Eastleigh · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Eastleigh
Whether the drinking or drug use that worries you is your own, a retired parent's or a grown-up child's, detox and residential places in Hampshire are arranged through Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, free, on 0300 124 0103. I offer one-to-one counselling around that care. Because the drive from Eastleigh to Hove takes about 85 minutes, our hours mostly run on secure video, keeping a trip to the room for the occasional longer session.
The practical facts for Eastleigh
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Eastleigh by car
- About 85 minutes with clear roads (63.5 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Eastleigh, change at Fareham for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, 0300 124 0103
- 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.
Rotas, retirement and the drink nobody mentions
Eastleigh runs to timetables. The town grew around the railway works after 1891, Southampton Airport sits inside the borough, and the M3 meets the M27 close by, so for anyone working at the airport or on the railway the day can begin before dawn or end long after dark. A drink to come down after a late finish can slowly turn into the only way to sleep. The borough has changed shape too: between the 2011 and 2021 censuses, the number of residents aged 65 to 74 rose by 28.3%. Retirement, the loss of a partner or a suddenly quiet house can change how much someone drinks, and the first person to notice is often a son or daughter in Fair Oak or Bishopstoke who calls round. Hampshire's alcohol-specific admissions to hospital ran at 618.4 per 100,000 in 2023/24, a county figure similar to England's 611.7 per 100,000. It says nothing about your family in particular.
How Inclusion and weekly counselling fit together
Hampshire's free county service for drink and drugs, covering Bishopstoke and Hedge End as much as the town centre, is Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, which Inclusion runs under Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. Its team sees you for an assessment, can support you while you go on living at home in the borough, and books a detox or a residential stay when that is the safe next move. Alongside it I offer a private weekly hour on video. Before an assessment, that might mean working out whether you are ready to ring at all. While Inclusion's support at home is running, our sessions look at the job drink or drugs has been doing: blunting the edge of a late airport shift, filling evenings since a parent died, keeping you company through months on a new Horton Heath estate where you know nobody. After residential care, it is help settling back into ordinary weeks. Families are central to this work. If you are the adult child trying to raise a father's drinking with him, or the parent of a Barton Peveril student who keeps coming home in a state, you can book sessions purely for yourself. Whatever you bring from the works, the airport or a quiet house in Bishopstoke, you are talking to someone with a recovery of his own and more than 25 years in practice, who will hear it calmly.
Where Eastleigh drinkers and their families can turn
Inclusion assessment, free and countywide
Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, on 0300 124 0103, assesses drug and alcohol use for people across the Borough of Eastleigh and arranges detox or residential care where that fits.
A retired parent's drinking
The borough's residents aged 65 to 74 grew by 28.3% in a decade. If one of them is your mum or dad and the drinking worries you, sessions can help you plan what to say.
Parents of a young adult
Parent Support Link offers family support to parents and relatives affected by a loved one's drinking or drug use, and your own counselling hour can sit alongside it.
When caring and drinking overlap
Looking after someone whose drinking has taken hold can make you an unpaid carer. The Eastleigh Carer Project at Citizens Advice Eastleigh helps with money, work and housing pressures.
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 Eastleigh
Free help around Eastleigh can run beside private sessions. Inclusion Recovery Hampshire arranges drug and alcohol treatment. For families there is Parent Support Link, while relatives who have slipped into a caring role can go to The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire. When debts or housing are part of the strain, Citizens Advice Eastleigh takes walk-ins at 101 Leigh Road from 10am to 12pm, Monday to Thursday, and a text of HANTS to 85258 reaches someone day or night.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceInclusion Recovery Hampshire0300 124 0103Free and confidential.
- Local organisationEastleigh Carer Project (Citizens Advice Eastleigh)Support for unpaid carers living in Eastleigh, low-cost or fee-paying.
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.
In this area you can also text HANTS to 85258.
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 Eastleigh ask before starting
If someone in Eastleigh needs rehab, who sorts out the place?
It starts with Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, the free service covering the Borough of Eastleigh, on 0300 124 0103. Their assessment weighs up what the person needs, whether that is support while living at home in the borough, a detox or a residential placement, and they make the arrangements when it is safe. I offer counselling that can begin beforehand and continue once treatment ends.
My dad lives alone in Chandler's Ford and has been drinking more since he retired. What can I do?
Your own footing comes first, and that is allowed. Inclusion Recovery Hampshire can tell you what is open to him when he is ready, and Parent Support Link offers family support to relatives. In sessions with me we can work out how to raise it without a row, how much you can realistically carry, and how to look after yourself while he decides.
Is addiction counselling near Eastleigh face to face, or on video?
The one room I use, at Intergen House in Hove, is about 85 minutes' drive from Eastleigh, so weekly work is usually on secure video. A quiet bedroom, a parked car somewhere private or a spare hour before a shift at the airport all work. When it would help, an occasional longer session in Hove can be booked ahead.
Can I begin counselling from Eastleigh before I've spoken to Inclusion?
Yes. No referral or assessment is needed first, and you don't have to have stopped. When we have talked for the free 15 minutes and both feel ready, you choose a regular weekly slot, early or late enough to fit round a rail or airport shift. Counselling can run alongside Inclusion's support once you contact them. If drinking is daily and heavy, any change should be planned with them or your GP.
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 call about drink or drugs, from anywhere in the borough
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.