Do individuals attending your courses have to be abstinent from drugs and alcohol?

The vast majority of individuals who come onto our courses are abstinent from drugs and alcohol. Since we began in 2014, only 1.8% of people were on low (maintenance) doses of methadone or Subutex, all of whom successfully reduced and stopped on completion of our flagship programme, the Psychology for Change.

Just as age doesn’t always equate to emotional maturity, we believe that being abstinent from drugs and/or alcohol doesn’t always equate to a person having stopped compulsive behaviours. The term ‘abstinence’ is often used in a binary way: a person is either addicted to substances or is completely free of them, which has the impact of placing the focus on the substances as opposed to the behaviours that drive them. For instance, a person can be abstinent of drugs and alcohol but may well have swapped their compulsive behaviours to something else - sugar, the gym, food, becoming a workaholic, etc - if they haven't addressed the roots of the behaviours themselves. Our work focuses on individuals understanding their psychological and behavioural patterns and developing the ability to make positive life changes themselves.

We rigorously assess the suitability of all individuals applying for our courses to ensure they are the stage where they will get the most benefit from the time they invest on attending.