Dulwich · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Dulwich
Searching 'rehab Dulwich' on behalf of a husband, a mother or yourself? CGL Southwark weighs up each case and books any detox or residential stay. I offer one-to-one addiction counselling around that route, before, during or after it, shaped by my own recovery. Hove is 76 minutes' drive from Dulwich, so our weekly hour would normally happen over secure video, with a trip down to the room only now and then.
The practical facts for Dulwich
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Dulwich by car
- About 76 minutes with clear roads (48.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From North Dulwich / East Dulwich, change at East Croydon for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- 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.
Wine at the kitchen table, behind a tidy front door
Addiction in Dulwich rarely matches the picture people carry in their heads.
Southwark's ward profiles put Dulwich Village at the borough's lowest levels of deprivation, and the streets between the Old College and Lordship Lane hold more young children than anywhere else in Southwark, alongside a larger share of residents over 60. In homes like these, drinking can stay indoors for years: a bottle opened while the children's bath runs, a widower's evening glass that now lasts until midnight, or cocaine that arrived with a circle of friends and stayed. Money can postpone the reckoning, because the bills still get paid and nothing visibly falls apart. Across Southwark, hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions came to 618.1 per 100,000 in 2023/24, which sits close to England's 611.7, so a comfortable postcode is no shield. It remains a borough number, though, and tells you nothing about your own kitchen.
From a CGL Southwark assessment to the weeks after
The free door into treatment for Dulwich adults is CGL Southwark, Change Grow Live's drug and alcohol service for the borough, on 020 3404 7699. Their staff assess what someone needs and, if supervised withdrawal or a stay in residential care looks like the right step, they set it up. Counselling with me runs around that. A person might begin talking to me months before feeling able to ring anyone, and use those hours to get honest about how much and how often. Others begin while CGL's support is under way, or once a residential stay has ended and the old routine is waiting on the doorstep. Together we ask what purpose the bottle, the pills, the powder or the betting serves for you: quieting a busy head after work, filling the space a grown-up child left, or making a long marriage bearable. Then we look for other ways to meet that need. I came to this work through recovery of my own, so shame does not have to stand guard over what you tell me. If you are the one watching rather than using, the sessions can be yours alone, whether or not your partner, parent or adult child is ready to change.
Four starting points in a Dulwich household
An adult son or daughter at home
Your son or daughter has moved back after university or never quite left, and the drinking or using is growing. You can have counselling in your own right while they decide what to do.
Evenings stretched by a loss
South Southwark has more residents over 60 than the borough overall. If nights have lengthened since a partner died, Link Age Southwark offers befriending, and counselling can look at the drinking itself.
A teenager living alongside it
If a young person at home is affected by a parent's or sibling's drinking or drug use, CGL Southwark Young People offers family support for exactly that situation.
Company once treatment ends
Once CGL's programme ends, the peer-led Southwark Recovery Support Service offers a place among others in recovery, and our video hour can carry on alongside it.
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 Dulwich
CGL Southwark is where Dulwich adults ask about detox or rehab, free of charge. The Southwark Recovery Support Service, run by Janus Resonance Factor Limited, is peer-led and there for the longer haul. Mobilise is the council-listed online hub for adult unpaid carers, while the Southwark Wellbeing Hub comes from South East London Mind. Weekly sessions with me can overlap with every one of these.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceCGL Southwark020 3404 7699Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
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 Dulwich ask before starting
Which service sorts out rehab for a Dulwich resident?
That is CGL Southwark, the borough's free adult drug and alcohol service, on 020 3404 7699. They carry out the assessment and arrange detox or residential care whenever that would be the safer course. In the meantime, counselling with me can start for the person drinking or for you, and it can continue after any residential stay comes to an end.
My father in Dulwich has been drinking more since Mum died. Where can the family start?
Gently, because grief and drink can become tangled together. He can ring CGL Southwark himself, or you can call to ask what help is open to relatives. Link Age Southwark offers befriending and groups to residents over 60. Should he want to talk one to one, sessions with me can happen by video from his own home. Where he drinks heavily every day, read the withdrawal warning on this page with him before anything changes, and let CGL Southwark or his GP guide the timing.
Would I travel from East Dulwich to Hove, or meet you on video?
Both are possible. The only room is in Hove, around 76 minutes by car or a change of trains at East Croydon, so weekly addiction counselling from Dulwich normally runs on secure video. You can still come down for a first meeting or a longer session, and some weeks may suit an in-person visit once things feel steadier.
Will anyone in Dulwich Village know I'm having addiction counselling?
Sessions are confidential and held by video from a room you choose, so nobody sees you walking into a clinic. Nothing goes to your GP or employer without your agreement, apart from the rare situations where someone's safety is at serious risk, which I would explain on our first call. That privacy tends to make frank talk easier from the very first week.
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, before or after the CGL call
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.