Salisbury · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Salisbury
A rehab Salisbury search, for yourself or someone close, leads to Connect Wiltshire, the free county service that sets up detox or a residential place after an assessment. Weekly counselling with me can come ahead of that treatment, run through it, or follow it. With Hove close to two hours away by road, sessions from the city happen on secure video, and a visit to the room would be an occasional extra.
The practical facts for Salisbury
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Salisbury by car
- About 111 minutes with clear roads (84.6 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Connect Wiltshire, 0300 555 0157
- 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.
A small city where people notice which door you use
Salisbury is the city that rural south Wiltshire comes into for its services, and with a population of 41,820 it can feel as though everyone knows everyone.
That can make asking for help with drinking or drugs harder, especially if you are one of the 5,500 staff of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, work for Dstl at Porton Down, or belong to the military communities on Salisbury Plain. Wiltshire Council's 2024 needs assessment for the Salisbury community area lists comparatively high rates of substance misuse among under-18s, alongside self-harm and poor mental health, and for a parent that can turn a vague worry into a sharper one. Wiltshire's county figure for alcohol-specific hospital admissions was 455.3 per 100,000 in 2023/24, lower than England's 611.7 per 100,000. Neither finding describes your household. They are simply the backdrop to the decisions you may be facing.
Connect Wiltshire's route, and the hour I offer beside it
Connect Wiltshire, led by Turning Point with Developing Health and Independence, Julian House and The Nelson Trust, is the free substance use service for the county, on 0300 555 0157. It assesses, offers community support, and organises detox or residential rehab when it is needed and safe, and the Connect Wiltshire Recovery Community Team and peer mentors stay with people in the months afterwards. What I add is a private weekly counselling hour on video. Sessions can begin with the drinking or using still going on, and with your mind not yet made up. We look at the job it does for you, perhaps getting you through nights on a hospital rota, the quiet after a posting ends, or a loss that never settled, and what might do that job instead. Parents are often the ones who make contact. If you are worried about a son in Bemerton Heath or a daughter in Harnham, sessions can be about you: your fear, your limits, and how to keep talking with them. Whether the drinking took hold after a posting or a run of hospital nights, you can say it as it is: I know recovery from the inside, and this work has filled more than a quarter of a century of my life.
Help around Salisbury for drink, drugs and families
Assessment through Connect Wiltshire
Connect Wiltshire, on 0300 555 0157, is where Salisbury residents are assessed for drug or alcohol use, and where detox or residential rehab is arranged when it is needed.
Peer mentors after treatment
The Connect Wiltshire Recovery Community Team and its peer mentors offer company once treatment ends, and a weekly counselling hour can run beside them.
An evening that feels too much
Riverside Sanctuary, run by ALABARÉ at 2 Watt Road, is a free walk-in space for anyone 16 or over from 4pm to 11pm, and friends and family are welcome as well.
Serving, or married to someone who is
Families tied to Salisbury Plain can find drinking hard to raise. Video sessions from home keep that conversation well away from colleagues and the chain of command.
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 Salisbury
Around Salisbury, free help can sit next to private counselling. Connect Wiltshire arranges treatment, and its recovery community and peer mentors support people afterwards. Relationship and Family Therapy (RAFT) is a local option for families, Wiltshire Mind supports adults across the county, and Samaritans of Salisbury and District volunteers answer 116 123 at any hour.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceConnect Wiltshire0300 555 0157Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSalisbury Hospice Family Support Team & Bereavement Service
- Local organisationElizabeth House Social CentreSalisbury day-activity charity.
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.
Local drop-in crisis support: Riverside Sanctuary, Place of Calm (ALABARÉ) (check opening times before you go).
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 Salisbury ask before starting
Where does rehab start for someone living in Salisbury?
With Connect Wiltshire, the free county substance use service led by Turning Point, on 0300 555 0157. They assess what is happening and, with the person's agreement, set up whatever suits, from support close to home through to detox or a residential stay, once it is judged safe. Counselling with me can run in the weeks before, alongside treatment, or once someone is home again.
My son is in his twenties, lives in Salisbury and won't accept help. What can I do?
You can get support in your own right, whatever he decides. Connect Wiltshire can explain what is open to him once he is ready, and Riverside Sanctuary on Watt Road welcomes family members on hard evenings. Sessions with me can be wholly yours: the fear, the rows, the money that goes missing, and how to stay connected to him while holding a line.
Is addiction counselling from Salisbury done face to face or online?
Online, as a rule. Hove is about 111 minutes from Salisbury by car with no direct train, which is too far to sustain every week, especially when drinking or using is already disrupting things. Secure video from a private room works well. Once life feels steadier, you could make the trip along the south coast for a longer 90 or 120-minute session in the room now and then.
Is it possible to begin counselling before Connect Wiltshire sees me, or before I've decided to stop?
You can. There is no requirement to be sober or to have been assessed first. Once the free call is done and we agree to carry on, you pick a regular slot from my open diary, perhaps one that fits round a hospital rota. Drinking heavily each day, or taking a substance daily that you hope to give up, means planning the next step with Connect Wiltshire or a GP first, and the urgent help box on this page lists who to call.
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 short first call from Salisbury, for you or for them
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.