RecoverOz

With nearly two decades of experience in the drug and alcohol field, George Thompson comes with a very broad experience of the profession. He was the Program Director of the Warburton Drug and Alcohol Unit for most of the 1990’s and during that time he developed a program of international standing with clients not only in this country but from overseas as well. He has also worked closely with Hazelden, the world leaders in research and treatment in the USA. George has also worked with counsellors from The Betty Ford Center, and encourages exchanges with counsellors between treatment centres. He also developed the Australian Conference of Addictive Disorders which broke new ground in this country by running a conference on counselling and treatment issues.

He has close ties with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), and is a Clinical member. George trained at Castle Craig, a teaching hospital for drug and alcohol addiction in the UK from 1990 through 1992. He moved back to Australia where he took up the position of Program director of the Warburton Hospital. He describes the some of the 70’s and most of 80’s as his “wilderness years” during which time he conducted a lot of “field research” into drug and alcohol issues. In other words, George has been in recovery from addiction for many years.

George is a Churchill Scholar where he did extensive research in Industrial Relations in the USA. He was active in the field of Industrial Relations for 10 years, working as an organiser of the Engineering Draughtsman’s Union. At 21 years old he was the youngest elected member of the local Community Council in his native Scotland. Since 2000 he has been the Founder and Managing Director of RecoverOz, a company which delivered high quality educational material into the drug and alcohol field and the youth sector. Recently, as you will see from this website, RecoverOz has re-invented itself and now focusses more in actual treatment building and Counselling.
George teaches and trains counsellors, is an adviser to professionals and families, and has been regarded for many years as a private ear to many people who require confidential help.

He has recently set up a Not For Profit Foundation called The Recovery Foundation which will advocate and put a public face on people who are in recovery from addictions. George says “It is high time that the general public became aware of the fact that thousands of people do recover very successfully from all sorts of addictions and go on to lead highly successful lives”. These people are rarely heard because they have never had a public outlet to tell their stories. Many of them also wish to just quietly go about their lives. However, with teenage drinking at an all time high, George believes it is time for many of these people to find a voice and speak out from personal experience. The Recovery Foundation will go about changing this by directing people to their website where these people will tell their stories. This will not only help people with addiction problems but also their families. The Foundation will also raise money to run treatment programs and help people get into recovery.

Finally, George has many years of broad experience as a clinician in the addiction profession, and when it comes to addictive disease, he is probably one of the top experts in the country. He is not a researcher, but remains firmly where he sees himself doing the most good, that is, working with people where addiction is causing clear problems in lives. Whether in a group or on a one on one basis, George will help people and their families face up to, and work through addictive behaviour, so that they can go on to lead productive and fulfilling lives.

George’s greatest achievement is that he has two adult children who are free of addiction and he has broken a cycle that has existed in his family for at least 3 generations.