Islington · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Islington
If you have typed rehab into a search bar from Islington, whether the worry is your own use or that of someone close to you, the route to assessment, detox or a residential place runs through Better Lives, the borough's free drug and alcohol service. What I offer is counselling: a private weekly hour on secure video, before treatment, alongside it or afterwards, with sessions for worried family members too.
The practical facts for Islington
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Islington by car
- About 105 minutes with clear roads (55.3 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Better Lives (Islington's drug and alcohol service), 020 3317 6099
- 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.
Where a search for rehab in N7 really leads
Better Lives is Islington's drug and alcohol service, run by North London NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Waythrough, and it is the front door to most treatment in the borough.
Whether you live in Finsbury Park, Pentonville or above a shop on Essex Road, you can ring it on 020 3317 6099, and after an assessment it agrees with you what fits: support in the community, detox or a residential stay. Drinking shows up clearly in local health figures. Islington's hospital admission rate for alcohol-specific conditions stood at 730.4 per 100,000 during 2023/24, higher than England's 611.7 per 100,000, and the council finds the largest numbers of people with alcohol dependency in the more deprived parts of the borough. Those figures describe a borough, never a person. Counselling is the slower, private conversation that sits next to treatment: what alcohol, drugs or gambling have given you, what they have cost, and what you would like in their place.
One-to-one support for the drinker and the family around them
Sessions are outpatient and one to one, and you can begin before you have stopped, or even decided to. We look at when the pull is strongest, perhaps after a long shift, on a Friday night along Upper Street or alone in a flat at the end of a quiet Sunday, and at what the habit has been holding together for you. There is often something older underneath, and that gets room too. If Better Lives arranges a detox or a residential place, the weeks after you come home to Islington can feel exposed, and a fixed weekly hour keeps a thread running through them, alongside the Eagle Recovery Project and other recovery support. Partners, parents and adult children are welcome to book sessions purely for themselves, to talk about the lying awake, the covering for someone and where their own limits sit. The Better Lives Family Service supports relatives in the borough as well. Behind my 25 years and more in practice is my own recovery, which means the true count of drinks, or the secret you have kept from everyone, can be said out loud here without judgement.
Why you might be reading this in Islington
Unsure where assessment happens
Better Lives, on 020 3317 6099, is the free Islington service that assesses drug and alcohol use, then sets up help in the community, a detox or time in residential care.
A relative's drinking is wearing you down
The Better Lives Family Service supports family members, and separate sessions with me can be kept wholly for you and what you have been carrying.
Wanting others who understand recovery
The Eagle Recovery Project is a recovery community you can join alongside counselling, a place to meet people in recovery between our weekly video sessions.
Registered with an Islington GP
The Claremont Project at the Angel offers psychotherapy priced by income for Islington GP patients, and it includes drug and alcohol related problems.
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 Islington
In Islington, free drug and alcohol treatment, including detox and residential places, is arranged through Better Lives on 020 3317 6099. The Better Lives Family Service supports relatives, the Eagle Recovery Project offers a recovery community, and the Islington Carers Hub, run by Age UK Islington, helps anyone caring for someone. On a hard evening, The Lantern on Islington Park Street offers walk-in support every day of the year.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceBetter Lives (Islington's drug and alcohol service)020 3317 6099Free and confidential.
- Local organisationClaremont Project Psychotherapy ServiceLow-cost or fee-paying.
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 Camden and Islington Crisis Single Point of Access is on 0800 917 3333. Local drop-in crisis support: The Lantern, Islington (check opening times before you go).
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 Islington ask before starting
How does a person from Islington get a place in rehab?
The usual route is an assessment with Better Lives, Islington's free drug and alcohol service, on 020 3317 6099. Better Lives works out what is needed and arranges whatever treatment fits from there. Our sessions can start ahead of that decision, carry on through treatment and continue afterwards, and family members can book sessions of their own while they wait.
My partner's drinking is getting worse. Where can I get support for myself in Islington?
You can get help whatever your partner decides. The Better Lives Family Service supports relatives of people using drugs or alcohol, and the Islington Carers Hub helps people who have ended up caring for someone. Our sessions can belong wholly to you, covering what living beside your partner's drinking has been like, how much more of it you are willing to carry, and how you keep yourself steady through it.
Does addiction counselling work over video from a flat in Islington?
Yes, and from Islington that is how we would normally work, since the drive to Hove is about 105 minutes each way. You join from somewhere you won't be overheard, even a parked car, which can make honesty easier. A longer session face to face in Hove can be arranged whenever you want one, reached on the Victoria line to London Victoria or by Thameslink from King's Cross St Pancras.
Is it worth starting counselling before Better Lives has assessed me?
Yes. Counselling can begin before an assessment and keep going once treatment is set up. Before altering a daily heavy-drinking habit, read the urgent help box on this page and agree the steps with Better Lives or your Islington GP, so it happens safely. The Lantern on Islington Park Street is also open every day of the year if an evening becomes too much.
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.
Whether the drinking is yours or a loved one's, a first short conversation
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.