Harrogate Sanctuary review: alcohol counsellor 1

I had dealings with Sarah Turner at the Harrogate Sanctuary a few years ago when I sought help with my drinking but it didn’t work out well at all.

Sarah Turner was sweetness and light until she had my money, then she gradually began to lose interest.

If you’re unhappy and want to discuss an element of her service, perhaps to find an alternative that works for you, she becomes controlling and manipulative. When her therapy doesn’t work you are the one in the wrong while Miss Turner is completely blameless.

Luckily (despite her criticising it) I later found AA and realised that there are a million and one ways to get sober and if it works for you, it works for you. AA has as many tips and tricks as it has members and you can pick and choose the parts that resonate for you from everyone’s stories. This sort of open, adaptable approach, with people who don’t mind if you don’t want to take their specific advice, was an eye opener.

And no, you don’t have to believe in God to join AA, just realise that the Group Of Drunks (GOD) around you have achieved something you haven’t (sobriety) and it’s worth listening to them.

I now have nearly three years sobriety under my belt.

Now that I’ve found a decent treatment program however, I can recognise that Sarah Turner is a dry drunk. That’s someone who lays off the drink but still engages in the same unhealthy and dysfunctional behaviours as before. Her “sanctuary” gives her the opportunity to play God with others, so she feels good about herself, but heaven forbid you have your own mind and ideas for what might be best for you. She seems to think that she knows you better than you know yourself.

In AA we call what she does two stepping, she’s got sober, feels great, and now she wants to spread the word as if she’s the new Messiah.

Unfortunately she hasn’t done any work on the inherent character flaws that all drunks have (if we didn’t have them when we started drinking, then we certainly do by the time we’ve stopped).

This is why I call her a dry drunk, because she might be sober now but she is still cold, manipulative and mercurial with a volatile temper.

She says AA only works for 5% of people and her service for nearly 90%. All I can say is, she’s obviously never been in the AA rooms. The vast majority of those who come through the doors of AA are helped, because they’re not facing one person with her own problems and very set views on what you should do, they’re faced with a room full of people they can relate to, people just like them, just as flawed, just as guilt ridden, just as human.
I looked around me that first day and I finally had hope because I realised that if these people (who were just as flawed as me) could do it, then maybe I could too. So I stayed, I listened, and I kept coming back.

Through AA I've met a few others who have tried Sarah's Harrogate Sanctuary and they too noticed the same problems I did, one even said Sarah's "help" had set her back years! I’d say her figures were the wrong way around, AA helps close to 90% stay sober while she helps less than 5%.

I also find it very odd that the stories from people she’s supposed to have helped on her website’s blog have the same sprinkling of spelling mistakes and awkward syntax as the text she wrote for the rest of the site.