Farnham · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Farnham
If drinking, drugs or gambling has started to run your life in Farnham, or you love someone whose life it is running, I offer one-to-one counselling by secure video. Detox and residential care are arranged for people here through the free Surrey route, and I can explain how counselling fits around them.
The practical facts for Farnham
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Farnham by car
- About 84 minutes with clear roads (69.5 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Farnham, change at Guildford and Gatwick Airport 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.
Searching for rehab in a town that looks fine
From the outside, Farnham can look as though nothing is wrong: a market town with a castle and commuters heading for the Waterloo trains each morning.
That appearance can make a drinking or drug problem harder to admit, for the person using and for the family keeping the peace. Waverley recorded 380.4 hospital admissions per 100,000 people for alcohol-specific conditions in 2023/24, lower than England's 611.7 per 100,000. A district rate says nothing about your own kitchen, though. Bottles hidden in the recycling, or money that keeps going missing, are lived with one household at a time. If you are typing rehab into a search bar late at night from Rowledge or Badshot Lea, frightened and unsure who to tell, the first useful step is usually smaller and closer than a residential place.
Where i-access ends and counselling begins
In Surrey, the free route into treatment is i-access, run by Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust with the non-profit Via, on 0300 222 5932. They assess what someone needs and, where it is right, arrange treatment in the community or, for some people, a medically supported detox and a stay in residential care. My part is outpatient counselling, and it can sit at any point around their work: before the assessment, while someone is still in two minds; alongside community treatment; or after a residential stay, when the structure falls away and ordinary Farnham life resumes. Together we look squarely at what the drinking, using or betting has been doing for you, because a habit that numbs grief or quietens a racing head will be missed when it goes. I have lived experience of recovery myself, so I won't be shocked and I won't preach. Families can come too, without the person who is using. If you are the partner or the parent, we can work on saying what you have seen without it turning into a row, and on keeping some of your own life going while you wait.
If you are reading this for someone else
A partner keeping it quiet
You have been making excuses to friends in town and covering the gaps for months. i-access also supports families and carers, and sessions with me can be yours alone.
A young adult in your house
If your son or daughter is aged 11 to 25, there is free counselling for them, and for you as their parent, alongside whatever i-access suggests.
Cocaine, and a Wednesday meeting
Cocaine Anonymous meets in Farnham as The Big Step, an open in-person meeting on Wednesdays from 19:30. Peer support and one-to-one counselling can run side by side.
When caring has become your life
Looking after someone whose drinking has damaged their health can make you a carer without anyone saying so. Action for Carers Surrey supports carers with that load.
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 Farnham
Private counselling can run alongside Farnham's free routes. Treatment itself, detox included, is assessed and arranged by i-access. If the person using is young, Headroom Charity offers free counselling to people aged 11 to 25 and to their parents or carers. Cocaine Anonymous: The Big Step (Farnham) meets in town each week, and Action for Carers Surrey supports carers.
- Free drug and alcohol servicei-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationi-access information and carers support for family and carers
- Local organisationCommunity Mental Health Recovery Service (CMHRS) Waverley: Farnham clinicNHS secondary care community mental health clinic.
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 Farnham ask before starting
Where does someone in Farnham actually start if they need rehab?
With i-access, the free Surrey drug and alcohol service, on 0300 222 5932. After an assessment they can set up whatever treatment fits, which for some people includes detox or residential care. Counselling with me can begin while you wait for the assessment, run alongside treatment, or pick up afterwards when you're home again.
My partner drinks every night after the commute home to Farnham. Where can I get help for me?
You can get help whether or not your partner changes anything. i-access has its own support for families and carers, and counselling with me can give you an hour each week that is about you: what you've been carrying, what you will and won't keep covering, and how to raise it without it turning into a fight.
Would addiction counselling by video from Farnham feel too distant?
It may feel odd at first, and we can talk about that openly. Hove is about 84 minutes' drive away, so video is how we'd meet. You talk from somewhere private, there's no waiting room, and nobody in Farnham sees you arrive. That privacy can make the first honest conversation easier.
Can I start counselling from Farnham before I've decided to stop?
Yes. You don't need to have decided anything, and feeling in two minds is a very ordinary place to begin. We can look at what you'd lose and gain either way, without pressure. If you drink heavily daily, the withdrawal warning on this page explains why your GP or i-access should hear from you before you change anything.
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 quiet first call, for you or for them
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.