Sarah Willocks

Addiction doesn't look the same for everyone.

I'm Sarah Willocks, a psychotherapist specialising exclusively in addiction - alcohol, drugs and prescription medication, gambling, gaming, pornography, compulsive sexual behaviour and other compulsive behaviours - and in supporting the families affected by it. I work with people who are still using. You don't have to have stopped, or even be ready to stop, to start understanding what's happening and what needs to change.

If you think you have a problem

My clinical position is grounded in the learning model of addiction. Repeated, rewarding behaviour trains the brain towards doing more of it, while narrowing the routes away from it. I don't see addiction as a moral failure or a disease. I see it as learned behaviour, which means it can be unlearned.

Substance and behavioural addictions can, for a time, fill a void. Something that once provided relief or meaning can gradually become the thing that takes those things away. Recovery isn't just about stopping. It's about understanding what the addiction was providing, and building something meaningful enough to take its place.

In practice, we start with where you actually are. That might be reducing harm while you're still using, working out what the use is doing for you, or planning how to stop. I don't require abstinence to begin and I don't set the goal for you. For some, abstinence is the goal. For others, it's moderation. I'll support you in achieving whichever one you set. I'm integrative, so I draw on contemporary neuroscience, cognitive behavioural approaches and harm reduction depending on what works for you, rather than a fixed framework.

My approach is underpinned by radical responsibility and honest conversation. This isn't about blame. It's about agency.

I understand addiction from both sides. I have twenty years of personal experience with Class A drugs, and professional experience across addiction services, mental health and academia. Both have taught me the same thing: people are stronger than addiction makes them believe.

For families

Family work is a specialism in its own right. I have experience as a Senior Family Practitioner in NHS addiction services working only with families, and I hold advanced training in this area.

Living alongside addiction brings its own particular kind of fear, despair, anger and frustration. Your experience as a family member is different from the person who is using, and it requires its own specialist support. There is a lot of contradictory advice out there. Enable or don't enable. Confront or don't confront. Set boundaries or stay close.

We will work together to understand your situation, look at how you're coping, and identify where you need support. That includes practical things: how to talk to the person who's using, what boundaries actually look like, and how to protect your own health while you do it. The aim is to reduce the impact addiction is having on your own life and find a way forward, whatever the person you love chooses to do. You don't need to wait for them to get help before you get help.

• Class A (and all other) drug use
• Compulsive shopping
• Technology and smartphone addiction
• Compulsive gaming
• Compulsive internet use

Sessions are online via Zoom, 50 minutes, £80. Adults only, UK-wide. Free 30-minute initial conversation. One funded place for ten sessions is available, with a waiting list.

I also offer one-off or ad hoc sessions, at the same fee, for people who want advice for themselves or a family member, signposting to other services, or help deciding whether further support is right for them.