Kennington · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Kennington
Searching 'rehab Kennington' for yourself, a partner or a parent usually means things have reached a hard point. Lambeth arranges detox and residential rehab free, through the Lambeth Drug and Alcohol Service, once someone has been assessed. My part is the one-to-one counselling around that. The Hove room is 87 minutes from SE11 by car, so most weeks we would talk over secure video, with a trip south now and then.
The practical facts for Kennington
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Kennington by car
- About 87 minutes with clear roads (51.0 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Lambeth Drug and Alcohol Service, 020 3228 1500
- 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.
Between Cleaver Square and the estates off Kennington Lane
Kennington packs sharp contrasts into a small patch of south London.
Georgian terraces around Cleaver Square and Walcot Square stand a short walk from large council estates, and the Northern line junction puts the City and the West End within easy reach of anyone who works there. A drinking or drug problem can look quite different from one street to the next. In one house it is a professional whose evening bottle has quietly become two; a few roads away it is a son in his twenties whose cannabis use has crept from weekends into every day. Housing adds its own weight. In the 2025 Indices of Deprivation, Kennington ward came out as the most deprived in Lambeth for barriers to housing and services, and an insecure tenancy or an overcrowded flat makes appointments and quiet hours harder to protect.
How Lambeth arranges treatment, and where weekly sessions fit
For anyone living on the Lambeth side of Kennington, the door into detox or residential rehab is the borough's drug and alcohol consortium, reachable on 020 3228 1500. South London and Maudsley leads it, and its staff work out with each person what level of care is safe, from outpatient help through to a supervised withdrawal or a stay in a residential unit. If your address falls on the Southwark side of the boundary, that borough's own service is the one to approach, and your GP can point you to it. What I add is counselling for one person at a time, whichever stage of that you happen to be at. Beforehand, it can be a private place to decide whether you are ready to ring. During treatment, it gives you a weekly hour that is yours rather than the care plan's. After a residential stay, it helps with the slower part, when the same streets, the same friends and the same pressures at home are all waiting. Lambeth Harbour, the consortium's recovery and aftercare service, can run alongside us. Having been through recovery myself, I can hear about shame, lapses and relapse with no lecture attached.
Kennington situations that can prompt the first call
A home that feels at risk
When drinking or drug use starts to threaten a tenancy in a ward already top of Lambeth for housing barriers, counselling gives you room to think while the consortium assesses treatment.
When the drinker is family
Relatives in Lambeth can lean on the Substance Misuse Carers service at Carers' Hub Lambeth, and a weekly hour with me can be kept purely for how all this lands on you.
Aged 14 to 35 and struggling
OASIS Outreach and Support at 190 Kennington Lane works with young people in psychological distress, which can matter when drug use and frightening thoughts arrive together.
Life after a residential stay
Lambeth Harbour offers recovery and aftercare once treatment ends, and weekly video sessions can keep going beside it while old routines in SE11 are rebuilt.
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 Kennington
Lambeth's drug and alcohol consortium handles assessment, detox and residential referrals without charge, and it has support for families and carers too. Carers' Hub Lambeth keeps a Substance Misuse Carers service for relatives, Lambeth Harbour continues recovery once treatment is over, and South East London Mind works across the borough. Our counselling can sit in the middle of all that, joined up with whichever of them you use.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceLambeth Drug and Alcohol Service020 3228 1500Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCarers' Hub Lambeth: Substance Misuse Carers service
- Local organisationAge UK Lambeth Magnolia Club (204 Kennington Lane group)Free weekly drop-in group for people affected by dementia.
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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis Text Service (SLaM) is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511 or text 80991.
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 Kennington ask before starting
How does someone from Kennington get a place in rehab?
Rehab places for Lambeth residents come through the borough's consortium, Lambeth Drug and Alcohol Service, whose number is 020 3228 1500. After an assessment, its team agrees with the person whether outpatient help near home, a monitored detox or a residential programme is the right level of care, and then sets it up. Counselling with me can begin while you wait for that assessment and carry on long after any stay has ended.
My partner drinks every night in our Oval flat and won't get help. Can I come on my own?
Yes. Sessions can be entirely about you: how the drinking is affecting you, where your limits lie and what you want to say to your partner. Relatives can use the Substance Misuse Carers service at Carers' Hub Lambeth, and the Lambeth consortium offers families and carers support of their own. If raising the subject at home feels unsafe, the safety contacts on this page come first.
Is video counselling for addiction realistic from SE11?
For steady weekly work it usually is. The Hove room sits 87 minutes off by car, or a tube and train ride via London Bridge or Victoria, so we meet over secure video and you join from somewhere private. On days when an in-person hour matters, for example soon after you come home from a residential programme, a session in the Hove room can be arranged.
Can I start counselling near Kennington Cross before I've stopped drinking?
You can. A free 15-minute conversation can happen before you have decided anything at all, and if we carry on you pick from the weekly times I genuinely have free. Please come to every session sober so the hour is useful. Heavy daily drinkers in SE11 should read the withdrawal note in the urgent help box on this page, then talk to a GP or the Lambeth consortium ahead of stopping.
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.
Make the first call, for yourself or someone in SE11
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.