Peckham · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Peckham
If you've searched for rehab from Peckham, for yourself or for someone close to you, the free Southwark route below handles assessment, detox and residential care, and from Peckham I'd see you one to one by secure video alongside it. I have lived experience of recovery. This page explains how that route works and where counselling fits around it.
The practical facts for Peckham
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Peckham by car
- About 90 minutes with clear roads (52.2 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Peckham Rye, change at East Croydon for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- CGL Southwark, 020 3404 7699
- 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 the worry starts at home, not in a clinic
The person searching for rehab is often not the person drinking or using.
It might be a mother off Queens Road Peckham whose adult son has stopped answering, or a partner who now checks the bank app before anything else each morning. It might be a teenager in Nunhead quietly making dinner and covering for a parent, without ever calling it caring. Sometimes it takes a night at King's College Hospital on Denmark Hill, the nearest A and E department, before anyone names the problem out loud. As a borough-wide measure, Southwark recorded 354.1 hospital admissions per 100,000 for alcohol-related conditions in 2023/24, counted on the narrow definition, which is below the England figure of 504.1 per 100,000. A borough figure can't tell you anything about your own family, and a lower number doesn't make what's happening in your home any smaller.
Where treatment comes from in Southwark, and where I fit
For adults living in Southwark, the free way in is CGL Southwark, which Change Grow Live runs as the borough's adult drug and alcohol service, on 020 3404 7699. They assess what someone needs, and if the answer includes supervised detox or time in residential treatment, CGL is the route to it. What I offer is a weekly outpatient hour that can start before anyone has phoned CGL, run alongside community treatment, or help hold things steady after a residential stay, once you're home and the familiar pressures return. We look honestly at what drink, drugs or gambling have given you, perhaps helping you switch off after work or keeping grief at a distance, and what else could meet that need. Nobody expects you to have stopped already. Recovery is part of my own story, so I'm unlikely to be shocked and I won't lecture. For families, the hour can be entirely yours. We can work out how to say what you've seen, and where helping someone has turned into rescuing them. Between our sessions, the peer-led Southwark Recovery Support Service offers the company of people further along in recovery.
If one of these sounds like your home
A teenager running the house
A young person quietly keeping things going around a parent's drinking or drug use can turn to the Southwark Young Carers Service, run by Imago, or to CGL Southwark Young People.
Long days on the market
Trading on Rye Lane market or working its shops and cafés can mean long hours, and one drink to wind down can slowly become several. We look at what it has been doing for you.
Caring for an adult who uses
If a partner's or grown-up child's drinking or drug use has made you their unpaid carer, Mobilise, an online hub for adult carers that Southwark Council lists, can help with the caring side.
Low mood under the using
If drinking began as a way through grief or loneliness, the Southwark Wellbeing Hub from South East London Mind can support your mental health while we work on both.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. "Similar to England" means the difference is not statistically significant. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free drug and alcohol support for Peckham
Free help in Southwark runs alongside private counselling. CGL Southwark assesses and arranges treatment, including detox where needed, and an adult partner or parent can ring the same number, 020 3404 7699, to ask what support is open to them. The peer-led Southwark Recovery Support Service offers company in recovery, and Mobilise supports adult unpaid carers. For a teenager affected by a parent's use, CGL Southwark Young People is the place to ask.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceCGL Southwark020 3404 7699Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free 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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis Text Service (SLaM) is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511 or 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 Peckham ask before starting
Is there a rehab I can get to from Peckham, and who arranges it?
The way in is an assessment with CGL Southwark, the free adult drug and alcohol service, on 020 3404 7699. Where someone needs supervised detox or a residential stay, CGL organises it. Our sessions can come first, sit alongside treatment, or follow it once you're home, whichever order your recovery takes.
I'm worried about my partner's drinking. Is there support in Southwark for me, not just for them?
Yes. Ring CGL Southwark, the adult drug and alcohol service, on 020 3404 7699 and ask what they offer partners and family members as well as the person who is drinking. If looking after your partner has made you their unpaid carer, Mobilise supports adult carers in Southwark. Counselling with me can be entirely about you, including how to raise the drinking without it becoming another fight.
Can I have addiction counselling from Peckham without going to Hove?
Yes, and from Peckham it's the practical way. The room in Hove is a 90-minute drive, so we'd meet by secure video, from a bedroom, a quiet office or anywhere you won't be overheard. The work has the same shape as it would in person, and nobody in your street sees you arrive anywhere.
Do I have to stop drinking or using before I can start?
No. You don't need to have stopped, set a date or been assessed by CGL Southwark first. Once you've booked the free call, I'll be straight about when a regular weekly time could open up. If heavy drinking is a daily thing for you, speak to your GP or CGL Southwark before changing how much you drink. The urgent help section on this page explains why stopping suddenly can be dangerous.
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 first, whoever it is you're worried about
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.