Client Reviews

Ian Young and his team at Sober Services have delivered a service that has been far better than we could have ever hoped for. On the very first day I called Ian he was able to react to our situation immediately and had two people on the job that very afternoon. The level of advice, support, experience and resources that Sober Services provide is quite impressive.

This particular assignment had its own challenges… confidentiality and being able to adapt to constantly changing schedule were key! Sober Services fitted around our requirements perfectly and got the job done.

I just wanted to drop you a note to thank you for the report you sent through and for the service that you provided.
We were very concerned that my brother-in-law would find traveling alone between London and Cape Town very difficult at such an early stage in his recovery. We realised that the best thing to do was to arrange for someone to travel with him and the Detox facility he was in recommended Sober Service’s transport service to us.

From the very first contact, Sober Services were brilliant. It was a huge relief to find someone offering exactly the service that we needed. It was also very reassuring talking to you and a great comfort to know that my brother-in-law was in such safe and experienced hands.
Thank you for taking so much time and care to plan everything with me. I’m sure that it made a huge difference to my brother-in-law to have you there and it certainly was very important to his family and friends.

In the nicest possible way, I hope that we never have need of your services again, but I would be very happy to recommend you to anyone in a similar position. I will of course let you know how he gets on. In the meantime, it has genuinely been a pleasure dealing with you.

With many thanks again and best wishes for the future.

I want to thank you very much for your time, effort and support through this very difficult time – you have been amazing and it’s been very useful receiving your input. You definitely made me feel better as seemed to be able to relate very well to everything I said which also made me feel that we weren’t alone in this and weren’t peculiar or anything but that these things do happen to normal families!

Maybe we will meet one day, but hopefully under nicer circumstances!!

Hi, my name is Dave and I am an extremely happy customer of Sober Services. After 18months of continually failing to stay sober for more than two months I was somewhat baffled to why this was. Most of the time all was well, I would get through the first couple of weeks full of confidence, and then out of the blue would find myself relapsing at times of stress or at social events. On speaking to a friend she suggested I contact Ian, so I did. On meeting Ian for the first time I immediately felt very comfortable and at ease in his company. A week later I was due to go on business abroad, these certain trips were always my most vulnerable times (airports, business meetings etc.) so I decided to give sober services a try. Ian picked me up promptly in the very early hours of the morning (in a very nice comfortable car) and drove me to Heathrow airport. We chatted all the way to the airport and I was made to feel at ease before boarding my flight. Upon my return Ian was again prompt and returned me home safely. A couple of weeks later I had to attend a family function, (these were always big trigger points for me), and I invited Ian to accompany me. Ian introduced himself as a friend and was welcomed by all members of my family, and again I returned home safe and sober…. A few months have passed now and I’m still sober thanks to the help, genuine care and support from Ian and Sober Services. Many thanks

We employed Ian to offer cocaine addiction consultancy and training to our leading lady – Zawe Ashton, so that she could play the part of a policewoman with a drug habit. Ian did so much more than help her understand how to act like a cocaine addict, but over a number of sessions he went on to make suggestions regarding the complete psychology and behavioural patterns of an addicted person, which positively impacted the complete credibility of the film. I know that our movie benefitted greatly from Ian’s input and I will be recommending him and his Sober Consultancy services in other Lionsgate movie productions

Ian Young was an amazing influence in my life last year and has continued to be a wonderful support to me since. He helped me to research a film role I was determined to get right. It was the role of a police woman struggling with alcohol and cocaine addiction. Ian introduced me to some unbelievable people who were so honest and open about their own experiences of addiction and rehabilitation.

The whole experience was unbelievably moving to me as a person and made the role in to something that exceeded all of my expectations as an actress. I knew, after my time with Ian researching, that I had to honour him and all the people who had given me their time in my performance. I am so grateful to all of them. I don’t care how the role is perceived as long as they and Ian gives it the thumbs up! That’s what matters.

Seeing the generosity, commitment and humour Ian brings to the people he works with is truly inspirational. He uses his own struggle and experience to help others through theirs. Not the kind of humanity you find every day. He is one of those people that makes things happen. All I had to do was ask if he could sort me out with some people to talk to and places to visit for research and it was done. He really did make what I thought to be the impossible, possible. I could not have done it without you Ian! Let’s hope the film does well, but most importantly, let’s hope all the people I met are happy and healthy and continue to thrive on the support you and people like you give them.

Thanks for being so generous and putting yourself on the line for a complete stranger. All the blessings in the world for all you put your hand to

“We are happy to confirm that we have been successfully commissioning transportation and client relocation services from Sober Services since January 2009. We have always found them to be reliable and efficient in managing our, sometimes, unpredictable and chaotic clientele, and one of the most cost-effective solutions to a reoccurring challenge for our multi location organisation. Our admissions team work closely with the Sober Services team and this allows us both to offer a professional and effective service which we believe to be of paramount importance in our client’s recovery journey. Whilst we do not endorse any outside agency we are happy to confirm that we have every intention to continue working with Sober Services for the foreseeable future.”

We have used Sober Services on a number of occasions and have found them to be extremely reliable, flexible and courteous. They have enabled us to ensure that clients have arrived with us in a safe, stable and comfortable manner, allaying the anxiety that can be felt by a client in having to organise trains, taxis etc. I have no hesitation in recommending this service to other treatment providers or similar services.

On 15th July 2010 Sober Services transportation offered us a very good service.
They were efficient and considerate in their duty.
We would certainly use them again.

We have been utilizing the Sober Transportation services for over 18 months.

At all times we are very impressed with their rapid call to action and availability at very short notice to collect a client anywhere (within the British Isles and Europe) and transport them safely at the agreed location with accurately timed arrival.

The Referral Network fully supports Sober Services for their professional approach and their results. The industry is a better place for their services.

Nov. 2009

We have been using sober services virtually since their inception in 2008. We have no hesitation in recommending their services to all those who think they may need them.

Our experience in working with them is first class, and so is their service concept and attitude.

We believe Sober Services are an intrinsic part of our success. Their ability to respond almost instantly is something we have not experienced before, and becomes a valuable resource when dealing with clients’ during a time of personal crisis.

We are proud to offer Sober Services as part of our structure.

A very big thank you from Management and Team at Stepping Stones Clinic – your professional ‘can-do’ attitude was refreshing and so appreciated – we’re in awe of your easy-manner and delighted our client was re-united safely with his parents!
Grateful too that you were able to find him a sponsor and introduce him to a sober community.

It’s almost a year since I was first put in contact with you and what a year it has been!
I really just wanted to say a huge thank you again to you.
As well as making the trip to SA to collect Dad, the support you gave me throughout the hardest time in my life was beyond invaluable.
I think the work you and your team do is amazing and families who use your services are lucky to have that level of understanding and support.
I hope we don’t need to use your services again but to knowing you are there is reassurance enough for me!
Best wishes and thanks

After getting your number from a concerned friend, I thought our conversation would be short. Part of me hoped that you’d say I didn’t need help and it would all work out. The other part was exhausted, beaten and ashamed, silently screaming for something to fix me, to take away the craving. As I listened I was taken back your openness and honesty. I identified with so much of your story. That hope you gave me persuaded me admit to myself that I needed help.

It’s been almost a year since we completed sober coaching, and I now have a sense of freedom, peace and contentment, which back then I couldn’t have imagined.

Life just keeps getting better! Thank you for your help and inspiration. I look forward to your book in the hope that it may help others not lucky enough to have your number.”

“I want to thank you very much for your time, effort and support through this very difficult time – you have been amazing and it’s been very useful receiving your input. You definitely made me feel better as seemed to be able to relate very well to everything I said which also made me feel that we weren’t alone in this and weren’t peculiar or anything but that these things do happen to normal families!

Maybe we will meet one day, but hopefully under nicer circumstances!!

Sober Services are here to help you find the most appropriate method towards recovery available to fit your circumstances and lifestyle. “

“To any family feeling helpless, frustrated and like there is no way forward to help your alcoholic loved one, please phone Sober Services now.
There is a way forward. I phoned to learn about the Intervention – a word that conjured up terrible images.
It was an emotionally fraught time.

After just one phone call I had clicked with Ian (who took the call), been reassured about the Sober Intervention service on offer and, most importantly, been convinced that finally, finally, somebody understood our situation and had a clear way forward for us to help our Dad.

During the emotional rollercoaster week after that first phone call, knowing Sober Services were on hand, on our side and committed to working with us was like being wrapped in a security blanket. Suddenly, there was someone, a professional, available 24/7 to answer all our questions and provide both emotional and practical support.

If you have a loved one who is an alcoholic (drinking, recovering or any stage in between) and you need help, phone Sober Services.
It will be the single best thing you have ever done for yourself and your loved alcoholic.”

Dear Ian,

It was around this time last year I contacted you and asked for your help providing an intervention to help me, my family, and most importantly my brother.
You found us all in a very dark place. My family was torn apart and ruined. We struggled to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and all felt truly lost. After battling with my brothers addiction for nearly 10 years, after trying every avenue and failing time and time again, we had hit rock bottom, desperate to help him but finally accepting defeat.

But now after your successful Sober Intervention and residential rehab recommendation we are approaching my brothers one year anniversary.
One year of being clean and sober!
This is a sentence I cannot stop repeating to myself.
For each time I do, am left feeling astonishingly proud of my brother.
Proud of his achievement, who he has become and the path he is creating for himself.
This was something I not only thought was impossible, but has now created the foundation of my new relationship with him.

Ian, thank you for everything you have done for all of us.
We are a completely different family now, a happy one.

Thank you for giving me my brother back.

x

Sober Services did a first class job and we are grateful for all the support you gave.

I’d just like to add my thanks to Sober Services for doing such superb job yesterday, and for the sensitivity and empathy with which you approached Alex and us.

And thank you for the article you sent. It’s good to see that the dangers of legal highs are getting better known.

Thanks again for all your help – we felt very supported.

All the very best

Penny.

The service you provide is absolutely WONDERFUL. We would not have made it without your professional help. We cannot thank you enough and are so impressed what you are able to offer clients over and above just supporting them through the physical journey to a clinic.
Thank you so much once again for your service.

“Dear Ian

I cannot thank you enough for your help in transporting my son from London to Cape Town, caring for him a further 24 hours, before accompanying him on a second flight to a detox clinic in Nelspruit.

Your professionalism was evident from the first time I contacted you to enquire about your services and continued throughout your travelling with my son to his final destination. This was not easy at times with him being so ill, but you were able to reassure him as well as work with airport staff to ensure he was able to fly when there was the prospect of him not being allowed on the plane.

I personally would recommend you to anyone needing support transporting a family member to a detox clinic/rehabilitation centre whether locally or abroad.

With best wishes
Elaine C”

Rory and I are very grateful to you for your inimitable organisation in providing a seamless journey for our son Alex to the US for residential treatment.

Without your wealth of experience in all the various aspects (especially the US Border procedures) there would definitely have been a hitch at some point and that could have scuppered the whole operation.

We are deeply grateful to you for making this part of Alex’s progress happen.

All the very best
Penny and Rory.

Dear Ian,

Merry Xmas.
Just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that Willem is doing great.
You worked intensely with him and brought him home to us after he’d been arrested, back to Phoenix, Az, USA from South Africa two years ago, just in time for Christmas.
He is working full time, driving his car, which he is paying for, and he has a very lovely girl friend. He is thinking of going to university and studying for a business degree.
We want to thank you so much for bringing him home to us and inspiring him to make such radical changes in his life, at such a relatively young age (he was 19)!
We wish you a very Happy New Year!

Mark and Jayne

My daughter is an alcoholic and was on a downhill spiral. She had been in rehabs before but was unwilling to undergo further rehab treatment. I was deeply concerned about the traditional concept that the alcoholic has to reach ‘rock bottom’ before any meaningful treatment would work. This gambles that in the interim the alcoholic won’t die, cause irreversible damage to their body/mind and jeopardise their future by possibly having a criminal record, debts, losing their home etc.

Sober Services offered a different approach of ‘intervention’ before the alcoholic descends into the possible terrifying consequences mentioned above. The intervention process, which is explained in the Sober Services programme, whilst being very stressful for myself and my family, was effective in that despite my daughter’s initial strong resistance to further detox and rehab she ended up undergoing detox in the UK and rehab in South Africa.

Ian Young and his team at Sober Services were extremely helpful in:-
(1) the lead up to the actual intervention process
(2) participating in the intervention meeting with my daughter and family members
(3) choosing the right rehab as Ian has extensive knowledge of various rehab possibilities both domestically in the UK and abroad.
(4) putting together a programme to cover the post rehab situation for my daughter.

Throughout the process Ian was always contactable which was hugely important to myself and he gave advice to family members on the actions they needed to take as part of the intervention.

I appreciate there are no absolute guarantees that my daughter will remain alcohol free forever but I felt the intervention process at least offers her a good chance of living rather than the highly probable dire consequences of the ‘rock bottom’ approach.

Thank you for designing and coming to my family intervention in November 2017 with my Dad, Mother & brother David. It saved my life!
After going to Detox you sent me to Rehab in Suffolk & I stayed there for 9 months. I left in September 2018.
I’ve now relocated & am 22 months clean & sober. I work closely with my Fellowship Sponsor & I’ve been through the 12 steps with her. I am now sponsoring someone else & taking her through the Big Book.
I have my family back in my life & I surround myself with decent friends. I volunteer at a rehab and am being trained up as a support worker. I also work at the food bank in town.
I do a bit of service at 12 step meetings, taking the woman’s AA meeting & I have now just taken over as secretary at a CA meeting in town.
I wouldn’t have it any other way. Recovery has given me my life back & I’m happy for the first time ever, I’m so grateful to you for intervening and for the programmes of AA & CA.

My name is Lea, and I was suffering from addiction to alcohol and cocaine.
I had desperately tried to stop, but just could not.
It got to a point where I was scared that I would die.
I knew that if I did not get away to receive professional help, I would probably end up dead.
I live in Luxembourg and I had no clue where to go.
I got in touch with Sober Services and spoke to a very friendly voice.
I told him I needed to find a rehab immediately and that I had to leave in the next few days, otherwise I knew I would not have the courage to go.
Ian said he would help find me a rehab that was best suited for me, and he kept in touch with me each hour to let me know what was happening.
That afternoon Ian had found me a place in a rehab in South Africa.
From that point on and until I left 4 days later, Ian kept in contact with me, providing me with the emotional support I so desperately needed.
Today I am 8 months clean and my life has completely changed.
Today I am finally free to be me, to be a mother, a wife and a friend.
I am so grateful for what Ian and Sober Services did for me.
Without them, I’m not sure I would be who I am today.
I received so much care and support when I needed it the most.
So thank you!!!

Thank you Ian for being honest, open and brave to write this book! It’s a miracle you went through what you went through alive and with such compassion and passion to help others! Never give up! You’re right it’s not about you it’s about all of us addicts or not! But this book is certainly about you and it is GREAT!!

This is a great book and tells the truth of someone who walked the walk and talked the talk. Could not put this down. Inspiring for all.

Hi Ian
I hope you are well.
Since I spoke to you last I have read ‘It’s Not About Me’ and want to say I am far wiser and more knowledgeable than ever before about the long journey through addiction and back to sobriety. Your book has been inspiring, enlightened me, made me cry, filled me with despair yet hope and longing for my daughter to one day see that glimmer of light that will grow and help her very soon to realise what she has to do to get well.
Ian, I feel I’ve tried everything, I’ve been soft, tough, soft again, and at present am trying just to love her, be her mum but not giving her any cash but still reminding her that help is at hand once she accepts her need and asks for it.
I missed my tube and bus stops several times as I was so engrossed in it! The 12 steps you describe sound amazing and I so want S. to have that chance.
Many thanks

Are you an addict? Do you live with an addict? Do you know an addict? If so, BUY THIS BOOK!!!

I know Ian personally and this book doesn’t begin to tell half the story. A helpless, hopeless addict that has found redemption by taking simple suggestions, following a new spiritual path and attempting to help others. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wince, you’ll shake your head in disbelief but I guarantee that you’ll be rooting for Ian to clean up. A wonderful story with a very happy ending. Read it – more will be revealed… Spencer (One of “the tribe”) x

As a heavy drinker myself, I brought this book with an open mind.
Ian’s story is truly amazing and gripping.
I think there isn’t much that Ian doesn’t do to excess from every type of booze to hardcore drugs but the story of how he turns everything around to helping other in the world is amazing and inspiring.

I also found the book very interesting in helping myself to stop drinking and change my life for the better which I’ve now done.

I can highly recommend this book.

Steve