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RedChair

Addictions Counselling & Treatment

Freephone: 0800 530 0012

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Category: RedChair Specialist Addiction Service

RedChair Specialist Addiction Service. Interventions, counselling, treatment, therapy, recovery coaching

  • ACT Today

    ACT Today

    Upon awakening, your mind is full of your autopilot history ready to advise and guide you to do what you have always done. This is not always aiming for the outcome you wish!

    ACT – Acceptance Commitment Therapy

    Accept uncomfortable feelings, thoughts and sensations

    Choose my values

    Take ACTion

    ACT Daily Exercise

    1. Five Senses Grounding – Mindfully notice the present moment.
      1. Notice sense of touch
      2. Notice sense of smell
      3. Notice sense of taste
      4. Notice sense of seeing
      5. Notice sense of hearing
    2. Ask yourself, 
      1. Who is important to me today? 
      2. What is important to me today?
    3. What will I do today? My to-do list?
      1. Towards behaviors list
    4. What uncomfortable feelings show up that I will hold lightly?
      1. I am willing to have a normal human feeling off ……….
    5. What will my mind tell me that is not so helpful today?
      1. Thanks mind for the thought of ………!
    6. What can helpers today?
      1. Values
      2. Morals
      3. Principles
      4. Personal character strengths
    7. What can I do right now that is a towards behaviour?

    Unwanted Feelings Techniques:

    Notice the feeling. Where is it in my body? Breathe around it, and then choose to give it physical qualities as a way of defusing from it. Try to notice its location, size, shape, temperature, texture, weight, colour. Name it. It could be anger, shame, anxiety, fear, depression, guilt, hopelessness, procrastination, frustration, etc. Imagine taking it out of your body. Observe it as something that shows up in you. Mindfully tell yourself.

    “I am a normal human being having a normal feeling”. Be willing to put it back in your body, and bring it with you as you go about your day. It is something you have rather than something you are. I am having the feeling of “X” is very different to the fused “I am X”.

    Unwanted Thoughts Techniques:

    Stepping Back.

    What thought (“The Thought”) is hooking you, that you feel really stuck to and stuck with?

    1 Step back. I am having the thought that .. (“The Thought”)

    2 Steps back. I notice that I am having the thought that …(“The Thought”)

    Thanking the mind. 

    “Thanks for that mind” is a way to step away from a thought, and then see if it is towards or away thought in the context of your values living today?

    Values:

    Family. Health. Work. Home. Friends. Social. Legal. Environment. Hobbies.

    Principles, Morals, Ethics, Character Strengths

    Acceptance Consistent Acceptance Considerate Consistent Courageous Dependable Disciplined Dignity Flexible Forgiving Friendly Generous Helpful Honest Humility Kindliness Lawful Love Loyalty Open-minded Patience Rational Realistic Respectful Selfless Serene Social Spiritual Steady Tolerance Thoughtful Trusting Warm Welcoming Willing

  • Higher Perspective

    Higher Perspective

    How do you do what matters, no matter what? How do you move out from being stuck, rigid, inflexible? We all hit points in our lives when this becomes an experience. One way to start to move again is to take a higher perspective, to notice with compassion what is in play.

    I do not see the world the way it is, I see the world the way I AM.
    Thoughtful man
    I do not see the world the way it is. I see the world the way I AM

    You can notice what is most in play for you right now. You can observe where you are at, what is guiding your behaviours. I invite you to actively notice, and then choose what suits you best in moving you towards who and what is important to you.

  • Client Feedback – Nice

    Client Feedback – Nice

    Btw my friend who you recommended RedChair therapy to gave me some feedback and said he has been brilliant and life changing

    A therapist passed this on to me a moment ago. It was sent by text, copied and pasted here.

    I still am in awe of what we can achieve with ACT – Acceptance Commitment Therapy. Maybe it was alcohol problems or anxiety, or maybe it was depression. Could have been drug problems, or gambling. Intrusive thoughts, problems at work. Often it is health or work environments where some or all of this stuff shows up. If a life is lost to the struggle and feels stuck, then why not have a life-changing moment by way of therapy with RedChair?

    Who do you know who is stuck? Struggling? With clinics in Wilmslow and Hale Barns, we aim to make therapy appropriate, affordable, available, unique.. and life-changing.

  • From A Dark Place. Tony & Paul Husband

    From A Dark Place. Tony & Paul Husband

    From A Dark Place goes beyond words to a place that is beyond words in this emotive share of a family visited by addiction.

    It was my privilege to visit and support this family. Tony Husband shows his skills in conveying the hell and heaven visited upon them all by addiction and then emergence into recovery and freedom.

    The book is available this week on Amazon. Order it here.
    From A Dark Place: How A Family Coped With Drug Addiction

    Thank you Tony for showing the day I came to help. Well done Paul for accepting the help.

    Thankyou for being part of Paul’s recovery you came at our lowest point and started the process. (Tony Husband 2017)

  • ACT Just For Today

    ACT Just For Today

    ACT Today

    It is likely that 90% of what you think about, that overwhelms, challenges, induces stress etc is not actually happening in the here and now, but  our minds looking out for threats. Being able to ground yourself in the here and now as often as possible is a useful tool.

    I invite you to choose to notice, to really notice,  what are you seeing right now, hearing right now, touching right now, tasting right now and able to smell right now?

    Choosing to notice the difference between our minds activity about our reality and our reality is often the key to a rich and meaningful life today.

    We are not our thoughts, but we do have them. “I am having the thought that…” and then “I am noticing I am having the thought that…..”  This is a pragmatic and flexible approach to our thoughts. I invite you to notice your thoughts you are having, to perceive them. Some are really useful and need action in the here and now. 90% are just our minds doing what our minds do.

  • It’s Football

    It’s Football

     

    To you heroes of the roundball game, who come rain or shine, lace up the boots, pull on the shirt and take to the field, I wish you well.
    Prepare yourselves well. Your kit, your body, your mind and your soul.
    Improve. There is one thing you can improve upon each and every game, in every corner of the pitch, in every minute, in every moment, you can improve. Yourself.
    Set yourself goals as naturally as you would breathe. Set personal goals for each and every gym session, training session, every meal you eat and every game you play. You can improve.


    So, today, wherever you play, may you take to the field with your mind, your heart, your body, your soul, your desire, your character and all that you are, secure in the knowledge that you are a King, a player of the wonderful game, privileged to step out onto the green stage, to perform and bring life to all who feel every moment with you.

    All the best for today.

    Its Football.

  • Feel Stuck? Intervention ACT now.

    Feel Stuck? Intervention ACT now.

    ACT Interventions

    Ground-hog day behaviours, feelings, same old same old?

    ACT Interventions move everyone towards goals and away from stuck patterns.

    Acceptance Commitment Therapy, A.C.T. suggests we only move towards goal in ways conducive to our values. Sometimes this is really difficult, but we accept the difficulty, even if we could avoid discomfort by old patterns of avoiding, procrastinating, or in the case of family interventions, enabling.

    Enabling is an away behaviour used to give short term avoidance of fear, shame, guilt, hopelessness, but it is an away behaviour. It resolves nothing for the family, or the addict who still suffers.

    Acceptance Commitment Therapy underpins process interventions in a simple practical manner.

    Bill Stevens is a specialist addictions therapist who uses Acceptance Commitment Therapy within the Family Intervention process.

    If you are stuck with another persons untreated addiction we can help. 0800 5300012

  • Bill Stevens Presenting @ Recovery+ & Intervention+

    Bill Stevens Presenting @ Recovery+ & Intervention+

    Training, Education, Insight, Opportunity, Networking, Credits….

    Recovery Plus: 22 May 2015, Hilton London

    Save time, save lives – do you increasingly encounter patients/clients with alcohol or drug problems? If so, benefit from this intense fully-rounded ‘crash course’ in how to recover from addiction: from the basics to neuroscience to mutual-aid groups to LGBT, BME, factors in the elderly vs youngsters, and more. You will meet more people and learn more at Recovery Plus than you could from months of research. Organised in response to demand: www.recoveryplusdb.com.

    Interventions Plus: 23 May, Hilton London

    Speed reluctant addicts into recovery – for families and professionals who want to add a 2nd string to their career. Chaired by Rebecca Flood, immediate past president of the Association of Intervention Specialists.

    Bill Stevens C.I.P.  of RedChair is a guest speaker and will be presenting on Friday Afternoon, and is part of the panel on Saturday.

     

    Please sign up and attend this fantastic event with speakers from all over the world. Hear what you need to from the best in the business.

  • Drug Driving – Drugalyser – Or? Intervene, Before It Happens

    Drug Driving – Drugalyser – Or? Intervene, Before It Happens

    Worried that a loved one is drug driving?

    We routinely attend court as part of a mitigation plea regarding a person’s untreated addiction to alcohol or drugs, an untreated condition that is best treated, rather than punitive punishment measures. When the court hears that a persons drink or drugs use was a problem that went untreated long before this episode in court, and the person is responding to a treatment plan, then they appear to support the recovery and sentence accordingly.

    Why Wait For An Episode Of Drink Or Drug Driving That Is Now A Court Case?

    We prefer to organise Family and Workplace drug or alcohol interventions, bringing a person into a safe way of living before this happens. Either way, treatment, education, monitoring etc are the best ways to save a person from their own dangerous and out of control process. We help with family recovery systems, referral into treatment, aftercare, recovery coaching, and of course formal Interventions.

    An Intervention, a preventative family or workplace process allows for treatment before a person hits a rock bottom, in whatever form. Loss of a driving licence and a criminal record will impact on a persons life and potential opportunities. For those with the psychology of addictive personality traits: minimising, denial, alibi systems and unreasonable irrational thinking, a knock back like loss of license can be used as a “poor me, poor me, pour me a drink or drug” type thinking.

    So, you are concerned for another person. You believe they use drugs and then drive. You know that the UK police force are now testing for drug use on the roadside with the Drugalyser test. They also do Field Impairment tests, and then they can prosecute.

    UK Police – Drugalyser & The Law

    The new Drugalyser tests in use alongside a Field Impairment Test mean the following:-

    https://www.gov.uk/drug-driving-law

    It’s illegal to drive if you’re unfit to do so because you’re on legal or illegal drugs.
    If the police stop you and think you’re on drugs they can do a ‘Field Impairment Assessment’. This is a series of tests, like asking you to walk in a straight line and checking the size of your pupils.
    If they think you’re unfit to drive because of taking drugs, you’ll be arrested and will have a blood test at a police station. If the test shows you’ve taken drugs you could be charged with a crime.
    You don’t have to be on illegal drugs to be unfit to drive – many prescription or over-the-counter drugs can also impair your ability to drive. If you’re on legal drugs and not sure, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or healthcare professional before driving.

    Penalties for drug driving

    If you’re convicted of drug driving you’ll get:

    • a minimum 1 year driving ban
    • a fine of up to ÂŁ5,000
    • a criminal record
    • Your driving licence will also show you’ve been convicted for drug driving. This will last for 11 years.

    The penalty for causing death by dangerous driving is a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
    Other problems you could face

    • A conviction for drug driving also means:
    • your car insurance costs will increase significantly
    • if you drive for work, your employer will see your conviction on your licence
    • you may have trouble travelling to countries like the USA

    UK Law Limits – Drugalyser Tests

    The limits in full (micrograms of substance per litre of blood)
    • Benzoylecgonine 50mcg/L
    • Clonazepam 50mcg/L
    • Cocaine 10mcg/L
    • Cannabis & Cannabino 2mcg/L
    • Diazepam 550mcg/L
    • Flunitrazepam 300mcg/L
    • Ketamine 20mcg/L
    • Lorazepam 100mcg/L
    • LSD 1mcg/L
    • Methadone 500mcg/L
    • Methamphetamine 10mcg/L
    • MDMA & Ecstasy 10mcg/L
    • Heroin 5mcg/L
    • Morphine 80mcg/L
    • Oxazepam 300mcg/L
    • Temazepam 1,000mcg/L

    Drug Testing In The Family

    We use Alcoscan Breathalysers, ToxCup or InstAlert urine tests for Drugs. As part of a family recovery contract and supported process these are useful in keeping loved ones safe.

  • Intervene

    intervene

    verb

    1. 1.

      take part in something so as to prevent or alter a result or course of events.

      Family Interventions by RedChair.

    UK Based Certified Intervention Professionals.

    We help clear the way for recovery to take place. With vision, experience, compassion and dignity we can help your family move out of the problem and into the solution.