Sevenoaks · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Sevenoaks
If you've searched for rehab in Sevenoaks, for yourself or for someone in your family, the free West Kent treatment route arranges detox and rehab, and I work one to one by secure video before, alongside or after it. Recovery is something I've been through myself.
The practical facts for Sevenoaks
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Sevenoaks by car
- About 63 minutes with clear roads (49.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Sevenoaks, change at London Bridge for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- West Kent community drug and alcohol service (Change, Grow, Live), 0330 128 1113
- 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 drinking problem in a town that looks fine
In 2023/24, Sevenoaks district recorded 425.5 hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions per 100,000 people, lower than England's 611.7 per 100,000.
A district figure like that can leave a family feeling that what is happening in their home is unusual, or can't really be serious. It says nothing about any one household. A habit can sit comfortably inside a Sevenoaks routine: drinks on the train back from London that carry on at the kitchen table, cocaine that started as a way to keep up with a demanding job, bets placed on a phone between the school run and the first meeting. In a town where you see the same faces at the station and on the High Street, saying it out loud can feel impossible. Often the person searching is not the one drinking. It's a parent, a partner or a grown-up son or daughter, trying to work out where help starts.
Where counselling sits beside the West Kent service
Anyone living in Sevenoaks can start, free, with Change, Grow, Live, who run the West Kent community drug and alcohol service, on 0330 128 1113. Their team assesses what a person needs, and when medically supported detox or a residential rehab place is the right step, arranging it is their job. My part is outpatient counselling around that route: before someone feels ready to make the call, while they wait for an assessment, alongside community treatment, or after they come home from a residential stay to find the old routines still waiting. Together we look plainly at the job the drinking, drugs or gambling has been doing, whether that's switching off after the London day, quietening worry or filling an evening, and at what could do that job instead. You won't get a lecture from me, and there's little you could say that would shock me. If you're the partner or parent, the sessions can be about you alone. We'd look at the difference between helping and covering up, how to raise what you've noticed without starting a fight, and how to stop your own life shrinking to fit the problem.
Four places to begin from Sevenoaks
The parent of a grown-up child
Your son or daughter is drinking or using and won't hear it from you. The Kenward Trust's Friends, Family and Loved Ones Support exists for your side of it.
The partner keeping it quiet
Covering the excuses and watching the bank statements. Kent County Council points relatives towards Al-Anon Family Groups, which supports the family and friends of someone with a drinking problem.
Not ready to call CGL yet
You can talk through what is happening first, and work out what you'd want to ask Change, Grow, Live when you do pick up the phone.
Back from a residential stay
Once you're home in Sevenoaks again, the commute, the evenings and the old friendships are where change gets tested. Regular sessions can help you hold steady through that stretch.
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 Sevenoaks
Questions about detox or rehab go to Change, Grow, Live, which runs the West Kent community drug and alcohol service. For the people around someone who drinks or uses drugs, the Kenward Trust supports friends, family and loved ones, Al-Anon is there for relatives of people who drink, and Imago's Kent Carers Support helps if you've quietly become someone's carer. Any of them can run beside private sessions.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceWest Kent community drug and alcohol service (Change, Grow, Live)0330 128 1113Run 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.
Locally, the Release the Pressure Helpline - Kent is on 0800 107 0160. Local drop-in crisis support: Kent and Medway Safe Havens (Mental Health Matters) (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 Sevenoaks ask before starting
How do I get into rehab from Sevenoaks?
The usual route starts with a call to Change, Grow, Live on 0330 128 1113, the provider of West Kent's community drug and alcohol service. Their assessment decides what you need, and they arrange detox or a residential place when that is the right step. Counselling with me can start now and continue around whatever they arrange, including after you come home.
My husband commutes from Sevenoaks and drinks every night. Can I get counselling for myself?
Yes, and you don't need his agreement or his presence. Sessions can be about how you're managing: the worry, the rows, the times you've covered for him, and the question of what isn't yours to fix. The Kenward Trust also supports family members and loved ones. If either of you is ever in immediate danger, call 999.
Can addiction counselling from Sevenoaks be done by video?
Yes, and from here it's the practical way. The Hove room is 63 minutes away by car, and video means you can talk from home without anyone in town seeing you arrive at a service. Sessions follow the same shape as they would in person. Meeting face to face in Hove later, once things are steadier, is possible as a longer session.
Do I have to wait for a CGL assessment before seeing you?
No. Book the free 15-minute call whenever suits, and on it you'll hear plainly when a regular space opens up. Counselling and the CGL assessment can overlap without any problem. Anyone drinking heavily every day should first read the safety warning above these questions, before changing anything.
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.
Start with a conversation, whoever it is about
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.