New Malden · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for New Malden
When you look up rehab from New Malden, for yourself, a parent or a grown-up child, it helps to know where treatment is arranged and who supports the family meanwhile. Kingston Wellbeing Service handles assessment, detox and residential places. I offer weekly addiction counselling beside it, and because the Hove room is 70 minutes' drive from KT3, that counselling almost always happens on secure video.
The practical facts for New Malden
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From New Malden by car
- About 70 minutes with clear roads (52.6 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From New Malden, change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Kingston Wellbeing Service (KWS), 0300 303 4614
- 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.
Privacy, family duty and a drink nobody mentions
New Malden is the most ethnically diverse area of the borough, and Kingston Council says the New and Old Malden neighbourhood has the largest Korean population in Europe.
A Sri Lankan Tamil community lives around the Hindu temple on Burlington Road, and some Korean residents are here on postings with Korean employers, far from parents and old friends. In any close community, in any language, a drinking, drug or gambling problem can feel as though it touches the whole family's standing, so it stays behind the front door. A partner covers for the late evenings. An adult son hides debts from parents who gave up a great deal for him. Back in 2022, South West London's Integrated Care System wrote that access to mental health support is often a greater need within the Korean community. None of that describes your family in particular. It does mean that carrying someone else's secret is heavy, and that you can set some of it down in a confidential room, even a virtual one.
From a call to Via to counselling beside it
For New Malden, treatment begins with Kingston Wellbeing Service, run by Via, on 0300 303 4614. It assesses what is needed and, where appropriate, arranges detox with medical oversight, community support or a residential stay. My part is weekly one-to-one counselling that can run before, during or after any of that. If you are the one drinking, using or gambling, we look at what it has been carrying for you: homesickness on a long posting, pressure to provide, grief that never had anywhere to go, or the strain of standing between two sets of expectations. Stopping is not a condition of starting, nobody will scold you, and what you say stays confidential within the usual limits I explain at the start. I counsel from more than 25 years' practice and my own recovery. If you are the relative, sessions can be entirely about you: how to raise it without a family row, what to stop paying for or explaining away, and how to protect your own work, sleep and friendships. When a loss sits underneath the drinking, the New Malden Bereavement Cafe at the Methodist church and the Old Malden Bereavement Cafe at St John the Baptist each hold a monthly drop-in.
Four ways addiction reaches a New Malden family
A posting that turned to drinking
When you work for a Korean company far from family, quiet evenings can fill with drink. Weekly video sessions can be fitted around office hours and calls home.
Keeping it within the family
When the shame feels shared by everyone, relatives may try to handle it alone. Counselling is a confidential place to think, and Kingston Carers' Network supports carers in the borough.
Grief and the bottle
Where grief and drinking have become knotted together, our sessions can hold both, and the bereavement cafes at New Malden Methodist Church and St John the Baptist in Old Malden offer company.
A health coach through your surgery
A 2022 South West London Integrated Care System story described a designated Korean community health coach at the New Malden and Worcester Park Primary Care Network, so ask your surgery whether that still runs.
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 New Malden
Kingston Wellbeing Service, run by Via, is the free starting point for New Malden, assessing first and then arranging detox or a residential stay where needed. Kingston Carers' Network supports relatives caring for someone, Connect: North Korea offers casework and wellbeing sessions to North Korean escapees, and Mind in Kingston supports wider mental health. Private counselling with me can run next to any of these.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceKingston Wellbeing Service (KWS)0300 303 4614Run by Via. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationKingston Carers' Network
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.
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 New Malden ask before starting
Where does someone from New Malden go for rehab or detox?
Detox and residential rehab for New Malden residents are arranged through an assessment with Kingston Wellbeing Service, run by Via, on 0300 303 4614. The person can call themselves, and that assessment decides what level of care fits. Counselling with me can start while they are still deciding, continue through community treatment, or help them settle back into KT3 after a residential stay.
My father drinks heavily but the family will not talk about it. Can I get help without him knowing?
Yes. Sessions can be for you alone, and nobody in your family needs to be told you are having them. We can think about what you have been carrying, whether and how to raise it, and what to do if things get worse. Daily heavy drinking makes a sudden stop risky, so he needs medical advice first, perhaps from his New Malden GP; the urgent help box on this page has a withdrawal note explaining why.
Is addiction counselling on video from New Malden as private as meeting in person?
From a closed room with headphones, video can feel more private, because nobody sees you travel anywhere. The Hove room is 70 minutes by car or a change at Clapham Junction by train, so weekly work from New Malden happens on screen, with an occasional session in Hove whenever you would like one.
How soon could counselling start while we wait for Kingston Wellbeing Service?
You can begin without a referral and without waiting for their assessment. The free introductory call lets you describe what is going on, and I will then offer the weekly times I have open. Keep any appointment with Kingston Wellbeing Service as well, since counselling sits alongside their assessment rather than replacing it.
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.
Talk privately first, for yourself or a relative in KT3
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.