Bromley · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Bromley
If you've searched for rehab in Bromley, for yourself, a partner or someone else you love, it helps to know where the free assessment starts and where I fit. I'm a counsellor with lived experience of recovery, and I offer one-to-one addiction counselling by secure video, before, during or after treatment.
The practical facts for Bromley
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Bromley by car
- About 75 minutes with clear roads (50.3 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Bromley South, change at London Victoria for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Change Grow Live (CGL) Bromley Drug and Alcohol Service, 020 8289 1999
- 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.
How worry about drinking first surfaces at home
For some Bromley families, the drinking stops being something anyone can explain away after an emergency visit to the Princess Royal University Hospital at Farnborough Common.
For others it comes more slowly. A partner in Bickley keeps finding bottles at the bottom of the recycling. Someone's after-work drinks near Blackfriars now end on the last train home via Catford, and most of Saturday goes on getting over them. A husband in Sundridge bets on his phone all the way home on the train and insists it's under control. Across the borough, hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) stood at 276.6 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below England's figure of 504.1 per 100,000 for the same year. A borough figure like that says nothing about your own home, and it doesn't mean you should be coping better than you are.
How CGL Bromley and counselling fit together
The free route for drinking or drug use in the borough is the Change Grow Live (CGL) Bromley Drug and Alcohol Service for adults, on 020 8289 1999. They assess what is going on, and if a medically supported detox or a residential place is needed, they are the ones who arrange it. Counselling with me can sit around their work in three ways. Before: you aren't sure you're ready to ring them, and you want to think it through with someone who won't push. Alongside: you're having community treatment with them and want a separate weekly hour that belongs only to you. After: you're back from residential treatment, and the old route home from the station is still where you left it. In sessions we look honestly at what the drinking, using or betting has been doing for you, and what it has cost. I've been through recovery myself, so I'm hard to shock, and lecturing isn't how I work. You don't have to promise to stop before we start. If you're the family member, the hour can be entirely about you.
Where you might be starting from in Bromley
Children living with it
If your children are growing up around a parent's drinking or using, Bromley Y supports young people's emotional wellbeing and works with parents and carers too.
A partner who keeps covering
Phoning in sick for them, explaining the moods to friends, checking the bank app at night. CGL Bromley's family and carer support is there for you in your own right.
Hours spent looking after them
When worry about someone's drinking has turned into running their life for them, Bromley Well supports unpaid adult carers in the borough in their own right.
Company between sessions
Clean Slate Project is Bromley's recovery hub. It gives you somewhere to meet others in recovery, while our weekly hour stays private and one-to-one.
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 Bromley
Free help in Bromley can run around our sessions. CGL Bromley assesses and arranges treatment, including detox where it's needed, and its family and carer support is for those close to someone who's using. Clean Slate Project is the borough's recovery community, and Families Anonymous supports families. Where mental health problems sit alongside the drinking, the Bromley Mental Health Hub, run by Oxleas with SEL Mind, is the route into NHS adult mental health care for residents aged 18 to 64.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceChange Grow Live (CGL) Bromley Drug and Alcohol Service020 8289 1999Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCGL Bromley family and carer support
- Local organisationBromley Well (unpaid adult carers support)
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 WhatsApp Service () is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511.
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 Bromley ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Bromley I can go to directly?
For Bromley residents, the free way into residential treatment or detox is an assessment with CGL Bromley, on 020 8289 1999, who look at what's safe and suitable for you. Counselling with me can begin before that assessment, run during community treatment, or support you when you come home afterwards.
Can I have addiction counselling from Bromley while I'm still drinking?
Yes. You don't need to have stopped, or picked a date. We begin with where you are now. Any change to how much you drink is worth planning with your GP or CGL Bromley, for the reasons given in the safety note on this page. On the free call I'll tell you honestly when I have a regular space.
Do I need to travel to Hove for addiction counselling if I'm in Bromley?
No. Hove is about 75 minutes' drive away, so from Bromley we'd work by secure video. Sessions follow the same shape as in the room, and it can be easier to be honest from somewhere familiar. All you need is a private space and a phone, tablet or laptop.
My wife is coming home to Bromley after residential treatment. How can I help?
Start by looking after your own footing, because the first weeks back can be tense for everyone. Ask the treatment team what aftercare is planned. Clean Slate Project, the borough's recovery hub, may be somewhere she can build support of her own. She might want her own counsellor for this stretch, and you can have sessions for yourself too, to work out how to support her without policing her.
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.
Start with a call, before or after treatment
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.