Meet the Trainers

Our team of trainers are highly skilled and knowledgeable, find out more about their background and experience here.

Lauren Booker has over twenty years’ experience of working with adults and young people affected by their own or someone else’s substance use. She has a BHSc in Addiction Studies and an MSc in Health and Wellbeing. An experienced counsellor, coach and addictions therapist, she is also a passionate advocate for families affected by addiction, working to reduce stigma and improve access to treatment and support.

Lauren delivers training and consultancy services throughout the UK on a wide range of related topics. She is the author of Try Dry, The Official Guide to a Month off Booze, the book that accompanies Dry January.

Louise Bolton has 18 years’ experience working in substance misuse and homelessness across communities, prison and residential services. She holds a BSc Social Work and a diploma in psychotherapeutic counselling and has undertaken additional training with the Tavistock to work with couple conflict and alcohol dependence. As well as experience in managing innovative and targeted services, Louise develops and delivers bespoke training for aimed at practitioners in frontline services across the sector. Louise is passionate about coaching and developing people to meaningfully support others.

Mike Ward has worked most of his career in substance misuse services as a practitioner, manager or commissioner. He leads the award winning Blue Light project which is developing responses to change resistant and dependent drinkers. He was co-author of Adfam’s Blue Light for Families guidance. The work on The Blue Light project in Sandwell has won both a Guardian Public Service Award and a Royal Society for Public Health award. He is the author of 10 Safeguarding Adult Reviews as well as guidance on Safeguarding Vulnerable Dependent Drinkers (with Prof Michael Preston-Shoot). He is now leading a national project to improve the response to cognitive impairment in drinkers. He is the co-author of Adfam’s guidance on co-occurring disorders.

Peter Cartwright has worked with families affected by substance use since 1998 as a trainer, counsellor, author and researcher. He has supported family members through outreach at prison visitors’ centres, helplines, counselling and family support groups. Additionally, he has written and delivered training courses to family members and professionals on many aspects of supporting families; as well as some clinical supervision to Adfam’s support staff. Peter has a specialism in counselling family members who are bereaved through a substance-related death. His publications in this area include ‘Supporting people bereaved through a drug- or alcohol-related death’, the first book to address how to counsel these marginalised bereaved people; the research paper ‘How helpful is counselling for people bereaved through a substance-related death?’; and was the primary author and the chair of the national working group that produced ‘Bereaved through substance use: Guidelines for those whose work brings them into contact with adults after a drug or alcohol-related death’ published by the University of Bath.