Alcohol
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Addiction Counselling · Portslade
Addiction Counselling for Portslade and the surrounding area, in person or online. Portslade, just west of Hove, blends the historic Old Village with Portslade-by-Sea and the harbour. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In and around Portslade
Life in Portslade
Two Portslades sit either side of the railway. Up the hill the Old Village keeps its flint and its lanes; down at Portslade-by-Sea the streets run towards Shoreham Harbour, where the work has always been shift work and the day does not finish when everyone else's does. Boundary Road and Station Road carry the traffic between them. Habits form easily around irregular hours. You are awake when nobody else is, the phone is in your hand, and there is always another account to open or another round to have because your Friday night has landed on a Tuesday. Mile Oak and Southern Cross are close enough for everyone to know everyone, which keeps most of this unspoken.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Portslade, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Portslade, for context rather than as a description of you.
the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) was 413.5 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 11.1 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above 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.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on everything on addiction counselling, with how I work, sessions and fees for the practical questions and how to check my registration for registration and ethics.
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.
This is one of the shortest journeys of anywhere on the coast. Ten minutes along the seafront by car or bus, or two stops on the train, and you are at the Hove office for a session in a private room. That closeness means an appointment can be fitted into an odd gap in a shift pattern rather than planned around. When the pattern refuses to cooperate, the same hour runs online by secure video.
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 Portslade
The remit here is wider than drink and drugs, and gambling is the part most often carried in silence. An app open in a break, a wage that goes before the week does, a partner who can tell something is wrong without being able to name it. Gaming, shopping and pornography can run the identical loop. What we look at is the loop itself rather than the label attached to it: what it reliably does for you, when it started doing it, and what it now takes in return. Shift work complicates this, because the usual scaffolding of ordinary evenings and shared meals is missing, so part of the work is practical. Drug misuse deaths in Brighton and Hove stood at 11.1 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, well above the England average of 5.8. For statutory support the NHS find a service directory is the route to drug and alcohol services, and the Sussex Mental Healthline is staffed around the clock.
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. You can find your nearest free NHS-funded drug and alcohol service via the NHS “find a service” directory (search “Portslade”).
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.
Portslade questions
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. Portslade is a short hop east along New Church Road or the coast road, around ten minutes by car or bus, or two stops on the train to Hove. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Portslade or blend the two.
Within reason, yes. A regular weekly slot helps the work more than a scattered one, but where a rota genuinely rotates, appointments can be arranged around it and swapped between the Hove room and video depending on which end of the shift you are on.
One hour is £80. A 90-minute session is £100 and a two-hour session is £120, although the standard hour is what most people use. Nothing is charged for the initial 15-minute consultation, which is there so you can ask questions before committing.
There is, and the NHS find a service directory is the way to locate it. Brighton and Hove does not have one verified council page to send you to, so the national directory is the accurate signpost. Counselling can run alongside whatever you find there.
Not necessarily. Being close by makes in-person easy, and many people here take that option. Even so, a night shift, a bad week or a household you would rather not explain yourself to can all make video the sensible choice, and it is available every week.
It leaves you somewhere very common and entirely workable. Irregular hours remove the natural stops that keep most people's drinking in shape, so part of the work is looking at what marks the end of your day instead, and what else could do that job.
It is a short trip east along the coast road or New Church Road into central Hove, roughly ten minutes by car or bus, or two stops by train to Hove. Online sessions are available if that is easier.
Portslade is close: the coast road and New Church Road lead east into central Hove in about ten minutes by car or bus, and the train from Portslade Station reaches Hove in a couple of stops. Book a free fifteen-minute consultation first on 07914 681995 or online.
Fees are £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours, with a free first call. Portslade falls within Brighton and Hove, so you can also self-refer to Pavilions, the free Change Grow Live drug and alcohol service, without a GP.
Yes. The Hove room is a short hop east, and evening appointments help around work, but secure video is there if getting across is difficult. In a practical, down-to-earth community, many Portslade clients value being able to talk privately from home.
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: Hove, Southwick, Hangleton. See all areas I cover.
Related work in Portslade: substance use counselling, counselling for drinking problems and trauma counselling.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about the four Rs framework and illness or indulgence?.
Prefer to meet remotely? The same addiction counselling is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.