Battersea · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Battersea
If you searched 'rehab Battersea' because of your own drinking, or a son's, daughter's or partner's, here is who arranges what. Assessment, detox and residential places go through Wandsworth's free drug and alcohol service. Hove sits 85 minutes' drive from SW11, so my part, one-to-one addiction counselling, normally happens over secure video, for the person using and for the relatives around them.
The practical facts for Battersea
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Battersea by car
- About 85 minutes with clear roads (51.1 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service (WCDAS), 020 3228 1777
- 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.
Hidden drinking amid Clapham Junction's weekday crowds
Battersea packs very different lives into a short walk.
Apple's offices and the shops at the Power Station sit within sight of the mid-20th-century estates north of the railway, and on a weekday about 430,000 people pass through Clapham Junction. Drinking hides easily in all that movement: one round near the station that turns into the whole evening, a launch party at Nine Elms that nobody quite leaves, a can opened alone in a Latchmere flat while trains rattle past. In 2023/24 Wandsworth's rate of alcohol-specific hospital admissions stood at 733.9 per 100,000, higher than England's 611.7 per 100,000. That is a borough count of hospital episodes, and it tells you nothing about yourself or the person you love. Families usually sense the change before anyone admits it, in the missed Sunday lunch, the money that won't add up or the story that keeps shifting. Older residents can carry it quietly too, since local research for Age Well Battersea heard about loneliness and money worries in Latchmere, St Mary's Park and Queenstown.
From a first phone call to the weeks after treatment
Anyone living in Battersea can ring the Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service, known as WCDAS, directly on 020 3228 1777. Its lead provider is SLaM, heading a consortium that also takes in St Mungo's, CDARS and We Are With You. Once WCDAS has assessed someone, its team and that person settle together on a safe level of help, anything from community support in Wandsworth to supervised detox or residential rehab, and WCDAS then sets it up. Counselling with me runs on its own track and can join at any point. Your first session could come while you are still undecided about ringing WCDAS, partway through its community treatment, or after residential rehab, when the old evenings round Clapham Junction are waiting for you again. Hour by hour we look at the exact moments when the pull is strongest, what the drink, the drug or the bet is quietly doing for you, and what would need to be in place instead. My own recovery came years before I trained, and I have now counselled for over 25 years, so nothing you describe will shock me. Parents and partners can also book an hour of their own, entirely separate from the person they are worried about.
Free and private help for SW11 families
Booking a WCDAS assessment
Ringing 020 3228 1777 starts an assessment with WCDAS, and that is where detox or a residential place gets agreed. We can use a session to plan what you want to say.
Family worn down at home
Wandsworth Carers' Centre runs Substance Misuse Carer Support for the mothers, fathers, partners and friends around someone's drinking or drug use, even while that person wants no help yet.
Later life and long evenings
The Katherine Low Settlement Elders Programme runs a lunch club and Age Well activities for older Battersea residents, company that can sit alongside weekly counselling if the evenings feel empty.
Weekday structure in the park
Thrive's Growing Out programme offers free therapeutic gardening in Battersea Park for adults with mental ill-health, a steady weekly commitment that can run beside treatment and our sessions.
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 Battersea
Beyond the main WCDAS service, the WCDAS Recovery Hub and the CDARS Wandsworth and Richmond Day Programme give shape to life in recovery, and Substance Misuse Carer Support looks after relatives. Sound Minds on York Road offers creative peer support through music, art and a community choir, and Battersea Befriending Network pairs volunteers with people using mental health services. Our weekly video hour fits around whichever of these you use.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceWandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service (WCDAS)020 3228 1777Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWandsworth Carers' Centre
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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis Text Service is another option: text 80991 or WhatsApp 0303 330 1511. Local drop-in crisis support: Tooting Recovery Café (Hestia) (check opening times before you go).
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 Battersea ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Battersea, or does it all go through WCDAS?
For Battersea residents, free detox and residential places are normally reached through an assessment with the Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service on 020 3228 1777. WCDAS weighs up with you what is safe and arranges it. Our sessions can start while the WCDAS call is still unmade, carry on through community treatment, and resume when someone comes back to SW11 after residential rehab.
My partner's nightly drinking is taking over our Battersea flat. Can I get counselling even if they won't?
Yes. The hour belongs to you, and it can cover the worry, the arguments, the covering up and where your own limits sit. Substance Misuse Carer Support at Wandsworth Carers' Centre helps relatives in the borough too. Letting your partner know, calmly and once, that WCDAS takes calls directly keeps a door open without turning every evening into a negotiation.
Do addiction counselling sessions from Battersea have to be online?
Battersea to Hove is about 85 minutes by car, so the weekly hour normally happens on secure video, and nobody on your street sees you setting off to an appointment. For an occasional longer session in person, Clapham Junction makes it simple: Southern trains towards Brighton leave from there, as do the Victoria to Littlehampton services that stop at Hove.
Can I start counselling from Battersea while I'm still drinking?
Yes, you can begin before you have stopped, or even decided to. Nobody in SW11 needs a GP letter for this: after a free 15-minute call, I list the video slots I actually have each week and you pick one. Before you alter a heavy, daily drinking pattern, look at the withdrawal risks set out in the urgent help box, and let WCDAS on 020 3228 1777 or your GP agree the plan with you.
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.
For you, or someone you love near Clapham Junction
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.