Addictive Processes - IFS therapy
Addiction rarely looks the same from the outside as it feels from the inside. For many people — particularly high-functioning, successful individuals — it exists in a private compartment, carefully managed and hidden from colleagues, family, even close friends. The drinking that has quietly escalated. The cocaine that started socially and has become something else. The behaviours that bring temporary relief and lasting shame.
If this resonates, you are not alone and there is a way through that doesn't require you to dismantle your life to find it.
A different approach to addiction
Most addiction treatment focuses on behaviour stopping, managing, abstaining. This is necessary but rarely sufficient on its own, because addiction is not primarily a behavioural problem. It is a response. A part of you learned that this substance or behaviour relieves something — pain, pressure, disconnection, anxiety — and it has been doing its job ever since.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy works at this deeper level. Rather than fighting the addictive behaviour directly, we get curious about the parts of you driving it — what they're carrying, what they're protecting, and what they actually need. This approach is not about willpower or shame. It is about understanding, and from understanding, genuine change becomes possible.
What I work with
I work with adults experiencing difficulties with:
Alcohol — from high-functioning dependence to problematic drinking that has begun to affect health, relationships or work
Recreational drugs — including patterns that began socially and have become harder to control
Prescription medication — including dependency on benzodiazepines, sleeping tablets, opioids and other prescribed substances
Behavioural addiction — including compulsive sexual behaviour, pornography, and gambling
I also work with people in recovery who are doing well with abstinence but want to understand themselves more deeply — addressing the underlying patterns that drove the addiction in the first place.
Experience and discretion
I have over 25 years of clinical experience working with addiction across a wide range of contexts and client backgrounds. I understand the particular pressures faced by professionals and high-achieving individuals — the stakes involved, the need for absolute privacy, and the reality that standard group-based services are often not a viable or comfortable option.
Everything discussed in our sessions is held in the strictest confidence, in full accordance with professional ethical guidelines. I do not share information with employers, insurers, or anyone else without your explicit consent.
Aftercare and ongoing support
For clients who have completed residential treatment, I offer ongoing individual therapy as part of a structured aftercare plan. This work — consolidating the gains of treatment and addressing what lies beneath — is often where the most lasting change happens.
Where we meet
Sessions take place at:
35 Great James Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3HB(a short walk from Russell Square and Chancery Lane)
or
Chedworth House, Lansdown, Stroud GL5
Online sessions via Zoom are also available.
Getting started
Taking the first step is often the hardest part. If you'd like a confidential conversation to explore whether this work might be right for you, I'd be glad to hear from you — no obligation, no pressure.