abstinence / sobriety.
Working together to understand and treat the effects of emotional and psychological Trauma (individual and collective), Anxiety, Depression and the pain and suffering of addiction.
Guiding those who are suffering to recover from the effects of addiction and gain control of their lives.
I aim to equip clients with useful strategies for dealing with the complexities of life and it's challenges. Mentor the journey to better one's health, using a holistic approach.
Counselling will support clients to enhance and maintain their motivation to change, and develop their problem-solving and coping skills. Gearing towards an overall better state of well being.
With counselling help, clients can move forward confidently and enjoy a life free from the constraints and repercussions of drug and alcohol problems.
Drug Misuse
Offering an individualised drug treatment program to address the suffering and underlying reason's to one's traumas leading to drug misuse.
Helping clients reach their goals of abstinence. Therapy allows clients to overcome triggers and cravings and take positive steps in their recovery journey. Counselling covering relapse prevention techniques and challenges negative, unhelpful thought processes that can cause one to replace.
Alcohol misuse
Whether one want's to quit drinking altogether or cut down to healthier levels, counselling has helped clients to reach their goal.
Understanding that recovery is a gradual process, especially in the early stages of change. Working through obstacles to improve one's quality of life. Looking into behaviour change techniques, assesing health risks and tackling cravings.
anxiety
& stress
PTSD, OCD, Generalised Anxiety, Social Anxiety. All can cause restlessness, sense of dread, and uneasiness of the mind. Counselling works through recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns, to ease these feelings of tension, and dissolve worried thoughts. Reducing disruptiveness caused to daily life.
depression
Looking into events that can trigger depression, Low mood, tearfulness or joylessness, feelings of flatness and detachment with reduced socialising. Professional help can guide clients towards developed strategies to help deal with these feelings and head towards happier life, with contentment and joy.
trauma
Nightmares, intrusive thoughts and images, difficulties managing emotions - these can lead to an disorienting and disrupted existence. These are responses to the exceptional circumstances of experiencing trauma.
In counselling therapy we deal with the distressing flash backs and triggers. Overcome the stress and dysregulation caused by the traumatic event. Restore the client to a state of emotional well-being. Counselling helps to process the trauma by integrating into it one's life experience, and working on PTSD.
motivational interviewing
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an evidence-based intervention that helps to support health behaviour change. MI uses distinct techniques to mobilise the individuals intrinsic goals and values and to understand and resolve ambivalence about change.
towards their alcohol and/or drug use, and support efforts to change it.
emdr
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) . This is an interactive psychotherapy technique used to relieve psychological stress
EMDR was developed to treat trauma and PTSD. EMDR may also help relieve symptoms of other mental health concerns, especially those intertwined with past trauma, Depression, anxiety, substance misuse, panic disorders.
We don’t have the neurological capacity to store traumatic or disturbing events in a synchronous manner. Instead, the memories may become “stuck” in the survival region of the brain and left unprocessed. EMDR therapy is a phased, focused approach to treating trauma by reconnecting the traumatised person in a safe and measured way to the images, self-thoughts, emotions, and body sensations associated with the trauma, and allowing the natural healing powers of the brain to move toward adaptive resolution.
As a trained EMDR therapist you are lead through a series of bilateral (side-to-side) eye movements as you recall traumatic or triggering experiences in small segments, until those memories no longer cause distress. EMDR is thought to synchronise these brain regions (survival and rational), which helps us process the memory in an integrated manner, leading to the release of traumatic memories and the emotional experiences that have remained in the nervous system.
Mindfulness & R.a.i.n Meditation
Practices and skills of Mindfulness are designed to increase awareness of triggering situations and cues, and to decrease behavioural reactivity by repeatedly observing thoughts, without reacting. The urges and cravings and their associated physical or affective discomfort can be eased with Mindfulness techniques. As experienced by many client's in the past. Mindfulness teaches clients to live in the present moment. Not to hold on to the thoughts, but instead learning techniques to allow thoughts to pass by, in a non judgemental major.
R.A.I.N an acronym for a four-step process: Recognise, Allow, Investigate and Nurture.
This process guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to difficult emotions.
person centered
& focusing
Person-centered therapy operates in a humanistic manor. Client's have inherent driven capacity towards growth and self-actualisation. Person Centered therapy relies on this force for therapeutic change. The role of the counsellor is to provide a nonjudgmental environment conducive to honest self-exploration.
Focusing therapy is actively listening to what the client is bringing, and then choosing an area to focus down on.
Focusing involves going quiet and still inside, creating an open and compassionate space for your inner feelings so they can feel safe to emerge and be heard.
C.b.t & MBCT
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking and written therapy. CBT is a common treatment for a range of mental health problems. CBT teaches clients coping skills for dealing with different problems. CBT focuses on how client's thoughts, beliefs and attitudes affect our feelings and actions.
MBCT is Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. This takes practices from CBT and applies aspects of mindfulness to the approach.
MBCT involves decentering is a focus on becoming aware of all incoming thoughts and feelings and accepting them, but not attaching or reacting to them.