Beth Burgess

Background and education

Born on 21 June 1980, Burgess grew up in Sussex and later moved to London, where she attended University College London, studying English Literature and German. She later trained and qualified in various therapies and personal development methods.

Career

Burgess found her calling working in the field of addiction, after recovering from alcoholism, Social anxiety disorder and Borderline personality disorder.

Aside from running her own therapy practice, Burgess is the Chair of the Board of Trustees for drug and alcohol charity DiversityInCare.

Books

Burgess has written two books on how to recover from addiction, the first of which was published in 2012. The Recovery Formula: An Addict's Guide to Getting Clean & Sober Forever (ISBN 978-0957321700) was endorsed by Welsh writer and actor Wynford Ellis Owen and Dr Robert LeFever, founder of PROMIS Rehabilitation Clinics. The book was prefaced by Professor David Clark.

Her latest self-help book for recovering addicts, The Happy Addict: How to be Happy in Recovery from Alcoholism or Drug Addiction (ISBN 978-0957321717) was published by Eightball Publishing in July 2013.

Next, Burgess had two chapters included in the Oxford University Press book Addiction and Choice: Rethinking the relationship (ISBN 978-0198727224), which was co-edited by Professors Nick Heather and Gabriel Segal. Published on 1 September 2016, the 25-chapter book provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the relationship between addiction and choice from various fields, including philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and the law, demonstrating how diverse positions from varying academic and scientific disciplines can cohere to form a radically new perspective on addiction and choice.

Coming at the subject using science, psychotherapy, empathy, humanity, experience and socioeconomics, Burgess' chapters include '17: The Blindfold of Addiction' and '22: How a Stigmatic Structure Enslaves Addicts.'

Other Writing

Burgess is known for writing about ending the stigma towards people trying to recover from addiction and other mental health conditions. She has written articles on this subject which have been published by the Royal Society of Arts, The Huffington Post and New Statesman.

Burgess also writes articles about general mental wellbeing and how to be a happier person, despite stress and challenges. Her writing often appears on the Tiny Buddha website, on The Huffington Post, and on Wiseism.com.

Her work as a Charity Chair for DiversityInCare also often informs her writing, giving it a social and political urgency. She has written recently about corporate social responsibility, housing, homelessness and the importance of a 'Housing First' model for people with difficult lives.