I first met Tim Leighton back in 2004 when I first started visiting Clouds House, the residential rehab run by Action on Addiction. In 2005, I was appointed as External Examiner for their two-year Foundation degree in Addiction Counselling, which was linked to Bath University. As External Examiner, I ‘oversaw’ the marking of students’ work each year. I was thrilled to be asked to act in this role, as the field desperately needed a course like this delivered by experts like Tim Leighton and his colleagues.
I loved visiting Clouds and seeing Tim, one of the most knowledgeable and inspiring people I have ever met in the field, and his colleagues. I couldn’t wait until I had finished my official examination work during a visit, so that Tim and I could sit down and catch up with all that each of us had read and seen since our last meeting.
It was Tim who first introduced me to the amazing writings of William (Bill) L. White, the leading addiction recovery advocate in the US. Bill’s work really got Tim and I excited and in full discussion mode. On 18 March 2009, Tim and I both spoke at a conference in London organised by Action on Addiction and my grassroots initiative Wired In, with the main speaker being Bill White. Addiction recovery advocates from around the UK were invited to the conference, which was a great success.
Below is a link to a film of a short description of Tim’s life, as related by him in his conversation with my colleague Wulf Livingston. He talks about the double life he led during his heroin using days, his decision to attend a clinic which helped him on his road to recovery, and the years he was actively engaged with Narcotics Anonymous (NA) in London.
Tim then describes how he became a trainee counsellor at Clouds House, a residential treatment centre in Wiltshire, which began a 36-year career working with one organisation. He developed and started teaching a course at Clouds in the late 1980s which eventually became a Foundation Degree course in Addictions Counselling, run in partnership with Bath University. He describes people who had a strong influence on his practices, including Dr. Tony Royle and Dr. Julian Tudor-Hart.
Today, Tim is now an independent consultant in addiction recovery research, staff team and programme development, practitioner training and clinical supervision, and professional education.
Tim Leighton’s Personal Story [2 Films, 12’03”]