About
Alan Cooke is a Therapist at Priory Hospital Roehampton. Alan is experienced in dealing with addiction, and a counsellor well versed in the triggers of addiction.
Alan has extensive experience in the field of addiction and works with clients who need help and support with a range of behavioural issues including depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, self-harm and abuse.
Alan is also familiar with working with families; His experience has allowed him to deal with clients and/or family members, helping them to achieve recovery. He offers all clients and their families, empathy, care and understanding.
His work in emotional regulation covers a variety of mental health problems stemming from patterns of instability in emotional regulation, impulse control, interpersonal relationships and self-image.
Specialisms
Alan is experienced in supporting people with the following addiction issues:
- alcohol
- drugs
- prescription drugs
- gambling
- sex
- shopping
He offers a number of therapies including Twelve Step, Motivational Enhancement, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and trauma work.
As DBT is a broad-based cognitive-behaviour treatment that was originally developed for clients with borderline personality disorders (BPD), Alan has the experience to work with clients with suicidal and self-harm issues, as well as abuse.
Alan’s overall goal with DBT is to help individuals change behaviour, emotional thinking and interpersonal patterns associated with problem living through regulating emotions.
Training
- Alan Cooke gained a Post Graduate Diploma with Merit following an approved programme in Addiction Psychology and counselling. This included Advanced Theory and practice in Therapeutic Counselling, Advanced Addiction Psychology, Research methods in Addiction Psychology and Addiction Counselling, Fundamentals in Addiction Counselling and Fundamentals in addiction Psychology
- He has trained in post induction therapy for development immaturity treatment with Sarah Bridges from the Medows and Hilary Betts, Clinical Director.
- Training took place at London South Bank University, The Priory at Roehampton and North London, Sanctuary Lodge Treatment Centre, Clouds Treatment Centre.
Research interests
- As part of his experience, Alan has collected data for a research project, ‘how do mixed cohorts interact in a mixed demographic community’, like the Priory.
- This gave him an insight into how clients interact in a mixed community and generated an interest in the importance of treating not only the symptoms of addiction and other problem behaviours but the issues behind them. This meant encouraging clients to explore childhood issues including abuse and working with them on trauma reduction.