“Our Ethos at Phoenix Guardians is to give hope, inspire healing from dependency and bring about healthier choices for an informed life.”
– Meryem & Naz Hassan, Founders of Phoenix Guardians, 2016
Simply stated, our goal is to enable people to work beyond their dependency and become the best possible version of themselves.
We know that substance disorders can ruin an individual’s ability to live an autonomous and rewarding life. Often dependants can’t see that the substance has taken over control of their lives and attempts to stop using a substance fail, before they realise they are unable to stop.
Our work begins here.
The Phoenix Rises – Our Beginnings
At the heart of Phoenix Guardians are its founders, brother and sister, Naz and Meryem, who collaborate with a team of carefully selected and qualified professionals. Along with their team they offer a balance of experience, professionalism and diversity, specialising in the areas of addiction, trauma, psychology, recovery, sober and life coaching, psychiatry, mindfulness, counselling and family therapy, mental health, nutrition and others.
Naz and Meryem have first-hand experience of overcoming the trauma and devastation of addiction. In addition, they bring over thirty years of unified experience and professionalism of working individually, either as an interventionist, travel companion, sober/life coach, sponsor or counsellor with those who have misused substances.
When forming Phoenix Guardians there was an overwhelming desire to create a comprehensive multi-disciplinary and tailored approach to substance misuse, as a move away from the traditional homogeneous model provided by many other service providers. Emphasis is therefore placed on offering tailored and multi-disciplinary services to dependent individuals and their families, by building the right team and services around the individual to achieve balance, consistency, experience and depth in service delivery.
Meet Our Co-Founders
Edexcel level 3 BTEC Certificate in Close Protection Operations 2009
SIA (security industry Association) Licence no: 1081891368826097
Interventionist Training approved by the Pennsylvanian Certification Board 2013
Life Coaching Diploma 2017
NLP foundation Diploma 2017
Naz Hassan
Naz has over 10 years of sobriety today after having previously gone through the process of detox and relapse many times himself, before succeeding with the AA principals of recovery.
Originally he worked in surveillance, close protection and the transportation of prominent people and valuable goods worldwide, giving him insightful experience with a unique clientele group.
In the last decade he has completed comprehensive training in America as an Interventionist, and also qualified as a Travel Companion, Sober Coach, Life Coach, and NLP Practitioner. Utilising these skills he provides one-to-one services to dependent individuals, whether pre or post rehabilitation, addressing all aspects of the individuals lifestyle.
Clients often comment on how refreshing and valuable they find Naz’s mentorship and professional experience. His combined professional and personal experience brings calmness, discretion and assured professionalism to dependent individuals and their families. Even when things are at the point of crisis, he is dependable and unfazed. He has worked with a varied mix of people, including celebrities, elite sports people, high profile families and other high-functioning professionals.
Naz works with specialised addiction services located worldwide from intervention to rehabilitation facilities across the UK, to countries including South Africa, America and Thailand. Whether as an interventionist, sober or life coach, Naz’s work is often integrated alongside doctors, psychologists, therapists, nutritionists and others; where he ensures that together all the professionals deliver to the client’s recovery plan.
BSc Hons Psychology 2002
Certificate in Integrative Counselling 2008
Diploma in Integrative Transpersonal Humanistic Counselling and Psychotherapy 2010
Certificate Mindfulness based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) 2011
MBTI Practitioner 2014
NLP & Life Coach Diploma 2017
Member of the BACP Reg No: 041482
Meryem Hassan
Meryem’s professional and psychotherapeutic experience has been gained over twenty years across the fields of Psychology, Counselling, Sport, Health and Well-Being.
After spending over 10 years in case management and then project development within the Statutory and Third Sector environments (including The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Islington), her responsibilities grew to managing teams and programmes and running London-wide services. One endeavour was managing a staff team to provide psychosocial services within a counselling service provider.
Meryem has valuable experience working with celebrities, sports individuals, professionals, groups and individuals from all walks of life including the LGBTQ community, entertainment and sporting arenas.
She is a qualified Counsellor, a Myers Brigg’s Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) practitioner and a Life Coach. As a qualified Counsellor of over 10 years, in her private practice her work consists of working with individuals affected by Addiction, Trauma, Childhood and Sexual Abuse, Bereavement, Domestic Abuse and Rape, PTSD, Anxiety, Sexuality, Gender and Identity issues. Meryem uses an integrated modality approach drawing on Humanistic and Psychodynamic theory, Transpersonal counselling, mindfulness based CBT, Positive Psychology and Sport Psychology, NLP, coaching techniques and the latest research including neurobiological methods.
A powerful force inspiring change – Two Stories, One Voice
“When wounds are healed by love, the scars are beautiful.” – David Bowles
Naz and Meryem, are a formidable brother and sister team. Why? Because of their powerful combination of professional and personal experience in the field of addiction. Coming from both sides of the story – Naz as a former dependent individual and Meryem as a supportive family member. They were each shaped by their experience of addiction formed from different perspectives. Today after years of working independently with those addicted to substances they are passionately motivated to help others overcome its devastation.
The creation of Phoenix Guardians therefore is an opportunity to be a powerful force for change in how addiction services are provided and seen today. A strong emphasis is placed on having the right expertise in place, to provide an exceptional standard of care through personalised wellbeing services that are prioritised to the individual’s needs. This forms the approach and ethos of the Phoenix Guardians team of professionals, bringing value, integrity, transparency, empathy and relatable insight to the work with dependent individuals.
We are Phoenix Guardians – we walk our talk!
Stories of overcoming substance misuse resonate across our entire team of professionals. Their personal experience strengthens the work we undertake with our clients, deepening our insight into how to broaden a client’s resilience to manage their dependency, and to achieve better wellbeing and healthier outcomes.
“When one person shows courage and conviction to confront their own trauma and work on healing their own wounds and inner conflicts, then this demonstrates the possible way forward for others.”
– Meryem Hassan, Co-Founder
