Addiction is shaped by the interplay between trauma, emotional overwhelm, learned coping strategies, neurodivergence, stress physiology and the brain’s attempts to soothe or stabilise what feels unmanageable. Through Lifecode Gx testing, I explore the pathways that influence vulnerability and resilience in addiction, including the dopamine receptors DRD2, DRD3 and DRD4, the dopamine transporter SLC6A3, and the metabolic genes COMT, MAOA and MAOB, which together regulate reward, impulse control, motivation and emotional processing. I also work with the methylation genes MTHFR, MTR, MTRR and CBS, which affect detoxification, anxiety, nutrient synthesis and the nervous system’s ability to recover from chronic stress.

Alongside this biochemical picture, my addiction work integrates the therapeutic processes that lie at the heart of coaching and recovery: identifying triggers and emotional patterns, understanding craving cycles, addressing shame and self-judgement, healing attachment injuries, reframing internal narratives, and building new strategies that support regulation rather than collapse or escape. Through counselling, narrative therapy, TA, shadow work, family systems awareness and nervous-system regulation, we explore the roots of your relationship with alcohol, gambling, food, sugar,gluten, cannabis, gaming, screens, shopping or any compulsive behaviour that has become a survival mechanism.

Drawing together functional medicine, targeted nutritional support, microdosed homeoherbal medicine, trauma-informed coaching and deep psychological insight, I create a personalised process that reduces cravings, stabilises mood, strengthens resilience and restores choice. This work helps you understand not only what you are doing, but why your system needed it - and how to meet those needs in healthier, sustainable ways.

Addiction recovery is not about willpower; it is about reconnection. This approach supports you to rebuild internal safety, break longstanding patterns, and move into a life where you feel grounded, present and free to live without the strategies that once held everything together.