Eltham · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Eltham
If you have typed rehab into a search bar from Eltham, perhaps about a teenager, a partner or yourself, you probably want a straight answer about where help comes from. Assessment, and any detox or residential place, is organised by Via Greenwich, the charity-run service for the borough. I offer one-to-one counselling beside that, usually by secure video, as my room is 77 minutes' drive away in Hove.
The practical facts for Eltham
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Eltham by car
- About 77 minutes with clear roads (62.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Eltham, change at London Victoria for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Via Greenwich, 0300 303 4552
- 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.
Quiet suburban streets and what they can hide
Eltham looks settled from the outside: the High Street, the roads around Eltham Park and Middle Park, the Progress Estate, families out in Avery Hill Park on a Sunday.
Behind those tidy suburban fronts, it can take years before anyone says the words drink or drugs aloud. Nobody wants to be the household the neighbours talk about, so a parent counts empty cans in the recycling, a partner makes excuses for missed weekends, and a grown-up son still living at home insists everything is fine. Students living away from home at the University of Greenwich Avery Hill Campus can slip without their families seeing it. In 2023/24 Greenwich recorded 406.3 alcohol-related admissions to hospital per 100,000 residents on the narrow definition, under England's 504.1 per 100,000. A lower borough rate offers little comfort if your own family is struggling, and it says nothing about any single home in SE9.
Via Greenwich, residential care and weekly counselling
Treatment for anyone living in Eltham starts with Via Greenwich, a free service run by the charity Via, on 0300 303 4552. Via carries out the assessment, and if a medically supervised detox or residential stay turns out to be the right step, Via arranges that too. Counselling with me is an outpatient hour each week, and it can come before that first call, sit alongside community treatment, or help someone settle back into Eltham after residential care, when the old routines are waiting. We work out what the drink, drugs or betting have been doing for you, perhaps softening the crush of a packed peak-hour train back to Eltham, filling the hours in a quiet house or numbing a loss, and then what else could do that job. You can still be using when we start, and you'll get no sermon from me, partly because I have been through recovery myself. For families, Via also runs support for family, friends and carers. Sessions with me can be entirely for the parent, partner or grown-up child, to work out what to say, where helping has turned into rescuing, and how to keep looking after yourself while someone you love is unwell.
Eltham situations this page speaks to
A teenager or adult child using
Parents in Well Hall or New Eltham can contact Via Greenwich directly about the support it gives relatives, while sessions with me keep the focus on how you are holding up.
A partner's evening drinking
Al-Anon UK is a national fellowship for people affected by someone else's drinking. Counselling here gives you a private hour to think about what you need.
Student life at Avery Hill
Living in halls at the University of Greenwich Avery Hill Campus, drinking or drug use can grow unnoticed. Via Greenwich is the local starting point for students living in the borough.
Debt alongside gambling or drinking
If betting or drinking has left bills piling up, Citizens Advice at the Eltham Centre on Archery Road can help with the money, while counselling looks at the habit itself.
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 Eltham
In SE9 the free door into treatment is Via Greenwich, which assesses people and sets up detox where needed, with a separate strand for relatives living alongside someone's use. Greenwich Carers Centre supports people who have become carers, Live Well Greenwich offers wider wellbeing help, and Al-Anon UK meets nationally. Counselling with me can sit beside all of them.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceVia Greenwich0300 303 4552Free 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 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 Eltham ask before starting
Where does someone in Eltham go for rehab or detox?
Residential rehab and medically supervised detox for people living in Eltham are arranged after an assessment with Via Greenwich on 0300 303 4552. The service is free and run by the charity Via. Weekly sessions with me can come ahead of that assessment, run while treatment is under way, or take over when someone returns to SE9.
I think my teenager in Eltham is using drugs. Who can I talk to?
Via Greenwich supports family, friends and carers as well as the person using, so you can contact them about your own worry. Counselling for yourself gives you space to plan a calm conversation and decide where your limits are. If your child seems in immediate danger, or you cannot wake them, call 999 straight away.
Can addiction counselling happen by video from Eltham?
Yes, and it is the normal arrangement from here. The Hove room is about 77 minutes' drive away with no direct train, so we meet on secure video at a regular time. A box room, the car parked up near Eltham Park or any private corner will do, and no one on the High Street sees you walk into a counselling room.
How soon could counselling begin, and must I be sober first?
You can begin before stopping. Book a short call whenever you are ready and I will give you the regular times I have free. Heavy daily drinkers should check with a GP or Via Greenwich before cutting back, and read the withdrawal safety note beside the crisis numbers on this page.
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.
Get in touch from Eltham, for yourself or someone close
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.