Camberwell · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Camberwell
Whether the late-night search for rehab is about your own drinking or someone's in a flat off Coldharbour Lane, detox and residential treatment for adults in this borough begin with a free assessment at CGL Southwark. My part is weekly one-to-one counselling, and since the drive from Denmark Hill to Hove takes 88 minutes, we meet over secure video, whichever stage CGL Southwark's treatment has reached.
The practical facts for Camberwell
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Camberwell by car
- About 88 minutes with clear roads (51.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- CGL Southwark, 020 3404 7699
- 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.
Two hospitals on the hill, and one door for treatment
Living below Denmark Hill, with King's College Hospital and the Maudsley at the top of it, it can be surprisingly hard to know which door to knock on when drinking or drugs have taken hold in your home.
The person searching is often not the one using. It might be a father in a flat near Camberwell Green who has stopped lending money, or a sister who keeps a phone charged by the bed in case of a late call. It might be someone on shift at one of those hospitals, treating strangers all day and coming home to a partner whose drinking nobody else knows about. Camberwell has art students and gallery staff, families who have lived on the same estate for decades, and people between jobs, and drink or drugs can show up in any of those lives. Whoever you are in this, the first useful step is the same: finding out who assesses, who treats, and where support for you comes from.
How CGL Southwark and counselling fit together
For adults living in Southwark, CGL Southwark is the council's drug and alcohol service, reached on 020 3404 7699. After an assessment, CGL Southwark's staff decide with each person whether a supervised detox, a community programme or a residential place fits, and set that up when it is safe. My part is a weekly counselling hour that can begin before anyone has rung CGL, carry on while treatment is under way, or help steady things once someone is home again and the old streets and old evenings return. Our hour looks squarely at the job drink, drugs or gambling has been doing in your life, blunting the end of a long hospital shift on Denmark Hill, filling empty weekdays between jobs around Camberwell Green, or muffling something far older, and that need is usually still there once the habit has gone. There is no need to be sober, or to have sworn anything to your family, before a first video session from SE5. My own recovery means the details of a Camberwell Saturday night are unlikely to shock me, and a lecture is the last thing you will get. If you are the parent, partner or adult child, the sessions can be entirely yours: where your limits sit, what you will stop covering for, and how to stay close without going under with them.
Who tends to search this from SE5
The parent who can't stop worrying
An adult son or daughter whose drinking or drug use has upended the household. The Al-Anon Camberwell Saturday group is for families and friends of drinkers, and sessions of your own can sit beside it.
Clinician by day, worried at night
You spend shifts at King's or the Maudsley caring for others while your own drinking, or a partner's, goes unspoken. A private video hour sits well away from your workplace.
Treatment arranged, then home again
After detox or a residential place arranged through CGL Southwark, the Southwark Recovery Support Service offers peer-led support, and weekly counselling can help hold the gains steady.
A partner keeping everything afloat
Covering at work, managing the money, explaining absences. If someone's drinking has quietly made you their carer, Mobilise supports adult unpaid carers in Southwark online.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. "Similar to England" means the difference is not statistically significant. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free drug and alcohol support for Camberwell
CGL Southwark assesses and arranges treatment free of charge, and CGL Southwark Young People provides family support for those affected by someone's substance use. Once treatment ends, peers at the Southwark Recovery Support Service help keep recovery going, while relatives of drinkers find one another at the Al-Anon Camberwell Saturday group. All of these can run beside private counselling.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceCGL Southwark020 3404 7699Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationMobiliseSupport for carers.
- Local organisationSouthwark Carers
- Local organisationAl-Anon Camberwell Saturday
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 (SLaM) is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511 or text 80991.
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 Camberwell ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Camberwell, and who arranges detox for someone living in Southwark?
For adults living around Camberwell Grove or Coldharbour Lane, a detox bed or residential stay normally follows an assessment with CGL Southwark, the council's free drug and alcohol service, on 020 3404 7699. The person can contact them directly. Our weekly sessions can come first, keep pace with community treatment, or begin once someone returns to SE5 from a residential stay.
My brother drinks every day and won't get help. Where do I turn in Camberwell?
Start with support for yourself, because you can't make him change and the strain on you is real. Relatives are welcome at the Al-Anon Camberwell Saturday group and in the family support CGL Southwark Young People runs, and a counselling hour of your own is where you decide where your limits with your brother lie. Please don't push him to stop all at once, as that can be dangerous after heavy daily drinking; the safety warning on this page says who can advise.
I work at King's College Hospital and I'm worried about my drinking. Can I see you confidentially?
Yes. Nothing you tell me reaches anyone at King's, and the only exceptions are the safeguarding limits I set out in our first session. Sessions are by video and my room is in Hove, so there is no waiting room near Denmark Hill where you might meet a colleague. Even for someone who works in a hospital, ending heavy daily drinking abruptly carries real risk, so talk it through with your GP or CGL Southwark beforehand.
Does addiction counselling from Camberwell happen on a screen, or would I be travelling to Hove?
Video is the realistic way from Camberwell, with Hove 88 minutes away by car. The conversation is the same one we would have in the room, and being on home ground can make the truth easier to say. If sitting in the room matters to you at some point, the trip from Denmark Hill is best saved for a longer session in Hove, of 90 or 120 minutes.
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.
A first conversation, with nothing promised
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.