Hastings · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Hastings
If drinking, drugs or gambling have a grip on you, or on someone you love, and you live in Hastings, I offer one-to-one addiction counselling, almost always by secure video. Recovery is part of my own story too. Rehab and detox are handled by services around Hastings, and this page sets out which ones, and where counselling sits beside them.
The practical facts for Hastings
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Hastings by car
- About 67 minutes with clear roads (40.1 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- Direct trains from Hastings to Brighton; change there for Hove, one stop.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- STAR Drug and Alcohol Service (East Sussex STAR), 0300 303 8160
- 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.
Reading about rehab late at night in Hastings
Rehab can sound like somewhere a long way from Hastings, and my own room is more than an hour away in Hove, so help can seem far off.
Meanwhile the habit carries on in ordinary places: a can opened the moment you're through the door, a Friday line at a friend's flat that now happens on Tuesdays as well, bets placed on your phone during a break. Or you're the one who has noticed it in someone else, a partner or a grown-up son or daughter, and you're the one searching for rehab after everyone has gone to bed. In East Sussex the way into detox or residential care starts with an assessment at STAR, the county's drug and alcohol service. Some of the other help is in St Leonards itself, and counselling can reach you at home, so there is more within reach than it may seem from where you're sitting.
Building support around you from Hastings
Because our sessions would usually be on a screen, it helps to have face-to-face support nearer home. STAR Drug and Alcohol Service, which Change Grow Live provides for East Sussex, is where your use is assessed and where detox or a residential place is arranged if you need one. My part is a weekly one-to-one hour. We look at what the drink, drugs or betting have been doing for you, what they numb or switch off, and what you'd need in their place, and you don't have to promise to stop before we start. With my own recovery behind me and more than 25 years in practice, very little you tell me will shock me. If you're the family member, the sessions can be yours alone, about the worry, the arguments and where your limits are. East Sussex recorded 507.1 hospital admissions per 100,000 for alcohol-specific conditions in 2023/24, which sits below England's 611.7 per 100,000 for that year. A county number like that can't tell you how things stand in your own home.
Local footholds alongside our sessions
A door you can walk through
The Seaview Project Wellbeing Centre in St Leonards is an open-access drop-in, so on a hard day you can be somewhere with other people, no appointment needed.
When it's tangled with everything
If addiction has become complex, with other serious problems piling on top, ask the Seaview Project about its Specialist Outreach Recovery Service, which works with complex addiction.
People who've been there
Coastal Routes Recovery, the county's Lived Experience Recovery Organisation, brings together people who know addiction first-hand. Peer company there and one-to-one work with me meet different needs, and you can have both.
Loving someone who uses
Adfam East Sussex supports relatives and friends of people who drink or use drugs. Counselling with me can be yours alone, even if they never come.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. "Similar to England" means the difference is not statistically significant. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free drug and alcohol support for Hastings
In practice the pieces can fit into one week: STAR Drug and Alcohol Service for assessment and referral to any detox or residential care, a drop-in at the Seaview Project or time with Coastal Routes Recovery for company, and a private hour with me on video for what sits underneath. A worried relative can lean on Adfam East Sussex at the same time. If mood drops badly in the evening, Staying Well Hastings is an out-of-hours walk-in.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceSTAR Drug and Alcohol Service (East Sussex STAR)0300 303 8160Run by Change Grow Live. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCare for the 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.
In this area you can also text SUSSEX 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 Hastings ask before starting
Do I need rehab, or would counselling from Hastings be enough?
STAR Drug and Alcohol Service is the place to judge that: it assesses what level of help you need, from community support to detox or a residential place, and you can call them on 0300 303 8160. Where drinking has become daily and heavy, see the withdrawal note in this page's urgent help box before stopping or altering how much you have. Counselling can start straight away and run alongside whatever STAR recommends.
Can you talk to my son in Hastings if he won't ring STAR himself?
Only if he chooses to. Counselling depends on the person wanting to be there, so I can't speak to him on your behalf, but he's welcome to book the free call himself. Meanwhile, Adfam East Sussex supports family members, and you can have sessions of your own about the worry, the arguments and what you will and won't do.
Will anyone in Hastings know I'm seeing an addiction counsellor?
Sessions are confidential, and from Hastings we'd meet by video, so there's no local waiting room and nobody sees you arrive. You don't need a GP referral to begin. If you also use STAR or the Seaview Project, they're separate from me, and I wouldn't contact them without your agreement unless someone's safety was at serious risk. I'll explain that limit on the free call.
How soon can addiction counselling start from Hastings when Hove is so far away?
The distance doesn't slow things down, because from Hastings we'd work by secure video, and no GP letter is needed. After a free 15-minute call we find a weekly time and begin. If home is where the drinking happens, or someone might overhear, we plan a time and place where you can talk freely.
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.
One honest conversation to start with
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.