Sidcup · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Sidcup
Typing rehab Sidcup can feel like a big step, whether it is your own drinking that worries you or a husband's, mother's or grown child's. In Bexley, the Pier Road Project is the team that weighs up what is needed and lines up detox or residential treatment. My part is weekly counselling beside that route, and with the Hove room 72 minutes away by car, our hour normally takes place over secure video from home.
The practical facts for Sidcup
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Sidcup by car
- About 72 minutes with clear roads (60.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- The Pier Road Project (Bexley Drug and Alcohol Service), 01322 357940
- 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.
Behind the bay windows of a settled suburb
Sidcup was a Kent town until 1965, and plenty of it still feels that way: Edwardian villas, 1930s semis with neat front gardens, and the parkland around Lamorbey.
In a place this settled, drinking can stay behind closed doors for years. It might be a retired husband whose lunchtime pint has stretched into the whole afternoon, a mother topping up her glass while the High Street goes about its day, or a grown child back in the spare room after a job or relationship fell apart. Gambling and pills can hide just as well. Hospital admissions among Bexley residents for conditions caused wholly by alcohol ran at 483.1 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below England's 611.7. A lower borough rate is little comfort when it is your kitchen, and it says nothing about the person you love. Queen Mary's Hospital on Frognal Avenue is part of the picture too, because Bexley's inpatient mental health unit is on that site, and for some families drink and a mental health crisis arrive together.
How the Pier Road Project and counselling share the work
Bexley's drug and alcohol service is the Pier Road Project, on 01322 357940, an NHS-led partnership with local charities. It is where people are assessed, where community treatment happens, and where a detox with medical oversight or a residential rehab place is arranged for those who need one. My work runs in parallel. Counselling can be the private place to admit, first to yourself, that the drinking has gone further than you meant, before any call is made. It can carry on through Pier Road's treatment, and stay with you once a residential stay ends. Later in life, drinking can be bound up with loss: retirement, a spouse's death, children who have moved away, a body that no longer does what it did. Earlier on, pressure, boredom or old hurts may sit underneath it. In our hour we trace the purpose the habit has served, numbing, filling time or keeping a grief at arm's length, and look for something kinder to serve it. For a wife or husband of many years, or a parent, the sessions can be about you alone: grief for the person they used to be, anger, and how much more you can carry. My own recovery means none of this needs dressing up.
Where Sidcup families can find each kind of help
Drinking and a hospital ward
If a relative's drinking sits alongside a stay on Millbrook or Lesney Ward, Mind in Bexley runs carers information sessions at the Woodlands Unit itself.
Groups run by Pier Road
Pier Road's service user groups, peer mentors and SMART Recovery groups put you among people who know it first-hand, and weekly counselling can run beside them.
Retired, and the days are long
When drinking fills the hours that work used to, Age UK Bexley's befriending cafes in Blackfen and at Frank Godley Court offer company and a reason to go out.
A parent of a young adult
If your son or daughter is struggling with drink or drugs, the Pier Road Project offers families and friends support of their own, and counselling gives you a separate hour to think.
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 Sidcup
Ask the Pier Road Project about detox, rehab or community treatment anywhere in Bexley; it supports families and friends as well. For a spouse or parent whose days now revolve around caring, help comes from the Mind in Bexley Carers Service as well as from Carers' Support (Bexley). The Bexley Crisis Cafe, run by Mind in Bexley, is there when things feel too much. Whichever of these you use, a weekly video hour with me can run in parallel.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceThe Pier Road Project (Bexley Drug and Alcohol Service)01322 357940Free and confidential.
- Local organisationPier Road Project service user groups, peer mentors and SMART Recovery groups
- Local organisationCarers' Support (Bexley)
- Local organisationMind in Bexley Carers Information Sessions at the Woodlands Unit, Queen Mary's Hospital
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 WhatsApp Service is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511. Local drop-in crisis support: Bexley Crisis Cafe (Mind in Bexley) (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 Sidcup ask before starting
Where does rehab for someone in Sidcup actually get arranged?
Through the Pier Road Project, Bexley's free drug and alcohol service, on 01322 357940. It assesses what is needed and arranges community treatment, a detox with medical oversight, or a residential place. You can start counselling with me now, before that assessment or while you wait for it, and our sessions can continue around whatever Pier Road puts in place.
My husband retired and now drinks most of the day at home in Sidcup. What can I do?
You can start by getting support for yourself. Sessions with me can be about your worry, your anger and the life you had planned together. The Pier Road Project also supports family members of someone who drinks. As his drinking is daily, the safety note on this page is worth reading now, and his GP or Pier Road should hear from you early.
Is addiction counselling from Sidcup done by video, or can we meet?
Both work. Week to week, video suits Sidcup best, because the Hove room is about 72 minutes' drive away, or two train changes via London Bridge and Brighton. You join from anywhere private. If a face-to-face meeting would help at some point, you can book a 90 or 120-minute session in Hove now and then.
I'm in my seventies and ashamed to be asking about my drinking. Is it too late?
It is never too late to talk about it, and there is nothing shameful in asking. Drinking can begin or deepen after retirement or a bereavement, whatever your age. Counselling meets you as you are, and your GP can advise on your health and any medicines you take, alongside our sessions. The Pier Road Project assessment is the same first step at seventy as at twenty.
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 first word from Sidcup, about you or about them
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.