Esher · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Esher
Late-night searches for rehab in Esher tend to come from a worried partner, a parent in Claygate or the Moleseys, or the drinker themselves, and in this county detox and residential places come through i-access, Surrey's free drink and drug service. My part is weekly addiction counselling by secure video, since Hove is around 65 minutes' drive away, and it can run before, during or after their treatment.
The practical facts for Esher
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Esher by car
- About 65 minutes with clear roads (49.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Esher, change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- i-access, 0300 222 5932
- 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.
Race days, quiet evenings and a betting app
Esher has a racecourse at the end of its station platform.
On a Sandown Park race day a bet and a few drinks are part of the afternoon, and for plenty of people that's where it stays. For some, the betting carries on afterwards on a phone, at the kitchen table in Weston Green or on the late train back from Waterloo, and it leaves no bottles for anyone to find. Drinking can hide just as well in a tidy house in Hinchley Wood, where the recycling tells more of the story than anyone says aloud. Often the person who searches first is a husband, a mother or a sister, rather than the one drinking or betting. In 2023/24 there were 494.8 alcohol-specific hospital admissions for every 100,000 people in Elmbridge, lower than England's 611.7. A rate for a whole borough can't measure what is happening under your roof, and a lower number doesn't make your worry any smaller.
How i-access and a weekly hour share the work
For Esher and the rest of Elmbridge, specialist drug and alcohol treatment starts with i-access on 0300 222 5932, a joint service of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Via, a non-profit. Their team carries out the assessment and, where it's needed, arranges a medically supported detox, community support or a residential place. My side of it is a weekly one-to-one counselling hour that can start while the i-access number is still on a note by the phone, continue through their programme, or carry you through the months after a stay away, when the Waterloo train and Esher's ordinary routines return all at once. We look at what the drinking, drugs or betting has been doing for you. For one person it softens the drop after a pressured week. For another it fills the space a death has left, because grief and drinking get tangled more often than people expect, and if you're grieving someone cared for at Princess Alice Hospice, its bereavement support can run alongside our sessions. I have been through recovery myself, so whatever has happened on race days or late at night in Hinchley Wood can be said plainly, with no lecture coming back. A relative is welcome to come alone, to think about how much they can carry and how to say what they've seen without starting another argument.
Who in Esher this page is written for
A bet that outlasted race day
Sandown Park sits beside the station. If betting has moved onto your phone and into the joint account, we can talk about it without judgement, and the gambling helpline is on this page.
Drinking through a bereavement
Evenings leaning on wine since a death in the family. Princess Alice Hospice in Esher offers community bereavement support open to all, and counselling can hold the drinking and the grief together.
The relative making excuses
Phoning in sick on someone's behalf, smoothing over another missed family event. Relatives in Elmbridge can lean on the i-access information and carers support, and an hour with me can stay entirely about you rather than them.
When drink has worn a marriage thin
SearchLight Counselling and Therapy has an Esher centre offering relationship counselling, and it can run in parallel with your own one-to-one addiction counselling by video.
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 Esher
For assessment, detox or a residential place, i-access is the route, and its information and carers support is open to family members. Action for Carers Surrey helps when someone's drinking has made you their carer, and Mary Frances Trust Community Connections offers Elmbridge peer support in Hersham and groups in West Molesey. Weekly sessions with me fit around whichever of them you use.
- Free drug and alcohol servicei-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationi-access information and carers support for family and carers
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.
Locally, the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS FT Mental Health Crisis Helpline is on 0800 915 4644.
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 Esher ask before starting
If my partner in Esher needs rehab, how is a place arranged?
For an Esher household, a rehab place or detox is set up once the person concerned has been assessed by i-access, which handles drink and drug problems free across the county, on 0300 222 5932. An adult usually needs to take part in that assessment themselves, so a relative can't book it on their behalf. You can still ask i-access for its family and carers information, and weekly counselling with me can begin for either of you before anything is decided.
My husband bets on the horses and hides the losses. Can I get help in Esher on my own?
Yes, and he doesn't have to know or agree. Living with hidden betting can mean checking statements at midnight, covering shortfalls and doubting your own judgement. Sessions can be about what you've noticed, what you're willing to keep doing and how to protect your own money and sleep. Should the losses keep you awake before our first session, the free gambling helpline listed on this page answers around the clock.
Is addiction counselling from Esher done face to face or by video?
Mostly by video. Hove is about 65 minutes' drive from Esher, and a weekly round trip of more than two hours is hard to hold when life feels unsteady. On video you join from any private room in Esher, Claygate or Thames Ditton. Later on, when life feels steadier and meeting face to face would mean something, an occasional 90-minute session in Hove is easy to arrange from Esher.
Living in Esher, can I start counselling before i-access has assessed me?
Yes. There's no referral and no requirement to have stopped first. The free 15-minute call ends with a straight answer about which weekly video times I have, and the first few sessions can help you get ready for the questions i-access will ask. If heavy daily drinking is part of this, the withdrawal warning on this page comes first, and your GP should hear about any change you plan.
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 word from Esher, for you or someone you love
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.