August 15th 2023.
Welcome back to How I Made It, The Agency’s weekly career journey series. This week we’re chatting with Robert Common, 43, about his journey from struggling with addiction to helping others through it with his rehab centre.
Robert is from the UK, but is currently based in Thailand, and it was there in Thailand he had a life-changing experience that informs his own mental health focused rehab, The Beekeeper House. Having spent 18 years so far in the industry, he is a psychologist and psychotherapist, and a clinical trauma specialist. Here’s how he made it.
Hey Robert. Can you tell us a bit about your own struggle with drug abuse?
My own experiences of substance use are rooted in trauma that I experienced as a child and young adult – drugs and alcohol were my way of managing that personal trauma and how it impacted me. I lived in London in the 90s and 00s and was a heavy drug user. I became dependent on cocaine, overdosed on several occasions, and ended up in a psychiatric ward. I got clean and stayed clean for a couple of years, but then I’d relapse whenever I faced another traumatic event or trigger. I also got hooked on meth about 10 years ago, but I managed to kick that addiction alone.
How have your own experiences of addiction informed the work you do now?
I was doing well for a while. I had launched The Beekeeper in Cambodia and was thriving. However, I was involved in a serious accident in Cambodia, when I lost several members of my team and close friends, and I started to spiral out of control quite quickly – I knew I was in a serious danger zone when a friend gave me the number of a dealer for cocaine and meth.
I had every intent to make that call, but instead, I checked into a treatment programme in Thailand that helped people deal with trauma and underlying mental health issues that are often the roots of addiction. I spent two and a half months in treatment and met many amazing people.
As a mental health professional, I could see the unmet needs in the treatment centres I had experienced and in the broader rehab space. Where do you think the industry needs improvement?
Many people are just in it for the money, and I believe the common rhetoric around addiction as a disease is inaccurate – addiction is not a disease, it’s a manifestation of underlying mental health issues. If you only treat the addiction, not the root cause, the chances of successful, long-term recovery are much smaller. I know this from personal and professional experience, so I wanted The Beekeeper House to be something different.
What’s it like when you support someone through addiction?
You need patience and kindness. No two recovery journeys are the same, and there’s no predetermined timeline. You also need empathy because to support someone effectively, you need to understand the root causes of why someone uses substances. This means a lot of listening, but it is the key to success and long-term recovery.
Do you have counselling or therapy yourself – how do you manage the mental load of the work you do?
One thing that is central to my routine is mindfulness. Meditation and learning healthier ways to manage my emotions and thoughts saved my life, and there’s a base of evidence that shows even practices like yoga can be more effective for treating conditions like PTSD than simply prescribing an anti-depressant. And I still have my own therapist – recovery is a journey, not a destination, and therapy is a great investment, regardless of personal history.
An average day in the working life of Robert Common
I’m an early riser – I get up at 4am every day and start by meditating and setting my intentions for the day. Then it is straight into emails. We get enquiries from all over the world from the UK, Australia, US – all over.
I normally get to the office at 6:30 am, and from then on in, the day is pretty unstructured as we respond to situations for clients as they come up, and I have to flex based on what is most urgent from a clinical perspective. I also have the business side of things to manage, including recruitment, social media, strategy but clients always come first.
What do you love most about your job?
Although I’ve been doing this for a long time, seeing the transformational process someone can go through, and watching an individual change, is something that never ceases to amaze me.
What do you dislike the most?
It can be a very exhausting industry; as paradoxical as it might seem, burnout is a common problem. One of the greatest challenges in my sector is access to care, especially for those who cannot afford it. Often those who are the most vulnerable are the most in need of care and the least able to access it.
Do you have a story to share?
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