Paddington · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Paddington
If you searched for rehab from Paddington, for yourself or for someone in your family, this page sets out where detox and residential places are arranged in Westminster and where weekly counselling fits around them. The Hove room is 99 minutes' drive away, so from W2 and W9 our sessions would almost always run on secure video, with an occasional Hove visit if you want one.
The practical facts for Paddington
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Paddington by car
- About 99 minutes with clear roads (54.6 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Turning Point Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service, DAWS), 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.
Praed Street after midnight, Merchant Square by nine
Paddington packs very different lives into a few streets.
Offices fill Merchant Square and Sheldon Square by day, the life-sciences cluster and Imperial College's St Mary's Campus keep their own hours, and Brunel's Great Western terminus sits in the middle of it all. Church Street ranked among London's most deprived wards in 2019. Drinking and drug use cross every one of those lines, and so does the worry that comes with them. It might be a colleague whose lunches by the basin stretch into the afternoon, a brother in Maida Vale who has stopped answering his phone, or the night a relative was brought into the 24/7 A and E at St Mary's Hospital on Praed Street. In 2023/24, Westminster recorded 689.0 alcohol-specific hospital admissions per 100,000 people, above England's 611.7 per 100,000. That figure and the alcohol-related one in the public health panel describe a whole borough, and neither can say anything about one flat in W2, which is what this page is about.
How Turning Point and weekly counselling fit together
Whether home is a canalside flat by Paddington Basin or a block off Church Street, free treatment starts with the Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service that Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea runs, on 0330 303 8080. Its team assesses what someone needs and, where it fits, arranges medically supervised detox, a residential bed or treatment in the community. Alongside that route I offer one-to-one addiction counselling, and it can start at whichever point suits you: while you are still weighing up the call, during community treatment, or once someone is back in W2 after a residential stay and the old evenings are waiting. In sessions we get curious about the job the drink, drugs or gambling have taken on, perhaps switching off after a hospital shift, muffling money fears, or filling the hours in a part of London where everyone else seems to be passing through. Nobody needs to have stopped before we begin, and the conversation stays free of lectures. I bring more than 25 years of counselling and my own recovery. For relatives, the hour can belong entirely to you: room to decide what you will keep covering for, what you will say, and how to keep your own footing while someone you love is struggling.
Four W2 and W9 households, four starting points
After a night at St Mary's
A relative brought into the 24/7 A and E on Praed Street after drinking can leave the whole family shaken. Counselling gives you space to decide what happens next.
Long weeks around Paddington Basin
Office hours near Merchant Square or in the life-sciences cluster can hide a drinking or drug habit behind good results, until a partner starts noticing the gaps.
Now the carer in a Bayswater flat
If a relative's drinking or drug use has quietly made you their unpaid carer, Carers Network supports carers, and our sessions can be about what this is costing you.
Support at the household door
Around Church Street, Paddington Development Trust's household-based Community Health and Wellbeing Workers, linked to local GP practices, listen and connect families with local support.
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 Paddington
Assessment, detox and residential places for Paddington residents are arranged by Westminster's free drug and alcohol service, run by Turning Point. A worried family member can find reduced-fee sessions with trainee practitioners at the CCPE Low-Cost Clinic in Beauchamp Lodge, Little Venice, Carers Network backs relatives who have slipped into caring, and Central London Samaritans answer day or night. Weekly sessions with me fit around whichever of these a W2 household uses.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceTurning Point Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service, DAWS)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 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 Paddington ask before starting
Who arranges rehab for a Paddington or Bayswater resident?
Living in W2 or Bayswater puts you under Westminster, so supervised detox or a residential rehab place begins with Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea assessing you, on 0330 303 8080. An adult has to choose treatment for themselves, but you can make sure they have that number and know you will help them ring it. Meanwhile counselling with me can support you as the relative, or support them before, during and after treatment.
Can I have addiction counselling on video from Paddington rather than travelling to Hove?
Yes, and from W2 or W9 that is the normal arrangement. The room is 99 minutes away by road, with a change of train on the rail route, so weekly sessions happen on screen from somewhere private at a regular time. Should you want the occasional face-to-face hour, we can plan a longer Hove session around it.
My partner drinks hard after long shifts at St Mary's. Where can I turn?
You can talk to me on your own, whether or not your partner is ready to. We can think about how to raise it on a calm day, what you will stop explaining away, and how to protect your own sleep and work. Turning Point is where their assessment would start, and Carers Network supports partners who have ended up carrying the household.
Do I have to wait for Turning Point before starting counselling from Paddington?
No referral or assessment is needed first. Book the free call and I will tell you honestly which weekly times are open. If the drinking is heavy and daily, involve a Paddington GP or Turning Point before making any change, since sudden withdrawal can be dangerous, as the urgent help box on this page explains.
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 it through from W2, for you or a relative
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.