Publications

Books: Recovery-Focused Writing

This page shares my developing writing, and future publications connected to counselling, addiction recovery, mental health, personal growth, and whole-person healing.

Alongside my therapeutic work, I am developing a series of books exploring addiction, recovery, counselling, parts work, attachment, relationships, spirituality, and the personal journey from pain towards meaning.

The Light Within Series grows out of my own personal story — my memoirs, my recovery, my lived experience of struggle and healing, and the journey that eventually led me to become a psychotherapist.

These books are still in progress, and I do not intend to publish them until the full series has been written and shaped with care.

The Light Within Series is a long-term writing and healing project, currently being developed with care and expected to be completed in 2028.

My writing draws from my own personal journey, my recovery, my training, and what I have witnessed through counselling, psychotherapy, and working alongside others as they find their way through difficult times.

The Light Within Series

The working title for this developing body of work is The Light Within Series. It reflects the belief that even when people feel lost, ashamed, overwhelmed, or disconnected, there is still something within them that can move towards healing, growth, and meaning.

The series combines personal reflection, professional insight, and accessible therapeutic ideas. It explores addiction not simply as something to stop, but as something often rooted in pain, stress, shame, unmet needs, nervous system dysregulation, attachment wounds, and protective parts of the self.

Book 1: The Personal Journey

Possible title:
The Light Within Me
From Childhood Stress and Addiction to Becoming a Psychotherapist

This first book is planned as a memoir. It will tell the human story behind my work, including childhood stress, farm life in Scotland, shyness, restlessness, travel, early drinking, addiction, mental health struggles, recovery, training, and becoming a therapist.

At its heart, this book is about finding meaning through healing and helping others.

Book 2: The Psychology of Addiction

Possible title:
Why We Escape
Understanding Addiction, Shame, and the Parts That Try to Protect Us

This book will explore addiction through a compassionate psychological lens. It will look at why people may turn to alcohol, drugs, sex, food, gambling, avoidance, or other patterns as a way of coping with emotional pain.

Themes may include shame, secrecy, childhood stress, nervous system dysregulation, trauma, attachment wounds, and IFS-informed ideas such as protective parts, firefighters, managers, and exiles.

The central message is that recovery is not about punishment or willpower alone. It is about understanding, compassion, reconnection, and learning new ways to relate to ourselves.

Book 3: Counselling Through the Lens of Parts

Possible title:
The Parts Within Us
A Gentle Introduction to IFS-Informed Therapy

This book will offer an accessible introduction to parts work and IFS-informed therapy. It will explore why people often feel conflicted inside, and how different parts may carry fear, anger, anxiety, avoidance, shame, addiction, or wounded child experiences.

It will also introduce Self energy, the 8 Cs of Self, inner critics, protective parts, and how we can relate to ourselves with more curiosity, compassion, and care.

Book 4: The Therapist’s Journey

Possible title:
Becoming the Therapist
Lessons from Recovery, Counselling, and the Human Heart

This reflective book will explore the journey of becoming a therapist, especially through lived experience, recovery, humility, and ongoing self-awareness.

It may be relevant for trainee counsellors, new therapists, people considering therapy training, those in recovery who want to help others, and therapists interested in the wounded healer archetype.

Themes may include boundaries, supervision, countertransference, relational depth, compassion, and the difference between helping and rescuing.

Book 5: Addiction, Attachment and Relationships

Possible title:
The Relationships We Repeat
Attachment, Addiction, and the Search for Love

This book will explore the connection between addiction, attachment, intimacy, shame, and relationship patterns.

It will look at anxious, avoidant, and disorganised attachment styles, fear of abandonment, fear of engulfment, emotional regulation, rupture, repair, and the longing for healthier love.

Many people seek counselling because they find themselves repeating painful relationship patterns. This book will explore how recovery can also involve learning to relate differently — to ourselves and to others.

Book 6: Healing Practices

Possible Title:

Small Practices for Deep Healing
IFS, EMDR, Mindfulness, Hypnotherapy and Nervous System Tools

This practical workbook-style book brings together the key healing practices from The Light Within series into one gentle, reflective resource.

It offers tools for recovery, emotional regulation, self-awareness, grounding, parts work, inner child healing, self-compassion, relationships, meaning, and self-leadership.

The book is built around seven pathways for recovery, reflection, and deeper self-understanding:

1. The Body — grounding, nervous system regulation, breathwork, safety, and coming back into the present moment.
2. The Mind — noticing thoughts, challenging shame-based beliefs, and learning to relate differently to the inner critic.
3. The Emotions — making space for fear, sadness, anger, grief, guilt, and shame without being overwhelmed by them.
4. The Parts Within Us — IFS-informed parts check-ins, working with protectors, firefighters, exiles, and Self-energy.
5. The Inner Child — gentle inner child healing, compassion, reparenting, imagery, and emotional repair.
6. Relationships and Connection — exploring attachment patterns, boundaries, trust, communication, and the relationships we repeat.
7. Meaning and Self-Leadership — recovery reflections, values, spirituality, purpose, and learning to live from the calm, compassionate centre within.

Practices may include grounding exercises, journaling prompts, parts check-ins, safe place imagery, EMDR tools and techniques that can be used outside of the therapy room, hypnotherapy-style visualisations, mindfulness practices, nervous system regulation exercises, recovery reflections, and self-compassion work.

This book is not about forcing change or fixing ourselves harshly. It is about learning small practices that help us return to ourselves with patience, honesty and kindness.

It brings together body, mind, emotions, parts, relationships, meaning, and Self-leadership into one practical guide for healing.

The heart of the book is simple:

Deep healing often begins with small, repeatable practices.

Book 7: The Light Within 12 Step Recovery Workbook

Twelve-Step-Inspired Reflections for Healing, Honesty and Connection

A compassionate workbook for personal recovery, fellowship sponsors working with sponsees, and therapists supporting clients affected by addiction.

This workbook is inspired by the spiritual and practical wisdom of Twelve Step recovery. It is not an official publication from Alcoholics Anonymous or any other fellowship. It is offered as a companion and guide for people seeking freedom from addiction, greater self-honesty, emotional healing, and deeper connection.

The workbook is designed to be practical and reflective, helping a person gently work through the Twelve Steps with space for writing, reflection, and personal honesty. It begins with Step One, offering examples of powerlessness and unmanageability, followed by space for the reader to explore their own experience of addiction and how it has affected their life.

It also includes guidance, examples, and writing space for completing a Step Four inventory, helping the reader gather the valuable information that will be needed for the remaining Steps. This process can support deeper self-awareness, emotional clarity, and a more honest understanding of the patterns, harms, fears, resentments, and coping strategies connected to addiction.

The intention is not to replace sponsorship, fellowship meetings, therapy, or professional support, but to offer a structured companion that can be used alongside them. It may be helpful for individuals in recovery, sponsors working with sponsees, or therapists supporting clients who are exploring addiction, recovery, self-honesty, and lasting change.

A Personal and Professional Journey

The writing I will be sharing is both personal and professional.

It is shaped by my own journey, my recovery, my training, my work as a counsellor and psychotherapist, and what I have witnessed in others who have faced pain, addiction, shame, trauma, anxiety, loss, and emotional struggle.

Again and again, I have seen that people are more than their symptoms, more than their past, and more than the coping strategies they once needed to survive.

Healing is possible.
Recovery is possible.
A meaningful life is possible.

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