Kieran.

Hello. My name is Kieran Cummins., I am fifty nine years old. I was born in England but come from a large Irish family. I have no formal education and my twenties were a blur, though I attained a certificate in performing arts from Mountview Theatre School. I learned how to act which is a passion of mine and remains a useful distraction from my work to this day. My thirties were spent playing my part in the upbringing of my beautiful children, while pulling down every opportunity that came my way. I have a background of working within mental health and have worked at Shenley Hospital in Hertfordshire and Broadmore hospital in Berkshire. I have worked in addiction recovery for last sixteen years. I have been employed as an addictions Counsellor working face to face with patients in three different rehabilitation centres .I have completed several years of work based counselling training. I have delivered both treatment and education within the prison system as a RAPt Counsellor and as a Trainer in addiction recovery at HMP Bedford working for myself. I owned my own Training company. I came into education late as I have a Iearning difficulty so missed out at school. I gained a degree in Law to prove a point. I studied Law as a mature student as I wanted to show the world that I was not a dunce. An expensive and foolish point to make but I scraped a pass and coming from the nineteen seventies Dunce group fraternity, It was a great achievement. I was required to train in Group Therapy within the RAPt organisation for around eighteen months while working directly with patients on the wing. I have also visited an Arizona Prison to gain insight into how they deliver treatment.

I have experienced addiction in my own life. I am in recovery from alcoholism and recently celebrated twenty years of continuous sobriety.

When it comes to addiction, I know what I am talking about. I know what it is like to make mistakes and I know how to recover from addiction. I know how to save people a lot of time and money. My goal is to share that knowledge. I want to train people how to help their loved one or their clients. Addiction is like an elevator, you can get off at any floor you like. You do not have to wait until you get to the basement, Some doors only open from the inside. I had to lose everything but the clever ones get out early. It is never too late to be what you might have been.