Meet The Team – George Thornton

 George’s story

George started using cannabis and alcohol when he was 14 years old, progressing to harder drugs such as ecstasy, amphetamine, and cocaine in his later teens. He never saw any of these drugs as problematic and saw them as more of a lifestyle than anything else. George left school with few GCSEs and moved on to college.

When he turned 20 years old, George met a partner and was working full-time, living at home with his parents and had no responsibilities. His life was orientated around partying and he was out every weekend, which is when George started using cocaine and alcohol on a regular basis.

Once he turned 21, he decided to go to university. This is when he became involved in selling drugs and other crimes whilst on campus to help fund his use.

George found various employment and he and his partner moved into their first home. Due to his use, he lost various jobs and then lost his home. He moved areas on a regular basis to hide his use from friends and family and even left the country for six months to stop using. However, once he returned, he began using on a more regular basis and split from his partner.

George met his current partner and started a family. He was using a lot more cocaine and was using it most days. He was in full-time employment, and he was also involved in crime as a way of helping fund his use. He hid his use away from his family and his partner; however, his behaviour had become more erratic, and his use became uncontrollable.

The turning point for George was when his partner informed his parents that she was leaving him and that she was also taking his son. She told his parents that she was sick of his lifestyle and that his use was out of control.

George’s parents then took him to see his doctor who referred him to Arch Initiatives on Conway Street Birkenhead. He was assigned a key worker whilst at Arch who offered him various options to help him stop using cocaine and even suggested trying a few therapies and meetings with organisations such as Narcotics Anonymous.

He tried many of the programmes his key worker offered which is how he found out about the Intuitive Recovery course.

George found Intuitive Recovery answered a lot of the questions he had about his addiction. He used the skills to challenge his thought process and lifestyle to put his addiction to bed happily with no regrets.

After sitting the course George signed out of services drug-free and maintained full-time employment. He rebuilt his relationships with his partner and his family and continued to lead a happy life drug-free.

After completing the course in December 2011, George applied to work for Intuitive Thinking Skills in the summer of 2012. He started working for the company in August 2012 and worked on a number of contracts in the North West.

George started his work life at Intuitive as a course tutor, working in drug services around the North West. He then began to work in the criminal justice sector working in probations, prisons and approved premises. This is where George developed his specialism in Custodial settings. To date, George has worked within 15 prisons around the country, both male and female establishments.

After 11 years at Intuitive, George is now the Custodial Health & Wellbeing Manager for the North West. He manages a team that delivers a range of services across four prisons alongside GMMH.

A few words from George

I find my role very rewarding as I am delivering a number of courses, working alongside other organisations and managing my team. It’s also very rewarding to work with individuals who appreciate the work we do.

It’s great to see the change in people from the start to the end of the course, along with the change in attitude and behaviour, knowing that we are not only changing the learners’ lives but also the lives of their families.

I still remember how I felt after completing Intuitive Recovery. I felt a sense of empowerment and wanted to share that with other people. I found the skills not only helped me put an end to my addiction but also supported me in other areas of my life.