Leatherhead · in person in Hove or online
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Leatherhead
When someone in Leatherhead, Ashtead, Fetcham or Bookham starts looking up rehab, the number that matters is i-access, Surrey's free treatment service, which assesses people and can set up a detox or a residential stay. Separately, I see people one to one for addiction counselling, over secure video or in my Hove room, before, during or after that treatment, plus sessions for relatives worn down by worry.
The practical facts for Leatherhead
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Leatherhead by car
- About 58 minutes with clear roads (47.0 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Leatherhead, change at Clapham Junction 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.
Keeping up appearances in the Mole Valley villages
From the outside, Leatherhead and the villages around it look settled: an office on Ermyn Way, two trains an hour to Waterloo, a house in Givons Grove or Bookham.
In that setting it feels harder to say out loud that drink or drugs have taken over, because everyone nearby seems to be coping and nobody wants theirs to be the household that is not. If you are the wife, husband or parent doing the searching, this page is written with you in mind. For Mole Valley, free treatment for drinking and drug use comes through i-access, on 0300 222 5932. They assess what is going on and arrange community support, detox or residential care where it fits. Wives, husbands and parents get help there as well, since the service has its own information and carers strand for families. A phone call is a reasonable first step even if nobody at home has yet said the word addiction out loud.
What addiction counselling with me involves
Each session is just the two of us, on an outpatient basis, fitted around work and home life in the villages. You can begin while you are still drinking, using or gambling, and abstinence is not a condition of the first appointment. We look at the moments the urge arrives, perhaps the drive home from a business park or the quiet house once the children are in bed, and at what the habit seems to be managing for you. Underneath there is often something that has waited a long time for attention, and we make room for it. Where i-access books a detox or residential place, sessions can help you prepare beforehand and steady you on your return, when the Ermyn Way commute and the old evening habits are waiting. Family members can book sessions in their own right, to talk about the secrecy, the anger and the exhaustion, and to work out what you will keep doing and what has to stop. Mole Valley saw 356.7 alcohol-specific hospital admissions per 100,000 residents in 2023/24, lower than England's 611.7, though a district figure tells you nothing about one family's kitchen table. Whatever the Mole Valley evenings have looked like, it can be heard here without judgement, by a counsellor who is in recovery too and has over 25 years in practice.
Where help sits for families around Leatherhead
Arranging detox or residential care
Call i-access on 0300 222 5932 for an assessment. From there they can organise help while you stay at home, a detox, or residential treatment.
A partner covering for the drinking
If you're making excuses to friends in Bookham or Fetcham, the family and carers strand at i-access gives information and support to you. Counselling with me gives you a weekly hour to speak honestly about what home has become.
Caring has taken over your life
If a relative's drinking or drug use means you are effectively their carer, Action for Carers Surrey supports unpaid carers right across the county.
Service life and the bottle
If you served in the forces, Combat Stress at Tyrwhitt House on Oaklawn Road is the specialist veterans' mental health charity, and our sessions can run alongside its support.
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 Leatherhead
Around Leatherhead, free drug and alcohol treatment runs through i-access on 0300 222 5932, and relatives can lean on its information and carers support. Action for Carers Surrey helps unpaid carers, and Mary Frances Trust at 23 The Crescent offers free emotional wellbeing support for anyone 16 and over, with no waiting list. Young adults aged 18 to 24 can use Heads Together Counselling at the Leatherhead Institute.
- Free drug and alcohol servicei-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationi-access information and carers support for family and 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.
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 Leatherhead ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Leatherhead, and who arranges a place?
Detox and residential places for people in Leatherhead and the rest of Surrey are arranged through i-access, the county's free treatment service, once it has assessed what is needed. You can call them on 0300 222 5932 or talk to your GP first. What follows might be outpatient help, a detox or a residential stay, worked out with you. Our sessions can start ahead of that assessment and continue through and after treatment.
My husband's drinking is getting worse and nobody in Ashtead knows. Where do I start?
You can start with support for yourself today. Surrey's i-access service has a strand for relatives and carers offering information and backing, and Action for Carers Surrey is there when the house in Ashtead runs on you alone. In sessions with me we can talk about the secrecy, the fear and what you will and will not keep covering, without needing his agreement first. Should his drinking be heavy and daily, read the urgent help box here before anything at home in Ashtead changes.
Would addiction counselling from Leatherhead be in Hove or online?
Either works. Hove is roughly 58 minutes' drive away, so occasional sessions in person are realistic, perhaps a longer 90 or 120-minute one. For a regular weekly hour, secure video from home in Fetcham or Leatherhead tends to be easier to keep up, and nobody needs to know where you are going. Mixing the two is fine if that suits your weeks.
Our teenager in Bookham has started using drugs. Is there local help for young people?
Leatherhead Youth Project offers counselling and emotional wellbeing support to young people in Leatherhead, Bookham and Mole Valley, with requests made through Mindworks Surrey, and you can ask i-access what it offers younger people. As parents, you can book sessions with me for yourselves, to steady your own response and agree together how to handle what comes next.
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 call to work out what happens next
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.