Maidenhead · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Maidenhead
If you've searched for rehab in Maidenhead, for yourself or for someone in your family, you probably want plain answers fast. Cranstoun RBWM handles assessment, detox and residential referrals for Windsor and Maidenhead, and my one-to-one counselling can come ahead of that, run through it or follow it. With 92 minutes of driving between Maidenhead and my Hove room, we mostly meet on secure video.
The practical facts for Maidenhead
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Maidenhead by car
- About 92 minutes with clear roads (77.8 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Cranstoun RBWM, 01628 796 733
- 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.
A tidy commuter town and a drink to come down
Maidenhead keeps up appearances well. Much of its working life runs between the station and London, or between a desk in one of the town's company head offices and a late train home, and the drink that marks the end of the day fits neatly into that pattern. A bottle opened after the commute rarely looks like trouble from a kitchen in Boyn Hill or Cox Green, which is partly why it can grow without comment. In Windsor and Maidenhead, alcohol-related hospital admissions, using the narrow definition, were 389.0 per 100,000 in 2023/24, which is below England's rate of 504.1 per 100,000 for the same year. A borough figure describes a population, though, and it says nothing about what happens in one household. Often the person reading this isn't the one drinking. It might be a wife in Furze Platt who has started counting empties, a son back from university who sees his father pouring a drink before lunch at the weekend, or a parent in Woodlands Park who no longer believes the explanations about money and missed evenings.
Where Cranstoun RBWM ends and counselling begins
Treatment for drink and drugs in the Royal Borough starts with Cranstoun RBWM, the council's drug and alcohol service, on 01628 796 733. Their assessment leads to the next step, whether that is community treatment, a medically supervised detox or a referral into residential rehab, and you can phone them yourself. My part is the one-to-one counselling that surrounds it. Before treatment, sessions give you somewhere to look honestly at what drinking, cocaine or gambling has been doing, without being hurried into a decision in the first hour. Alongside treatment, we work on what tends to pull you back: the Friday that ends in the pub, the strain of a restructure at work, the evenings when the house goes quiet. Afterwards, once a programme's daily structure falls away, we keep meeting for as long as it is useful. I came to this work through my own recovery and have counselled for more than 25 years, so very little you tell me will shock me. Parents, partners and grown-up children can book sessions for themselves too. If someone you love is using and refuses to discuss it, you can come for sessions about your own fear, anger and tiredness, whatever they decide.
Who to call about drink or drugs in the borough
Cranstoun RBWM comes first
The borough's drug and alcohol service, on 01628 796 733, assesses what someone needs and arranges community treatment, supervised detox or a residential referral.
Through your surgery
Mind in Berkshire Community Connectors, reached through a GP or practice nurse at named Maidenhead surgeries, can link you to drug and alcohol services, housing and money advice.
Support for the family
Addiction Family Support runs a national helpline for parents, partners and adult children, and sessions with me give you a private weekly hour of your own as well.
Debts behind the drinking
Citizens Advice East Berkshire, at 4 Marlow Road, gives free and confidential advice when drink, drugs or gambling have left bills and arrears piling up.
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 Maidenhead
Private counselling with me runs alongside the free help in and around Maidenhead. Cranstoun RBWM is the starting point for assessment and treatment places. Addiction Family Support has a national helpline for relatives, Number 22 offers community counselling for adults and young people at 4 Marlow Road, and Mind in Berkshire runs Friends in Need peer support groups across Berkshire East.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceCranstoun RBWM01628 796 733Free and confidential.
- Local organisationRBWM Adult Social Care: support for unpaid carers
- Local organisationMind in Berkshire Community Connectors - Berkshire East
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 Berkshire Healthcare Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team, East; adults 18+ is on 0800 129 9999. Local drop-in crisis support: East Berkshire Safe Haven (Mental Health Matters) (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 Maidenhead ask before starting
How do people in Maidenhead get into rehab?
Residential rehab and detox for Maidenhead residents are arranged through Cranstoun RBWM, the borough's drug and alcohol service, after an assessment of what is needed. You can ring them on 01628 796 733 or ask your GP to help. My role is one-to-one counselling, mostly by video from Maidenhead, which can start before that assessment, continue through treatment and carry on once it ends.
My husband drinks every night after the commute. Who can I talk to in Maidenhead?
You can talk to me, in sessions that are about you rather than him: the worry, the covering up, the arguments that go round in circles. Addiction Family Support runs a national helpline for families as well. If he decides he wants help, Cranstoun RBWM is where he would begin, and you can look after yourself in the meantime without waiting for his agreement.
Will anyone at my Maidenhead office find out if I see an addiction counsellor online?
Only if you choose to tell them. Sessions from Maidenhead are normally on secure video, since Hove is roughly 92 minutes away by car, and that also means nobody sees you walk into a waiting room. You can join from home, or from any private space where you won't be overheard. Everything you say is kept confidential apart from a few safety exceptions, and I walk you through those in the opening session.
What happens after detox or a rehab stay for someone coming home to Maidenhead?
Coming home can be the hardest stretch, because the routines, people and pressures are all still waiting, from the commute to the Friday drinks. Counselling can continue through that period, weekly by video, looking at what pulls you back and what you want ordinary days to hold. Mind in Berkshire's Friends in Need peer groups in Berkshire East offer company and conversation too.
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.
Start with a short call about where things stand
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.