I’ve spent a professional lifetime helping others in whatever way I can with their addictive behaviour and general medical problems.
I’ve very rarely been helped myself and have often been abused when I have asked for help. For example, I refused to beat a cushion labelled ‘Mother’ whereas I would do so if the cushion was labelled ‘Mother’s ideas’. For this refusal (when my mother was in her nineties and I had been working the Twelve Step programme for six years) I was told I needed in-patient psychiatric help.
Alistair Richardson, whom I knew well and respected professionally, offered to help me with tapping for any outstanding emotional and underlying physical issues I might have since the time of my bankruptcy and bereavement ten years ago. As I already use EMDR to help other people (I don’t do it on myself because I believe that could be risky), I felt tapping might give me an opportunity to help myself through following Alastair’s guidance and training.
The results have been remarkable.

I associated my long-term catarrh and wheeze with my inability to sing professionally when I was younger. My physical symptoms provided an excuse for my lack of success. I had developed allergic reactions to inhalants such as pollens, dust and feathers and also to foods such as various fruits, nuts and herbs. With tapping, my allergies have completely gone, my respiratory system is totally clear and musical composition fills my life with the happiness that escaped me fifty years ago. 
I associated my long-term compulsive helping, doing too much for other people and not enough to protect myself, with my osteoporosis. I was crushing my spine with the burden of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. I am now over seven inches shorter than I was in my twenties. I have ‘stocking anaesthesia’ (loss of touch sensation in my feet and ankles) that comes from pressure from my collapsed vertebrae on the nerve supply from my spine to my feet. This results in loss of balance, causing me to fall over at times when I lose track of precisely where my feet are (such as when I look over my shoulder when I am walking forward). With tapping, my ‘stocking anaesthesia’ has gone and my balance is restored. Because of my stoop, people still offer me their seats on busses and tube trains but I can live with that!

I do three or more tapping sessions every day. For all the various things I look at, including those I have mentioned here, these sessions each last about fifteen minutes. 
I have no interest in reading research studies or in trying to find out precisely why tapping acupuncture points has worked so dramatically well for me. I simply follow the principle that I know well from the Twelve Step programme that has kept my addictive nature in remission for the last 35 years: ‘It works if you work it’.

Having just completed Hilary and Alistair's trauma workshop I feel compelled to give some feedback. This was the most incredible experience I have ever had... Hilary and Alistair have enabled me to revisit and start to heal some deep childhood trauma. I can honestly say that this was the best thing I have ever done for myself and the wisdom, capability and safety given to me by Hilary and Alistair has enabled me to see that there is a path to recovery from my trauma. Thank you so much to you both, you have a very special place in my heart for helping with this experience.

I met Alistair a couple of months into my recovery when I took part in a week long ‘trauma reduction’ programme at the rehab that I had been to. Then about 2 years into my sobriety I was looking for a 1:1 therapist to help me develop my recovery and work on things in addition to my 12 step fellowship programme. Alistair was an obvious choice to me.

At the time my particular concerns were anxiety and relationship processes which I had by then learnt were linked (if not totally caused by) childhood issues. At that time I found myself left with learned patterns/ behaviours and trauma reactions that I could see no way of overcoming.

On starting my work with Alistair I felt instantly that I was in a safe pair of hands. I had it on very good authority from trusted senior therapists at the Priory that Alistair was good but working with him has exceeded my expectations. He has a wide range of different solutions to use in his work with me. The result is that I never feel like I will have a problem that he can’t help with. I feel very safe with him and comfortable that he will come up with a method or solution to help me. This varies from practical ideas to a more esoteric, spiritual based approach. Anyone in recovery will understand the importance of a spiritual basis of living and my experience of this has developed with Alistair. Intuitive healing couple with more utilitarian practices has been Alistair’s style with me and it works.

It has enabled me to heal parts of me that I didn’t even realised were damaged and that I was even less aware could be fixed. I have unhesitatingly referred friends to Alistair and have seen the success and happiness they have enjoyed from working with him too.

I’d summarise Alistair as a one stop shop for all emotional, mental and spiritual problems. And in addition to solving those problems he’s also helped me to experience and accept joy and peace when they come along, which is pretty cool.

Alistair was recommended to me after a stressful personal event. I’d known for a long time I wanted to move forward from childhood experiences that were affecting me as an adult, and everything had come to a head.

In our one-to-one sessions, we have worked in many different ways. He has helped me acknowledge and understand childhood trauma and how it’s affected me, doing inner child work, visualisation, reiki and energy work. I also took part in a three-day group workshop not long after starting to see him which was intense but helped me face and work through a lot early on.

Though Alistair has introduced me to these practices, they feel natural and logical, like they’ve been there all along. Though the crisis point has passed, I am continuing to heal and learn and am now working to make my life closer to what I want it to be, and more fulfilling.

The therapy, tools and viewpoints Alistair provides, honestly and supportively, have helped me improve my relationship with myself and others. They are making me aware of dysfunctional (and unhelpful!) thinking or behaviour - how to avoid it altogether or turn in the right direction if I fall into it.

Hi Alistair. I just wanted to drop you a message to say thank you. In only a few days I have noticed a massive positive change in my attitude to life, myself and others. My mum and Dad continue to be a problem with their love addictive relationship but the way in which I process and deal with that is from a much more functional and self parenting perspective. I will continue to work on my recovery with Mel but I do so with a renewed sense of hope and joy for the future. Thank you again.

I jokingly call Alistair the Shaman of Arnos Grove. Though I'm not entirely sure I'm joking. His approach seems to be a healthy marriage of healing and rigorous psychotherapy.

When I first met Alistair, I thought him gentle and caring. He is. But he's also firm and direct when needed. I got away with nothing under his scrutiny.

After some one-to-one sessions on my childhood trauma and physical abuse by a caregiver, I did the full Trauma Reduction Workshop. I felt safe in Alistair's hands as I faced some of my most powerful memories and images, images that previously could reduce me to a wreck. He guided me professionally through my trauma, providing helpful resources along the way, to a point where I now feel lighter about my past and carry no resentment. I couldn't ask for more.

Sean Robinson

My name is Mark and I’m 55 years old. Last year my life started to unravel as my wife went into rehab and our marriage started to fall apart. As a result of my wife seeking help, it became apparent that I need help to deal with the childhood trauma’s that had adversely shaped my adult personality. As a child I had suffered badly at the hands of a cruel and violent mother, and had developed a very self-reliant and narcissistic personality in order to survive. My narcissistic personality was the problem that other could see, but of course I couldn’t.

Childhood trauma therapy was recommended and although I couldn’t see the point, an appointment with Alistair Richardson was made. I attended the first session with a healthy dose of scepticism, and fully expected it to be the only session I would have. But I immediately felt comfortable with Alistair in this first meeting and booked a further three sessions. Over the course of about ten sessions Alistair worked on me, unlocking long buried childhood trauma’s and used various technics to allow me to come to terms with them and deal with them. Who would have thought, that the simple action of tapping your thumb and other body parts, could help to transform your mental state. But to my complete surprise, it did.

With Alistair’s help, I have found a deeper happiness in myself, and my life is now back on track.