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Ahmed El Sherif
Psychotherapist
Ahmed is a senior addiction counsellor with 20 years of experience who has helped many clients change their lives in Egypt and internationally. Ahmed is passionate about treating substance abuse, sex addiction, gambling, and other behavioural addictions. In addition, he offers consultations to family members on the nature of addiction and helps them clarify the best course of action for both the family and the addict.
He is also experienced in working with HIV-infected clients and engages in pre- and post-test counselling. His strength as a practitioner is derived from a variety of factors. Ahmed is upfront about the fact that his personal struggle with addictions many years ago proved to be a strong foundation on which he later built his professional knowledge to work in this field. Ahmed worked in Egypt, the UAE, and Thailand in various therapeutic settings. In Egypt, he worked and completed the Behman-certified addiction counselling and family course, the Family Health International (FHI) and Ministry of Health-certified HIV counselling course, as well as a number of other certificates. In Thailand, he worked as a senior counsellor at the Cabin Chang Mai for 3 years, where his experience was magnified. Then he worked in Dubai with the ministry of health, the ministry of community services, and the CDA to help develop addiction treatment programmes specially designed for prisoners and to enhance community awareness.
Ahmed worked in varied therapeutic settings, from residential primary and secondary care programmes to day programmes, as well as privately. He relies on group therapy as well as individual therapy. Ahmed believes that although there is some basic and standard addiction work that must be covered for all clients, it is essential for every client to have their own tailor-made component of the programme to address their unique needs and circumstances. Some of the areas that often need to be covered in the course of addiction treatment are psychoeducation, relapse prevention, couples and family work, communication skills, and how to stop the addiction. Ahmed uses CBT and 12-step counselling to guide his work.
