Maidstone · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Maidstone
If you searched for rehab in Maidstone, for yourself or someone close to you, the free West Kent route below handles assessment and detox and can arrange a residential place, and one-to-one counselling with me, by secure video, can run beside it. I know recovery from the inside.
The practical facts for Maidstone
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Maidstone by car
- About 78 minutes with clear roads (64.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Maidstone East, change at London Victoria for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- West Kent community drug and alcohol service (Change, Grow, Live), 0330 128 1113
- 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.
Rehab in the borough, and where the route starts
Maidstone has residential rehab inside its own borough.
The Kenward Trust, a Christian-ethos charity on Kenward Road in the village of Yalding, offers residential addiction rehabilitation, including treatment for ketamine, along with supported accommodation and help for friends and family. Kenward also runs Street Reach in the town centre, for people facing homelessness, addiction and isolation. The other door is the free West Kent community drug and alcohol service, which Change Grow Live provides. It assesses what someone needs and is usually where detox or a residential place is arranged. So if you're a parent in Park Wood or a partner in Penenden Heath wondering who to ring first, the West Kent service is the one that can assess. My part sits alongside both: a weekly hour of talking, before treatment, during it or once it is over.
What the counselling part looks like, for you or for them
Counselling with me is outpatient and one to one, usually an hour a week, and nobody has to promise to stop before we begin. Early on we get specific about when the urge arrives, what happened just before, and what the drink, the pills, the ketamine or the bets were being asked to manage. Sometimes that turns out to be something that hurt long before the habit started, and if so, we give it time. I have lived experience of recovery and more than 25 years' practice, so you won't shock me and you won't get a lecture. Coming home after a residential stay can be an exposed time. The routine of the house has gone while the old streets and the old phone numbers are still there, and weekly sessions give you somewhere to hold on to what changed. If you're the parent, partner or adult child, sessions can be entirely about you, from the covering up to where your own limits lie. Across Maidstone district in 2023/24 there were 610.9 hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions per 100,000 people, statistically similar to the England figure of 611.7 per 100,000. It is a district rate and says nothing about anyone in your house.
Different reasons to be reading this in Maidstone
Frightened about ketamine
The Kenward Trust's residential rehabilitation includes ketamine treatment. If it's ketamine you're worried about in your family, Change Grow Live's West Kent service can assess what's needed first.
Someone you love is sleeping rough
Kenward Street Reach works in Maidstone town centre with people facing homelessness, addiction and isolation. Counselling with me can help you live with what you can't fix for them.
Home from Yalding
After a residential stay with the Kenward Trust, coming back to the same town can feel exposed. Weekly video sessions keep a fixed point in the week while work, family and routine return.
When caring takes over your days
If an adult relative's drinking or drug use has come to run your days, you could ask Imago's West Kent adult carers service what it offers you, and our sessions give you an hour of your own.
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 Maidstone
Alongside private counselling, Change Grow Live provides the free West Kent community drug and alcohol service on 0330 128 1113. For relatives, the Kenward Trust's Friends, Family and Loved Ones Support and Al-Anon Family Groups, which Kent County Council signposts, are both there for people affected by someone else's use. You can lean on any of them while we work together, or before you have decided about counselling at all.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceWest Kent community drug and alcohol service (Change, Grow, Live)0330 128 1113Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationImago - Kent Carers Support (West Kent adult carers service)
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 Release the Pressure Helpline - Kent is on 0800 107 0160. Local drop-in crisis support: Kent and Medway Safe Havens (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 Maidstone ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Maidstone, and how do I get a place?
There is residential rehab in the borough: the Kenward Trust at Yalding, whose admissions line is 01622 522 724. Change Grow Live's free West Kent community drug and alcohol service, on 0330 128 1113, assesses what someone needs and can arrange detox or a residential place. Counselling with me can come before, alongside or after either of them.
My son in Maidstone won't admit he has a problem. Where do I turn for support of my own?
Start with yourself. You can't make an adult accept help, but you don't have to wait for him before getting some of your own. The Kenward Trust runs support for friends, family and loved ones, and Al-Anon Family Groups are for anyone affected by someone else's drinking. Sessions with me can be about you: how to say what you've seen, what you won't do any more, and how to stay steady while he decides.
Is addiction counselling from Maidstone done by video, or would I need to get to Hove?
By video. Hove is about 78 minutes' drive from Maidstone, so we would meet on a secure call from somewhere private to you. It can also be easier to be honest about drinking or using from your own chair than across a room. If you'd like one session in person at some point, a longer one in Hove makes the trip worthwhile, but it is never a condition of the work.
Do I have to wait for the West Kent drug and alcohol service before I see you?
No. You don't need their assessment or a GP letter before booking the free 15-minute call. Tell me roughly what's going on and I'll tell you plainly how soon a weekly space is likely. If you drink or use heavily every day, read the warning about stopping suddenly, printed beside the emergency numbers on this page, before you change anything, and talk it through with your GP or Change Grow Live.
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, for you or for the person you're worried about
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.