After a 40 years career as a writer, actor and director working in theatre and television, Wynford returned to college in 2006 to study for a Fd.Sc. degree in Addictions Counselling.
After graduating in the summer of 2008, he worked briefly as an addictions counsellor in Rhoserchan, the drug and alcohol treatment centre above Penrhyncoch, near Aberystwyth. On the 1st of October, 2008 he started work as Chief Executive Officer of the Welsh Council on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and a corner-stone of his 3 year strategy was the establishment of Stafell Fyw Caerdydd/Living Room Cardiff, a community based Recovery Centre supporting people with addiction problems in Cardiff and surrounding areas. He was awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship for 2010 and visited some of the new recovery community centres in the U.S. which have achieved long-term recovery from severe alcohol and/or drug-related problems. A network of such centres is to be found in Vermont, Connecticut and Philadelphia, Washington D C and Virginia. Visiting these centres provided Wynford with very useful ideas on how to better build a strong “peer culture” into the Stafell Fyw Caerdydd/Living Room Cardiff project, which was officially opened on 8th September, 2011.
Having recently stood down as Centre Head & CEO, Wynford is focused on rolling-out the Beat the Odds programme throughout Wales, and setting up Living Room centres in West and North Wales. Currently, he is a Specialist Counselling Consultant to CAIS Ltd., Living Room Cardiff’s parent company, and is also responsible for delivering and overseeing Cynnal, the counselling service for clergy and ministers of religion and their families; and Enfys, the bespoke counselling service for qualified medical doctors. He’s also responsible for delivering retreats – of which there are three every year – and three modules on Addiction & Recovery Coaching, in conjunction with the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Wynford is married to Meira, has two daughters, Bethan and Rwth, and is a very proud grandfather to Begw, Efa, Bobi and Jac. He lives in Creigiau on the outskirts of Cardiff.
Wynford is in recovery and his sobriety date is 22nd July, 1992.