Ashford, Surrey · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Ashford, Surrey
If you've looked up rehab in Ashford, whether because of your own drinking or someone else's, the free Surrey service assesses people for treatment and arranges detox or a residential place where needed. As a counsellor, I offer one-to-one sessions by secure video that fit around it, before, during or after treatment.
The practical facts for Ashford, Surrey
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Ashford, Surrey by car
- About 77 minutes with clear roads (64.3 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Ashford (Surrey), change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- i-access, 0300 222 5932
- Fees
- £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90, £120 for 120. The first 15-minute call is free.
- Registration
- BACP registered member, no. 109340 (check the register); UKCP student member in advanced psychotherapy training.
A Middlesex address, a Surrey service
A search for rehab in Ashford is sometimes typed by someone other than the person drinking.
It might be a mother in Ashford East who stopped believing the explanations some time ago, or a partner who now plans every evening around someone else's mood. Ashford was historically part of Middlesex and has been in Surrey since 1965, and official listings for Ashford Hospital and HMP Bronzefield still give the address as Ashford, Middlesex. That can send a late search towards the wrong county, so it helps to know that free drug and alcohol help for Ashford comes through Surrey. In 2023/24 Spelthorne's rate of alcohol-specific hospital admissions stood at 718.5 per 100,000, higher than the England figure of 611.7 per 100,000. It is a count of admissions across a whole district. It can't measure what one person's drinking is doing to one family, and your worry is worth acting on whatever the figures say.
Where i-access comes in, and where I do
The free route into treatment for Ashford is i-access, on 0300 222 5932. Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Via, a non-profit, deliver it together. Their team assesses what is needed and, where it is safe and right for you, can organise a medically managed detox, treatment in the community, or a residential place. I provide none of those. I offer something smaller and steadier: one counselling hour a week, which fits at any stage, while you're still deciding whether to ring them, while they are treating you, or once a residential stay has ended and ordinary life resumes around you. In sessions we ask what the drink or the drugs have been giving you, whether that's switching off after a long week or muffling something much older, because that need doesn't vanish when the habit stops. You don't need to have stopped, or to have promised anyone anything, before a first session. My own lived experience of recovery means very little will surprise me, and I won't lecture. If you're the parent, partner or grown-up child, the sessions can be entirely yours: deciding where your limits are, what you'll stop covering for, and how to stay connected without being pulled under.
Who tends to be reading this in Ashford
A parent out of explanations
A son or daughter whose drinking or drug use has changed the whole house. Surrey's i-access runs information and carers support for relatives, and sessions of your own can sit beside it.
The partner keeping things running
Covering at work, smoothing things with the children, keeping the peace. Action for Carers Surrey helps people whose caring has quietly taken over, even if nobody calls it caring.
Assessment first, counselling meanwhile
i-access works out with you whether detox, community treatment or a residential stay is needed. Weekly counselling doesn't have to wait for that appointment to come round.
Home from Waterloo, then the bottle
A long day in London, the train back to Ashford, and a first drink at the front door that now carries on until bed. Holding a job together doesn't settle the question.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free drug and alcohol support for Ashford
i-access handles assessment and treatment for Ashford free of charge, and relatives can use its family and carers support even when the person drinking isn't ready. Action for Carers Surrey is there if someone else's drinking or drug use has quietly made you their carer. Neither needs a referral from me, and both can run beside private counselling.
- Free drug and alcohol servicei-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationi-access information and carers support for family and carers
FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free and confidential, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online. For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
If raising someone's drinking or drug use with them feels unsafe, or someone at home is hurting, threatening or controlling you, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247. In immediate danger, call 999.
Detox and residential rehab are arranged through the free local drug and alcohol service named here. It assesses what you need, arranges medically assisted withdrawal where that is safe and needed, and can refer for community or residential treatment. My part is one-to-one counselling before, alongside or after that treatment, to help the changes last.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Locally, the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS FT Mental Health Crisis Helpline is on 0800 915 4644.
If you, or someone you live with, drink heavily every day, or take drugs such as benzodiazepines or GHB daily, do not stop suddenly without medical advice. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Your GP or the local drug and alcohol service can arrange medically assisted withdrawal. Call 999 or go to A&E if someone in withdrawal is shaking visibly, unusually restless or agitated, confused, seeing or hearing things that are not there, or has a fit. For milder symptoms, such as a slight tremor or sweating, contact your GP or NHS 111 the same day (NHS guidance). Counselling works alongside medical support, not instead of it.
What people in Ashford, Surrey ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Ashford, Surrey that I can go to directly?
Not one I can name in the town. For people living in Ashford, detox and residential places are usually arranged after an assessment by i-access, the free county service for drugs and alcohol, on 0300 222 5932. Because Ashford has been in Surrey since 1965, that is the service to contact, even if your address still says Middlesex. Our sessions can start before that assessment, continue during treatment or pick up afterwards.
Our grown-up son still lives at home in Ashford and drinks heavily every night. Where do we start?
Start by getting support for yourselves, because you can't make him change and the strain on you is real. The i-access information and carers support is there for families, and counselling gives you a private hour to decide what you will and won't accept at home. Please don't press him to stop all at once, because after heavy daily drinking that can be dangerous, and the safety warning on this page says who can advise.
Do I have to come to Hove for addiction counselling, or can we talk by video from Ashford?
Video is the realistic way from Ashford, since Hove is a 77-minute drive away. The conversation is the same one we'd have in person, and being on home ground may make the truth easier to say. Should you want one meeting in the same room, a longer session in Hove can be arranged.
Do I need a GP referral to start addiction counselling from Ashford?
No. Book a free 15-minute call for whenever suits you, give me a rough outline, and I'll be plain about when a weekly slot can open. You don't have to wait for an i-access appointment either. One safety point: if you're drinking heavily each day, get advice from your GP or i-access first, because stopping suddenly can be risky.
How much do sessions cost, and is the first call free?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, the same in person in Hove or by video. The first 15-minute call is free, with no obligation to book. There is no NHS referral needed to see me privately.
Fifteen minutes to talk it through, no promises needed
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.