Anita Chellamah-Nurse is an accredited addiction trauma DBT counsellor.

A summary of her achievements and skills is below; you can read more in Anita Chellamah-Nurse CV.

Her career started in the 1970s in the Trail Blazing Black musical Bubbling Brown Sugar in London’s West End, then in the 1980s received a Gold record in Girl Band Toto Coelo, danced on Top of The Pops in the dance group Legs and Co, co wrote and was lead singer with The Cherry Bombz, voted 10th best female vocalist 1986 ,and was one of the first presenters for Sky Channel (and of colour), also acting in the last episode of One foot in the Grave and Playing Tina Modotti in BBC short film about Tina Modotti’s life.

Anita reached her own rock bottom with alcohol and drugs and got clean and sober in 1988 and her life and career changed. She qualified as a counsellor in 1998 from Roehampton Institute in Humanistic Counselling and specialises in Addiction and Childhood Trauma. She believes that addressing both can empower people to live a life free of being a slave to addictive patterns and processes such as love addiction and learn how to have healthy relationships with self and others and live a life with purpose.

Anita has worked in 11 treatment centres – residential and day programmes with addicts and families affected by addiction. She was DBT lead at Sanctuary Lodge (flagship of UK Addiction Treatment), as well as now delivering addiction and DBT therapy for its new London Clinic. Anita was trauma lead at The Priory for 18 months and delivered trauma workshops while also working on the addiction programme.

She is qualified in on stage 1 and advanced post-induction therapy and is now referred clients to prepare and support after trauma programmes. She also delivers 5-day Trauma Programmes and Supervision for therapists delivering trauma programmes, as well as being referred clients from addiction programmes.

Earlier, Anita was part of a pilot government scheme called Wise up in the 1990s, going into schools for young people affected by addiction. She was therapeutic lead at a domestic violence charity and ran drama workshops for people affected by HIV and AIDS at The London Lighthouse.

“I feel so grateful to be living a clean and sober life and know I am perfectly imperfect and to be able to accept life as it is not how I want it to be and not drink and use and have the support of my amazing family and friends: PRICELESS!”