About DR Cosmo

Dr Cosmo is an addictions treatment specialist and chartered psychologist. He has been appointed an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Dr Cosmo began working In the recovery field in Cape Town in 2005, where he was co- head of addiction treatment at a large private psychiatric hospital. He was also the ‘Lecturer in Addiction’ at the South African College of Applied Psychology, writing and teaching original material that continues to form part of a BPsych degree.

Dr Cosmo Duff Gordon

CPsychol, AFBPsS
Grad Dip Couns (SACAP), Grad Dip Psych (OU), MA (Edin), DPsych (London)
Chartered Counselling Psychologist
Health Care Professions Council registration number: PYL 34335

Dr Cosmo founded his own clinic, Start2Stop, in London in 2010. At Start2Stop, Dr Cosmo pioneered intensive outpatient programmes and residential secondary treatment in South Kensington, in the heart of West London. Additionally, he also worked for nearly two years in the main NHS service for treating problem gambling.

Start2Stop is now an internationally benchmarked centre of excellence and is London’s biggest private sector addictions treatment centre. Start2Stop was bought by the Nightingale Hospital in 2022 and Dr Cosmo continues to clinically supervise the work undertaken there.

Dr Cosmo has published in the peer-reviewed literature, in the Journal ‘Health’ (2020):
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363459320912837#core-collateral-metrics

He is also a chapter author in a book on recovery. His doctoral thesis was on the subject of the ideological dilemmas of 12-Step recovery. He was awarded the Bruner Prize by the Open University in 2011.

Dr Cosmo has been an invited speaker on addiction to the staff of Public Health England (PHE). He has also been invited to deliver talks on addiction at the BPS’s Summer conference and been a keynote speaker at iCAAD London (2018) and iCAAD Paris (2019). He has been interviewed on the subject of addiction by various forms of media. These include: Radio 4’s Today Programme, The Times, The Telegraph, Tatler, The Evening Standard and The Guardian. He has also himself, as a freelance writer, published many features in the South African Sunday Times magazine.

Therapeutically, Dr Cosmo likes to practise in a solution-focused manner and draws on many models in his private practice. His special interests include: clinical case management; DBT; online gaming (having co-founded www.gamewell.co, the UK’s first online CPD accredited provider of education about gaming); and gambling (Dr Cosmo worked for nearly two years in the NHS’s flagship problem gambling programme).

Professional memberships
Health Care Professions Council (HCPC): membership number PYL34335
British Psychological Society: membership number 303307

Academic

Publications

  • 2020: Duff Gordon, C. and Willig, C. “Surrender to Win: Constructions of 12-step recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction”. Health (25; 6).
  • 2017: ‘Ideological Dilemmas of 12-Step Recovery’ (British Library)
  • 2011: Chapter author in ‘Recovery RSA’ (Jacana Press).

Prizes

  • 2011: Bruner Prize (Open University)

Qualifications

Dr Cosmo Duff Gordon is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and its sub-division of Counselling Psychology and has chartered psychologist status. Dr Cosmo is also a member of the Health Professions Council.

Qualifications:

  • Doctorate in Counselling Psychology (City, University of London)
  • Graduate Diploma in Psychology (1st Class) (Open University)
  • Graduate Diploma in Counselling (South African College of Applied Psychology)

Other relevant qualifications:

  • BPS Registered Psychometric Test User (Occupation & Ability)
  • BPS Certified Clinical Supervisor
  • EMDR Levels 1 and 2

Additionally, Dr Duff Gordon holds a Master of Arts (History) from Edinburgh University.