Home »About Charles Linden

About Charles, his team, the directors and our programs

"Like YOU, my life was dominated by anxiety, panic, phobias and obsessions, but I found a way to turn my life around 180 degrees in days. 27 years of my life were ruined BUT NOT WASTED because they have enabled me to help over 155,000 people to do what I did... now it's YOUR turn.

I don't pretend to be the 'font of all anxiety knowledge', but what I do know is that my program contains the cure for anxiety disorders and there's only one way for you to experience that too. This isn't something to 'give a go', this is the end of your journey of suffering."
Charles Linden

Our Linden Recovery Directors

Charles Linden. BA (Hons). Chairman & MD

Charles' recovery has benefited millions and the resources he has created are a truly curative group of internationally respected resources.

Lady Jemma Wellesley, Countess of Mornington (Jemma Kidd)

Jemma has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows and in newspapers talking about her and her sister, Jodie's, recoveries. Jemma is a Director and wonderful Ambassador for all we do.

See Jemma discussing her recovery on the Lorraine TV show CLICK HERE

Dr Su Wang, MBBS, DPH, DIH, MSc Occupational Medicine, FFOM, DMS, M Erg S, Cert Aviation Medicine

Su is a wonderful Linden Anxiety Ambassador and adviser.

Beth Linden. Residential Programme Director.

Beth has been described as the organization's 'angel', her infectious positivity and kidness is an assett to the programs and the clients who visit our Residential programs.

Using the programs I developed, I've now helped over 155,000 sufferers worldwide.

A Short History of my journey

1968 - 1985 - School years - Experienced GAD, panic attacks, agoraphobia, school phobia, OCD.
1985 - 1987 - College years - Coped with varying levels of anxiety with panic attacks & Pure O.
1987 - 1989 - Worked US Army Heidelberg - Relentless anxiety, panic, OCD & Pure O.
1989 - 1991 - Worked US Forces Karlsruhe - Developed panic attacks & eating disorder.
1991 - 1992 - Worked US/Canadian Air force Baden Baden - Hospitalized for anxiety & panic.
1992 - 1997 - University degree started - Sympathetic professors made it possible. Heavy meds.
1997 - My recovery - Discovered the process I now call The Linden Method and changed my life.
1997 - present - Run The Linden Centres - 148,000 people helped. Residential Retreat program.

How am I like YOU and what happened to change my life?

My anxiety started when I was under 2 years old...

I was born on February 4th 1968.

My parents, Lindsay and Jane, were 20 years old when I entered the world kicking and screaming. That's me on the right, from curly hair, to girly hair, to no hair! I especially love the invisible tie trend of the 1970's.

As you'll see, smiling wasn't my 'thing' because whilst everyone else was enjoying life, I was scared... I didn't really know it was anxiety and I never let on to anyone when I had the weird thoughts.

I can remember being anxious as a very young child and went through school feeling very timid, shy and sometimes extremely anxious. I had a great family life; lots of love, lots of family events, a great education, despite my anxiety and wonderful grandparents who spent lots of time with me and my brother (4 years younger).

I always had this strange sense of fear and confusion which forced me to use coping strategies to prevent me from doing those things that increased my anxiety, like sleepovers, cub camps or school trips. I would make up stories about feeling ill or create diversions like fictitious rugby matches to put my friends off the scent when they wanted me to sleepover or go on long bicycle rides.

I always knew I was different. My thought processes were anxious; I'd think about life and death, I'd consider the 'worst case scenario' in whatever I was doing and spent my childhood worried that my parents or grandparents would die or be injured. I had reoccurring nightmares all through my childhood about being chewed up by a giant mangle. I wanted to be a doctor; I wanted to help people; I hated illness and death.

In my 'teens' it got far worse...

I volunteered in the local hospital when I was 14 and watched my mother operate in theatre as she assisted Dr Wolford Gillison, the surgeon. I stood on a box at the patient's head and watched, fascinated, enthralled and strangely, not at all anxious, desperate to help or do it myself. I did well academically but Chemistry was my weak subject and medical school wouldn't have me. I was devastated.

Of course, all this time, I assumed that everyone felt as anxious as me, but now, looking back, I was always anxious and most other people weren't. I coped through my teens by manipulating my school life, my parents and eventually even, girlfriends, so that I would never be in a position where I was not in control. I hid it well.

Aged 19, I moved to Germany working for the US Army and Air Force... a brave step for someone with high anxiety, but I had learned that anxiety had no geographic basis and that I would be anxious 'wherever I was', so what did it matter!

In Germany, all hell broke loose. I worked long hours, slept very little and ate the most dreadful diet until, one day, the anxiety hit me like a freight train.

In my 20's I was a physical and psychological wreck!

For 7 years, my anxiety was chronic. I became housebound, agoraphobic, I developed OCD and Pure O, I had 8 to 10 panic attacks a day, I had depersonalization, derealization and chronic confusion. I took, Prozac, Diazepam, Seroxat, Stelazine, herbal supplements and masses of other concoctions and potions, therapies and diets. I had CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), EFT (tapping), hypnosis, Reiki, Faith Healing, Therapy, Counselling, Massage, Meditation, even colonic irrigation and a raft of weird and wonderful therapies... did they work? No! Do they work curatively for anyone? No! I know that, now that I have helped tens of thousands to recover, but back then, I was desperate.

Of course now I know what does and doesn't work and having treated many tens of thousands of people who have received, for example, CBT and having researched the truth about those talking therapies, I understand fully why they can never work for anxiety conditions... I just wish I had known that before wasting so much time and money on them. There are sound physiological and psychological reasons why CBT can't work.

The turning point

In 1997, I decided that ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH

I KNEW that recovery was possible because I had met recovered people. I knew that it was possible to engineer a recovery... it had to be, if it could happen naturally, there had to be a way to 'make' it happen.

I created a solution for myself that turned my life around in days.

Over 3 months, I researched, I tested, I questioned sufferers and recovered sufferers, I created a structure to work to.


"At last! A place where someone can go to not only gather the vital life changing tools that I did, but also an opportunity to listen to others and for the first time not feel like it was just me and I wasn't going mad. Having done the retreat life is now something I can look forward to not fear. Working in the charity sector as a director and founder around mental health I can say that if peace is what you are looking for, look no further." Rupert Young	Rupert & Will Young

In his series on Channel 4, Gok’s Teens: The Naked Truth, Gok helps 12 teenagers to face their fears and live their dreams one of which is 16 year old Kyle Vanes from Sheffield who had become agoraphobic and suffered from high anxiety and panic attacks due to bullying and being beaten up outside his house. Gok asked Charles Linden to help Kyle to beat his fears and working with The Linden Method, in just three days, Kyle was able to travel to London alone from Sheffield to meet up with Gok again, something Kyle never thought he would previously be able to achieve. READ MORE	Charles & Gok on Gok's Teens the Naked Truth

“We suffered from crippling anxiety and panic attacks. Jodie and I both used The Linden Method having found Charles Linden’s website on the internet. The programme was the answer we had been looking for. Anyone suffering from high anxiety or panic really should use The Linden Method, it really helped us to be panic free. We want to help other sufferers to recover and send out the message that anxiety conditions are curable, despite what some may say.”	Jodie & Jemma Kidd

"I had been very ill during and after a recent pregnancy, and had terrible anxiety and nervousness as a result of the illness, even though I was slowly getting better. I met Charles and started following his method immediately. It really worked and now I am doing all the things again that I used to, but that I had sadly stopped doing - I started riding again, working, going out and about, driving, taking the train etc. - the things that make life fun, which I had felt unable to do. I highly recommend the Anxiety Recovery Retreat or the Linden Method Home Learning Program if you can't get there."	Vodue Editor & Novelist Plum Sykes

I lived my newly created 'method' and within days I was panic attack free, within 2 weeks I was back at work and within a month, I was entirely anxiety free, moving around freely and enjoying life.

I had NEVER previously enjoyed life in that way... I made decisions based on what I wanted to do and not on the anxiety that filled me with fear.

"A new branch of psychological practice"

I then built a website and gave people my structure to work with.

In the first six months, over 2000 people used my Method and fed back data about their successes, failures and experiences. I gave up my 'day job' as a TV cameraman and director, to help my growing group of clients and dedicated myself to helping people in the same way I had done for myself.

I then took the steps I needed to in order to integrate what I had learned into a structure that anyone could use... so I wrote a book. With the guidance of a group of psychological specialists, I created a structure based on my experiences. BUT THIS IS NOT CBT. Please don't think this is CBT because it's not. This program is about working on the core emotion of fear, not changing your thoughts to attempt to stop your anxiety.

Once the structure, the program materials and the qualified team were in place, we started producing incredible recoveries.

Now, 14 years later, we have helped over 155,000 people using The Linden Method programs, I am a founder member of The Emotions Research Consortium with Professor Roddy Cowie and Professor Francis Teeney of Queen's University, Belfast and a group of psychologists and doctors from around the world; I have a TV series and potentially, two more on the way this year.

My 'Method' has been called a 'New Branch of Psychological Practice' by psychologists and national health services, businesses, clinics, hospitals and practitioners around the world, refer clients to us every day.

We created Anxiety Recovery Retreats Ltd which offers residential programs and Workshops visited by clients from every corner of the earth and help people from every background... we are very proud of what we achieve.

All this from a book I created about my own experiences... it's truly magical and I am humbled by the thousands of friends I have made by helping them to become calm and fulfilled.

From a timid, scared and floundering child who wanted to be a surgeon, to a non-medic who has helped tens of thousands of anxious people using his own, 'home-spun' treatment method... It was a dream that became a reality.

Oprah Winfrey interviews
Louise Hay

My wife and I run our company from HQ in the UK and now travel across the world holding events, workshops and retreats to ensure that our clients receive the very best services and best of all, our clients become our friends.

In October 2012 I was offered a publishing deal with Hay House, the largest Self Help publishing house in the world with branches all over the world.

Hay House is owned by Louise Hay (Above left with Oprah Winfrey), the most famous face in Self Help in the USA. The HQ for Hay House is in Carlsbad, California and in January 2013, my family and I went out there to plan the international launch of my Stress Free in 30 Days book and my Stress Free in 30 Days TV series on DVD. They will be launched in June 2013 and quickly followed by two more books (to be agreed).

Charles with Rickie Lake

Whilst out in LA, I met with a number of clients, including some of the actors (who I cannot name) some of whom I had never met in person and some that I had. I met Rickie Lake through one of my clients (pic left) who invited Beth and I onto her show.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR ANXIETY...

Anyone who tells you that you have to learn to 'cope' with your anxiety using 'anxiety management is an ignorant charlatan.

Myself and my qualified staff consisting of psychologists and counsellors, help long term sufferers who have been abandoned by the medical and psychological fraternity.

We help people who are on long term medication like sedatives and antidepressants... we help people who say they have been told they can't be helped!

Just read the testimonials, our credentials, our success and the medical and psychological endorsements first and compare them to any other anxiety specialist... you decide what is best for you.

Look at websites claiming a 'cure' carefully... it's easy to fabricate testimonials, especially ones from the public.

What WE provide is not anxiety management. WE provide support and guidance, not just a shoulder to cry on.

I am now 45 years old. I have a wife, Beth, two children, Charlie (11) and Florence (8) and we have clients visiting the Residential Retreats and using The Linden Method from every corner of the globe, regardless of age, ethnicity, sex or background.

Anxiety sufferers have a gift that so few people have. Massive intellectual resources, creativity and energy that, when diverted away from anxiety to more fulfilling tasks, produces great things.

I am proud to be an ex anxiety sufferer and proud to be the person that will hopefully change your life.

Yours,

Charles signature
Charles Linden
Director The Linden Centres
Director Anxiety Recovery Retreats Ltd