Our Team

Tony Adams made his debut for Arsenal in November 1983 and played his last match in May 2002. During this time he competed in 669 matches and became universally recognised as the most successful captain in the history of the club. Born in Romford, Tony joined Arsenal on associated schoolboy forms in 1980; four years later Terry Neill gave him his first full contract. On New Year’s Day 1988 at the age of 21, he became the club’s youngest ever captain. In just over a year and under the guidance of new Arsenal manager George Graham, the trophy-winning success began. Tony went on to play in 66 matches for England, captaining his country on 15 occasions even scoring five goals! He played in World Cup and European Nation matches and had the honour of leading his country in the final match ever played at Wembley Stadium against Germany in 2000. In 1996 Tony also had the courage to deal with his addiction to alcohol and is now committed to helping fellow sports people cope with the illness through Sporting Chance Clinic.

Peter began life as a highly acclaimed professional chef, working around the world in Michelin-starred restaurants and achieving great personal success, all achieved whilst in active addiction. He nearly lost his life to addiction and only became fully aware of his problems after waking from a twenty-one day coma. Prolonged drug and alcohol addiction caused two cardiac arrests, collapsed lungs, kidney failure and the loss of 2/3 of his pancreas. As in Tony Adam’s case, most people did not understand the scale of Peter’s problem, nor did he have any idea where to turn. Eventually he sought help through a Twelve Step programme and has remained clean and sober since 1992. Through a long period of convalescence, Peter resolved to study the reasons his body had been so severely damaged through alcohol and other drugs, resulting in his putting together a seminar on alcohol and drug awareness, which now forms the basis of our Preventative Educational work. Peter has a high level of expertise in this field through his work as a board member for Alcohol Services in Richmond and through his involvement working in prisons via the RAPT programme. He has also developed processes and skills acquired through The Mankind Project where he is a senior facilitator. In 2003 Tony Adams decided to appoint Peter as Chief Executive for the Sporting Chance Clinic, and he is committed to promoting its work among all sporting bodies as well as within football.

James West has been our Clinical Director since the Sporting Chance Clinic first opened for residential treatment in the spring of 2003, and has overseen the clinic’s move to its current home in Forest Mere and the expansion of the range of services it can offer. James is an experienced psychotherapist, who trained at Regent¹s College School of Psychotherapy and at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation. James was Co-ordinator of the Highbury Counselling Service and was Project Manager of a probation and bail hostel, where he worked with offenders and ex-offenders. He is also a joint founder member of Counselling Initiatives, a national non-profit service which provides low cost psychotherapy for those in need. James has a private practice in London, where he provides counselling and aftercare for Sporting Chance Clinic clients. James comes from a musical rather than sporting background, but it was though working with Tony Adams, and helping him overcome his drink problems that James came to be involved with Sporting Chance Clinic. James’ early life was badly affected by his own addiction to drugs and alcohol. In 1979 he received a six-year prison sentence for drug-related offences. On his release he sought help for his problems and has been in recovery since 1985. James’ own experiences served to give him the passion and enthusiasm to help others, his extensive training gave him the necessary skills, and Sporting Chance Clinic has given him the rewarding opportunity to be able to enable those seeking help to turn their lives around.

Julian joined Sporting Chance Clinic in 2004. Initially providing cover and session work his role has expanded due to the clinic becoming busier. Julian is a qualified addiction counsellor, with over four years experience of working in rehabilitation units, firstly at HMP Wandsworth and then at a day programme in West London. He has a private practice in London, where he supports clients from Sporting Chance Clinic as well as providing assessment and referrals. A journalist for many years, Julian manages to balance his work at the clinic with a successful writing career. His decision to re-train as a counsellor was borne out of his own experiences of drug and alcohol addiction. Julian has been in recovery since 1997 and this drives his desire to help others as he himself has been helped.

In June 2004, while working at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, Chris watched Peter Kay deliver an alcohol and other drugs seminar. Here he identified the seriousness of his alcohol and drug addiction, made the important 'phone call and reached out for help. We pride ourselves on our flexibility and ability to support all cases and were able to provide a shortened treatment at Sporting Chance Clinic. Thankfully he has remained sober since and now manages and develops our Preventative Education Programme, delivering seminars to clubs and academies and offering additional support the clinical team during the rehabilitation process. Chris also continues to work within the hospitality industry, delivering similar education through the Ark Foundation.

He is currently in Australia having got married, exploring possibilities for Sporting Chance to open there in 2011. He is not directly involved with SCCUK but we the staff and board of SCC fully support him putting his vision into practice and living his life dedicated to helping and supporting people asking for help with combating addiction. He has a mission in life and leads his life accordingly, therefore with our support and his expertise we anticipate great work taking place next year.

Dr. Bowden-Jones is a Trustee of Sporting Chance Clinic. She is a consultant psychiatrist working in the field of substance misuse in Westminster. Her outpatient work is at the Soho Rapid Access Clinic where she leads a multi-disciplinary substance misuse team looking after the homeless and vulnerably housed. In her private practice she works as a general and addictions adult psychiatrist. Her passion for the field of occupational psychiatry has covered all professions from addicted musicians and traumatised war correspondents to stressed footballers.

Jon's credentials speak for themselves. He reached the pinnacle of his career at Wimbledon FC and played internationally for The Republic of Ireland. Jon's ThinkFitness programme offers a unique service of one-to-one physical and mental conditioning for professional footballers with other problems aside from addictions. ThinkFitness offers a continual base of support throughout players' careers and operates in conjunction with Sporting Chance Clinic. For more information please visit www.thinkfitness.net.

Bobby is a member of the Society of Sports Therapists and works at Kingston Chiropractic Plus. Bobby's expertise is in dealing with sporting injuries and he has had extensive experience with footballer's having spent 12 years at Wimbledon FC and brief spells at Watford FC & Wycombe Wanderers.

Tony has been involved in the voluntary sector since the mid seventies, first as a user – he was a founder member of the Islington Mental Health Forum for survivors of the State Mental Health System - then as a provider of disability arts and mental health services in the community. He has run the Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning program for Sporting Chance since setting it up in 2003.

He is EAGALA trained in EAP and an experienced and accredited psychodynamic/humanistic psychotherapist with private practices in London and Surrey. He lectures on the BA in Counselling at the College of North East London and is Clinical Director of Counselling Initiatives which he co-founded with James West in 1999. Tony recently completed a Masters in Transpersonal Psychotherapy and looks forward to commencing a Doctorate in Psychology in Autumn 2010. For more information please email Tony Sabey

Andy Puddicombe is the co-founder of Headspace. He is a former Buddhist monk and a registered Clinical Meditation Consultant with the UK Health Care Commission. As a former monk, Andy trained under some of the most eminent meditation masters in the world. In 2001, following a one-year cloistered retreat, he was authorised to teach meditation, later developing a clinical private practice in the UK. Alongside this work, Andy works as a presenter and writer. For more information please visit www.getsomeheadspace.com.

Julie has been fully-qualified Shiatsu-do therapist and member of the Shiatsu Society since 1993, and as well as running her own general practice has specialised in the area of addiction recovery. Julie takes weekly sessions during our residential treatment and our clients enjoy and benefit from her experience and skill. Julie also teaches Shiatsu introductory courses at the North Kingston Centre for Adult Education. For more information please visit www.shiatsu-do-therapy.co.uk .

We are very fortunate to have Linda providing overnight / weekend care and support to our residential clients. Linda is highly qualified in counselling and social care. She draws on long experience with the NHS Primary Care Trust, voluntary sector work and her own private practice. Linda has a person-centred approach to encounters with clients and offers invaluable empathy and experience to them during their treatment for more information please visit www.lindamarshallward.com