My sister was reminding me that dogs shouldn’t eat grapes. It immediately brings to mind the image of my old dog Toby being given a grape and, rather than eating it, rolling on it. This was just one of his inexplicable eccentric behaviours. What I hadn’t realised back then was that looking after a dog, […]

Sitting with a client new in recovery from a gambling addiction which is threatening to ruin him he is telling me about a relapse which has, so far, netted him thirty thousand pounds. My cautioning against euphoria falls on deaf ears and, even though it feels to him like everything is finally coming good, his […]

It was spring 2005 and I was flying from Atlanta to New York. During the day there had been the most unbelievable thunder storms and I had pondered that having TV channels dedicated to the weather wasn’t such a pointless idea after all. “They’ll get you out” a Canadian colleague had told me as the […]

Here’s another guest post from Martin Pankhurst. Martin is a recovering alcoholic who now runs support groups for people in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse and other addictions. He is currently working with me to create online programmes to help people with dependency issues, and their families. If you’d like more information on this […]

Friends since school we’d drifted apart. Like broken pieces of a boat which, having sailed quite peacefully for years, had run aground dramatically and without warning. Drawn, defeated, held firmly in the grim clutches of alcoholism and with a recent cancer diagnosis I felt as if I had come face to face with a living […]