Alcohol
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Addiction Counselling · Peacehaven
Addiction Counselling for Peacehaven and the surrounding area, in person or online. Peacehaven sits on the clifftops where the Greenwich Meridian meets the sea, between Brighton and Newhaven. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In and around Peacehaven
Life in Peacehaven
The grid above the cliffs is unusual for Sussex. Dorothy Avenue, Roderick Avenue, Sutton Avenue and Steyning Avenue run straight down towards the sea, and the South Coast Road carries everything else through. It is a town people moved to for space and for the view, and one where a lot of daily life happens indoors. Habits do well in that arrangement. An account topped up again at eleven at night, a routine that has stopped being a choice, a phone that never runs out of things to offer. The clifftop walk past the Meridian Monument is where people go to clear their head, and it is often where the same thought turns over without anywhere to land.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Peacehaven, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Peacehaven, for context rather than as a description of you.
the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) was 499.3 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England average of 504.1 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Admission episodes for alcohol-related conditions (narrow) (2023/24).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 4.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
Addiction counselling here treats the pain beneath the habit, not just the symptom, alcohol, drugs, gambling, food or behavioural, so recovery is something you grow into rather than force.
The method travels; only the geography changes. the main addiction counselling page explains it properly, the practical side answers the practical questions, and qualifications, registration and ethics shows how the practice is held to account.
Sessions take place in a private, comfortable room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove, held to the strict BACP confidentiality you would expect. We begin with a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, and the same sessions are available by secure video if travelling is difficult or you would simply prefer it.
The coast road runs west from here and the Hove office is around twenty to twenty-five minutes away by car, longer on a bus in traffic. Sessions there take place in a private room off Western Road. The distance is real, so it is worth saying that online by secure video is not a lesser option; it is the same hour, the same counsellor, and the same weekly rhythm without the return leg in the dark.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Compassionate, confidential help with substance use.
Breaking the cycle of compulsive gambling, guilt and debt.
Support for food and process addictions.
Help for those living alongside someone's addiction.
We treat the cause, not just the symptom.
Addiction Counselling in Peacehaven
Addiction counselling covers the behavioural side as fully as the chemical one. Betting, trading apps, gaming, shopping, pornography and the phone itself can each build the same circuit as a drink can, and they are often further along before anybody names them, because there is nothing to smell and no bottle to find. What tends to be most useful early on is simply getting the whole thing described to another person without it being met with alarm. After that we can look at the pattern properly: the hours it happens, the mood it answers, the promises made in the morning and gone by evening. Across East Sussex, hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions stood at 499.3 per 100,000 in 2023/24, just under the England average of 504.1. East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support is the official route for this town, STAR, run by Change Grow Live, offers structured help and peer groups, and the Sussex Mental Healthline covers the night.
Not sure if it is right for you? A free fifteen-minute call is a no-obligation way to talk it through.
Book a free 15-minute callMy counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Peacehaven, free local drug and alcohol support is available through East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support.
For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.
Other local and national support verified for this area includes:
This is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger call 999. For urgent mental health support, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.
Peacehaven questions
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. From Peacehaven the coast road runs west through Saltdean and Brighton to the Hove office in around twenty to twenty-five minutes. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Peacehaven or blend the two.
For some people the journey is part of what makes it work, because the hour is separated from home. For others it is one thing too many. You are not choosing once and for all; sessions can run in person, on video, or a mix, and that gets decided week by week.
Sixty minutes costs £80. Where a longer stretch is useful, 90 minutes is £100 and 120 minutes is £120. There is also a free 15-minute consultation first, which is deliberately short and is only there to work out whether the fit is right.
East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support is the county route, and STAR is the recovery service delivered by Change Grow Live across East Sussex. Both are free. People often use one of them for the practical and medical side while doing counselling separately.
Yes. A video session needs a shut door and headphones rather than a spare room, and an in-person slot in Hove leaves nothing behind at home at all. Some people book the Hove room precisely because the drive gives them a plausible hour to themselves.
The word matters less than the effect. If betting is deciding your evenings, your money and what you can say honestly to the people you live with, it is doing the work of an addiction whatever it is called. That is squarely what this service is for.
The coast road runs west through Saltdean and Brighton to the Hove room in about twenty to twenty-five minutes, or you can meet by secure video from home, which many Peacehaven clients prefer.
The coast road west through Saltdean and Brighton to Hove takes twenty to twenty-five minutes by car, with the 12 and 14 buses along the South Coast Road towards Brighton and a change for Hove. Book a free fifteen-minute consultation first on 07914 681995 or online.
Sessions are £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours, with a free first call. Peacehaven sits in East Sussex, so for free help you can self-refer to Change Grow Live East Sussex, the drug and alcohol service, without a GP.
Yes. Given the distance out along the coast, many Peacehaven clients choose secure video, which is just as private and effective, though the Hove room is a manageable drive. Evening slots are available, and you can mix in-person and online as suits your week.
A free fifteen-minute call is the simplest place to start, no obligation, just a chance to see if we are the right fit.
Also available nearby: Saltdean, Newhaven, Rottingdean. See all areas I cover.
If addiction counselling is not quite what you are looking for, substance use counselling, counselling for drinking problems and trauma counselling may fit better in Peacehaven.
You may also find it useful to read about a cognitive-restructuring exercise for compulsive behaviour and the four-stage cycle of addiction.
Prefer to meet remotely? The same addiction counselling is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.