An ongoing serialised account of my career, with an emphasis on describing my activities and the people who have inspired me since I closed down my university neuroscience laboratory in 2000 and started a community initiative (Wired In) focused on empowering people to overcome substance use problems.
some of the core members of David’s Wired In team over time. From Left: Kevin Manley, Lucie James, Sarah Davies and Becky Hancock. The photo was taken at my farewell in the King Arthur Hotel, Reynoldston, Gower, just before he moved from the UK to Perth Australia in December 2008.
After completing his PhD research, David Clark spent 20 years working as a neuroscientist. He worked for three years as a postdoctoral fellow with Nobel Laureate Arvid Carlsson, spent two years in the USA, and then ran his own university research laboratory in the UK for 14 years. He closed down his laboratory at the beginning of the new millennium, since he did not feel that neuroscience was helping people overcome drug and alcohol addiction.
David developed the grassroots initiative Wired In (originally called WIRED) with the aim of empowering—by creating hope, understanding and a sense of belonging—and connecting people, in order to facilitate recovery from addiction. Wired In involved a range of activities including storytelling, a qualitative-based research programme, online education and information initiatives (including the news portal Daily Dose), filmmaking, real-world and online community development (Wired In To Recovery), and recovery advocacy.
After moving to Perth, Western Australia, David created this Recovery Stories website and later published the eBook Our Recovery Stories: Journeys from Drug and Alcohol Addiction. He became increasingly interested in trauma (and transgenerational trauma amongst Indigenous peoples), and the healing of such trauma. He developed The Carrolup Story website with social anthropologist John Stanton, and published the eBook Connection: Aboriginal Child Artists Captivate Europe, an inspirational story of the overcoming of trauma. David more recently launched the Recovery Voices project with Wulf Livingston, for which a primary focus is on peer-led recovery communities.
‘My Journey’ is a serialised account of David’s career and wide-ranging activities, and the people who have inspired him. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology.
Below are some of the core members of David’s Wired In team over time. From Left: Kevin Manley, Lucie James, Sarah Davies and Becky Hancock. The photo was taken at my farewell in the King Arthur Hotel, Reynoldston, Gower, just before he moved from the UK to Perth Australia in December 2008.