Mike Delaney

Mike Delaney is an owner and director of LEAP and is a key member of the senior therapeutic team. Mike is a Mental Health/Addictions Specialist with over 35 years experience working with individuals, rehabilitation centres and professional bodies in the UK and internationally. He had a successful career for twenty years as a Registered Nurse Manager and CPN within Mental Health/Learning Disability services and since undergoing treatment for his own addictions in 1996, he has specialised in a range of issues including addictive behaviours, young people who have suffered sexual trauma, co-dependency and relationships.

Over the last fifteen years Mike has managed several facilities including Barley Wood in Bristol and the Addictive Behaviour Centre in Birmingham. He has also been responsible for Project Managing and developing two new treatment facilities, Silkworth Lodge in Jersey in 2002 and Stepps in Gloucestershire in 2004. Until 2008 he was Group Clinical Director of The Stepping Stones Group, a large healthcare organisation for adults with Learning Disabilities and Mental Health issues. Since then he has had a successful Private practice in Gloucestershire and Harley Street London, has provided training for a number of organisations including Veterans Aid in London and is a Director of Pathways Supported Housing in Weston-super-Mare and LEAP Equine Therapeutic Centre in Westbury on Severn.

Mike is one of the leading practitioners of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy in the UK and a pioneer in innovative, highly successful treatment methods. Most recently, he and Ella Jones brought together their knowledge, interests and expertise to create the Ofqual-regulated Level 5 Diploma in EFP – the LEAP Method, the only regulated and recognised EFP training in the UK specifically for mental health professionals. Mike and Ella also created the LEAP EFP/L Practitioner Training Programme which is now in its fifth year, has ninety graduates practicing in the UK and is the only EFP/L training in the UK to have received endorsement for CPD from the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy). Mike gives talks and presents papers on EFP/L in the UK and abroad, including a recent presentation of a LEAP research paper to the Royal College of Psychiatrists Conference around the efficacy of EFP for young people who have experienced childhood sexual trauma.

In recovery himself from addiction to alcohol and drugs for over fifteen years, Mike has had first-hand experience of the devastating effects of addiction on an individual and their loved ones and is passionate about using his vast practical and theoretical expertise to help others to succeed in recovery, whether it be from alcohol, drugs, depression, sex, co-dependency, food or gambling.

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