Alcohol
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Addiction Counselling · Hassocks
Addiction Counselling for Hassocks and the surrounding area, in person or online. Hassocks is a village at the foot of the Downs, beneath the Clayton windmills known as Jack and Jill. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In and around Hassocks
Life in Hassocks
Life in Hassocks is organised around the timetable. People leave from the station in the morning, come back to it at night, and the village in between belongs to school runs, dog walks in Adastra Park and the slow business of a small place minding itself. That structure is comforting and it is also easy to hide inside. Nobody questions a routine, so a routine is where a habit goes to live: the drink that starts the moment you are through the door on Keymer Road, the betting app opened on the way home, the order placed while the house sleeps. From outside, all anyone sees is a person who commutes and keeps their garden reasonably tidy.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Hassocks, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Hassocks, for context rather than as a description of you.
the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) was 440.2 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England average of 504.1 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Admission episodes for alcohol-related conditions (narrow) (2023/24).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 3.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
Addiction counselling here treats the pain beneath the habit, not just the symptom, alcohol, drugs, gambling, food or behavioural, so recovery is something you grow into rather than force.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on addiction counselling in detail, with how sessions run and what they cost for the practical questions and how to check my registration for registration and ethics.
Sessions take place in a private, comfortable room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove, held to the strict BACP confidentiality you would expect. We begin with a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, and the same sessions are available by secure video if travelling is difficult or you would simply prefer it.
From Hassocks it is a short train ride to Hove, or fifteen to twenty minutes by car if you would rather drive, and the room is on Western Road within easy reach of either. That makes an appointment at the start or end of a working day quite manageable. If the week has gone sideways, or the trains have, the same session can be taken online by secure video without losing your regular slot.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Compassionate, confidential help with substance use.
Breaking the cycle of compulsive gambling, guilt and debt.
Support for food and process addictions.
Help for those living alongside someone's addiction.
We treat the cause, not just the symptom.
Addiction Counselling in Hassocks
People often assume addiction counselling means alcohol or drugs, and then hesitate because their difficulty is gambling, gaming, spending or porn. All of it belongs here. The shape is consistent whatever the object: relief that works, then relief that is needed, then a life quietly rearranged to protect access to it. Sessions begin by understanding that arrangement rather than demanding it be dismantled on day one, which tends to be the difference between a change that lasts and a fortnight of white-knuckling. Village life adds its own pressure, since there is nowhere local to go and be anonymous. Deaths from drug misuse across the county were recorded at 3.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, under the England average of 5.8. The route into free structured treatment is West Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support, provided in this area by DAWN, and the Sussex Mental Healthline is available around the clock when a night becomes hard to get through.
Not sure if it is right for you? A free fifteen-minute call is a no-obligation way to talk it through.
Book a free 15-minute callMy counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Hassocks, free local drug and alcohol support is available through West Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support.
For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.
Other local and national support verified for this area includes:
This is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger call 999. For urgent mental health support, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.
Hassocks questions
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. From Hassocks a short train ride or a fifteen to twenty minute drive over the Downs brings you to Hove. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Hassocks or blend the two.
Morning appointments are often the easiest to protect, and the train down to Hove takes a short while, so an early slot need not wreck the day. Evening times exist too. What matters more than the hour is picking one you can keep repeating.
The approach is much the same, though the practicalities differ. Betting leaves no physical trace, is available every minute of the day, and drags debt and secrecy behind it. We work on the function it serves and on making the money and the time visible again.
It is the way into DAWN, the free local service, which offers structured treatment and medical support that private counselling cannot. Using it is entirely compatible with these sessions. Some people go there first, some later, and some never at all.
Nothing for the first 15-minute consultation, which is there so you can ask questions without committing. Beyond it, the rates are £80 / 60 min, £100 / 90 min and £120 / 120 min. You settle each appointment as you go rather than paying for a course upfront.
Not remotely. Plenty of first sessions begin with a vague sense that something has taken up too much room, without a clear name for it. Working out what is actually happening is part of the job, and often the most useful hour of the lot.
A short train ride or a fifteen to twenty minute drive over the Downs brings you to Hove. Online sessions are available too if that is easier for you.
A short train on the main line reaches Hove and Brighton in around fifteen minutes from central Hassocks Station, then a short walk to Western Road, or it is a fifteen to twenty minute drive over the Downs. Book a free fifteen-minute consultation first on 07914 681995.
Sessions are £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours, with a free first call. Hassocks is in West Sussex, so for free help you can self-refer to Change Grow Live West Sussex, the drug and alcohol service, without a GP.
Yes. The quick train to Hove makes coming in easy, with evening slots to fit a commuting week, but secure video is there when the trip is inconvenient. In a friendly Downs village, many Hassocks clients blend in-person and online as suits.
A free fifteen-minute call is the simplest place to start, no obligation, just a chance to see if we are the right fit.
Also available nearby: Ditchling, Burgess Hill, Patcham. See all areas I cover.
Also available in Hassocks: substance use counselling, counselling for drinking problems and trauma counselling.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about a cognitive-restructuring exercise for compulsive behaviour and the four-stage cycle of addiction.
Prefer to meet remotely? The same addiction counselling is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.