Notting Hill · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Notting Hill
If you searched 'rehab Notting Hill' for yourself, a brother, a partner or a grown-up child, start here: detox and residential care in this borough are arranged through Turning Point. My part is a weekly one-to-one hour that can begin before a Turning Point programme, run through it or pick up afterwards. Hove is 100 minutes' drive from W11, so from Notting Hill it would almost always happen by secure video.
The practical facts for Notting Hill
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Notting Hill by car
- About 100 minutes with clear roads (62.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service), 0330 303 8080
- 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.
Market days, Carnival weekends and the quieter signs
Notting Hill keeps a busy calendar. Portobello Road Market draws visitors along almost the whole length of the district, and every August bank holiday Carnival brings around two million people onto these streets. For most people that is a celebration. For someone whose drinking or using has started to run the week, a neighbourhood full of occasions can turn every weekend into a reason. Across the whole of Kensington and Chelsea, alcohol-specific conditions put residents in hospital at a rate of 793.0 per 100,000 in 2023/24, higher than England's 611.7 per 100,000. That is a whole-borough figure and tells you nothing about your own family. Behind the terraces of Westbourne Grove and the blocks around Golborne, the signs are usually quieter: a partner who stops answering after nine, money that disappears from a son's account, a parent topping up from a bottle kept out of sight. Relatives tend to notice long before anyone says a word out loud.
Turning Point, the Club Drug Clinic and where counselling fits
For Notting Hill residents, Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, the Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service, assesses drink and drug use and talks through with each person which suits them best, whether that is outpatient support near home, a supervised detox or a residential programme; you can ring it directly on 0330 303 8080. CNWL's Club Drug Clinic covers club drugs, and Build on Belief runs its Acorn Hall Weekend Service for people in recovery. My part is weekly one-to-one counselling. Before treatment it can help you work out what you want and make that first call. During it, you have one steady person outside the programme. Afterwards, when you are back on the same streets with Carnival coming round again each August, we plan for the weeks most likely to test you. Our sessions ask what job the drink or drugs have done, whether easing a Portobello Saturday or blotting out a hard week, what lies beneath that, and how days can hold together without them. My own recovery and over 25 years in practice mean you can say it straight, however it sounds. Partners and parents are welcome to book sessions for themselves, whether or not the person they love has asked for help.
Free help Notting Hill families can use now
Assessment through Turning Point
Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea works out with you which level of care fits, from community support to a residential programme, and you can refer yourself on 0330 303 8080.
Weekends at Acorn Hall
Build on Belief runs the Acorn Hall Weekend Service, somewhere for people in recovery on the days when Portobello crowds and weekend plans pull hardest.
Two routes for worried relatives
Turning Point supports families and friends, and The Alcohol Service from CGL offers family and carer support, so a frightened mother or partner in W10 has help of their own.
Club drugs after the bank holiday
CNWL's Club Drug Clinic is there if club drug use has become a problem, and counselling can carry on beside it long after the Carnival weekend has passed.
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 Notting Hill
Our sessions sit best alongside the borough's free services. Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea handles assessment and treatment, with a separate service for families and friends. The Alcohol Service from CGL supports family members and carers, Build on Belief runs the Acorn Hall Weekend Service, and the Club Drug Clinic from CNWL covers club drugs. Carers Network can help if looking after someone has become your daily life.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceTurning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service)0330 303 8080Free and confidential.
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 CNWL Mental Health Single Point of Access crisis line, London boroughs) is on 0800 0234 650.
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 Notting Hill ask before starting
How do I get my son into rehab from Notting Hill?
Residential rehab and detox for Kensington and Chelsea residents follow an assessment by Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea on 0330 303 8080, and its families and friends service can support you while your son decides. Counselling with me can start for you straight away, and for him by video before a residential stay, during community treatment or once he is home in W11 again.
My partner in North Kensington drinks every night. Where can I get support for myself?
You can have help before your partner is ready to accept any. The Alcohol Service from CGL offers family and carer support, Turning Point runs a service for families and friends, and Carers Network helps people whose lives now revolve around someone else. Sessions with me can be yours alone, a place to understand the pattern, set limits you can keep and look after your own health.
Will video addiction counselling from Notting Hill clash with a Turning Point programme?
It shouldn't. Weekly video sessions can run alongside a Turning Point programme or the Acorn Hall weekends without clashing, and they spare you the 100-minute drive to Hove. Joining from home also means nobody on Portobello Road sees you going anywhere. Should you want the occasional face-to-face meeting, a 90-minute appointment at Intergen House can slot in between the video weeks.
How soon could addiction counselling start from W11 if I'm ready now?
Because the resolve you feel today can slip by the weekend, the opening step is small: 15 free minutes on the phone or on screen. If it feels right, I offer a weekly time from the slots I have open, often within days. You can ring Turning Point on 0330 303 8080 the same week, since one does not have to wait for the other.
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.
A first word about drink or drugs, from Portobello to Kensal Town
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.