Mitcham · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Mitcham
Searching rehab in Mitcham, about your own habit or about someone under your roof in Pollards Hill or Figge's Marsh? Detox and residential places come through Via Merton, which the charity Via runs for the whole borough. I offer one-to-one addiction counselling beside that route, and because Hove is 69 minutes' drive from CR4, our weekly sessions would usually run over secure video, with an occasional Hove visit if you want one.
The practical facts for Mitcham
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Mitcham by car
- About 69 minutes with clear roads (45.3 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Via Merton, 0300 303 4610
- 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.
When drinking lives in a full house
Mitcham keeps its village green and its common at the edges, but most of life here happens in ordinary terraces and flats spread across six Merton wards, from Lavender Fields to Longthornton.
When someone's drinking or using takes hold in a home like that, there is rarely a spare room to retreat to. Everyone hears the key turn late at night, and children pick up more than the adults realise. Merton's own health profile for the east of the borough, the side Mitcham sits on, puts hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions about 4% above the England rate, while Merton as a whole runs about 10% below it. That is an area figure, and it describes no particular person or family. Treat it as background to the streets around you, nothing more. Older residents carry it too. A widowed parent pouring the first drink before lunch, alone in a flat near Eastfields, can go unseen for months while the family assumes they are simply tired.
Via Merton does the arranging, counselling holds the weeks
Via Merton, on 0300 303 4610, is where help with drugs or alcohol starts for anyone living in the borough. Its workers assess what is going on, and if a medically supported detox or a residential rehab placement is the right step, they are the people who set it up. My part sits around that. Some people want counselling long before they can face ringing anyone, simply to say the words aloud to someone who has stood where they stand, since I came through recovery myself. Others start while Via Merton's community support is under way, or once they are home from a residential stay and the old routes past the corner shop are still there. In sessions we take an honest look at what the drink, the pills, the cocaine or the betting app has been doing for you: blunting money worry, filling the hours after a shift, quietening grief or shame. Then we work on what could carry that load instead. If the person you are worried about is a son, a partner or a parent, the hour can be yours alone, about the fear, the lying awake, and the point at which helping turns into covering for them.
Four households, four starting points
A crowded home, nowhere to hide
When the house is shared and full, one person's drinking touches everyone in it. Via Merton's family, friends and carers support exists for the people living alongside it.
Not ready to ring yet
You can talk it through with me first, at your own pace, and work out what you want to ask before you call Via Merton on 0300 303 4610.
Sharing a home with their drinking
Al-Anon Family Groups has a meeting finder for people affected by a relative's drinking, so you can sit with others who know it, alongside your own sessions.
Home again after residential treatment
Coming back from a stay away to the same streets around Cricket Green can be the hardest part. Weekly counselling gives those first months some shape and company.
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 Mitcham
Via Merton handles every question about detox and rehab for the borough, and relatives in Mitcham can lean on its family, friends and carers support as well. Al-Anon Family Groups UK and Eire runs meetings for anyone shaped by another person's drinking, Carers First Merton helps if you have become someone's carer, and Wilson Wellbeing at The Wilson runs a daily drop-in for signposting. You are free to use any of them while seeing me.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceVia Merton0300 303 4610Free and confidential.
- Local organisationAvanti Mental Wellbeing CIC (Avanti Connect groups)
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 is another option: text 80991 or WhatsApp 0303 330 1511.
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 Mitcham ask before starting
How would someone in Mitcham get a detox or rehab place?
The first call is to Via Merton on 0300 303 4610, which the charity Via runs free for anyone living in Merton, from Lavender Fields to Pollards Hill. After hearing the full picture, the Via Merton team can organise a detox with medical cover or a bed in residential rehab if either suits the person. Our sessions may start ahead of that phone call and run on during treatment and afterwards, so there is one steady hour each week through all the changes.
My dad drinks every day at home in Mitcham and refuses help. Is there help for me as well?
Yes. You can book sessions entirely for yourself, about the worry, the rows and the times you have covered for him. Via Merton also supports family, friends and carers of someone who drinks. With daily drinking, stopping suddenly can be risky, so the safety note on this page matters here; bring in his GP or Via Merton early rather than waiting for him to agree.
Could I come to Hove for addiction counselling from Mitcham, or is it all online?
Either is possible. The room at Intergen House is 69 minutes' drive away, or a tram and Thameslink trip via East Croydon, so weekly work from Mitcham normally happens on secure video from home. Once life has steadied, meeting in person can take the form of a longer Hove session now and then, which makes the tram and train worth the effort.
Do I have to be sober, or already with Via Merton, before I start?
Neither. The free call is open to you mid-habit, and during any wait to be seen by Via Merton. I ask only that you come to each session without having had a drink or used that day, so the hour is useful to you. For anyone drinking daily, the safety note on this page comes first, before you change anything.
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 from Mitcham, about you or about them
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.