Southend-on-Sea · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Southend-on-Sea
Typing 'rehab Southend' into a search bar usually means drink or drugs have taken hold of you, or of someone you love, and here is how the local help fits together. My part is one-to-one addiction counselling over a secure video link, whether treatment in Southend hasn't started yet, is under way or has finished. My room is in Hove, 107 minutes' drive away, so video is how we would usually meet.
The practical facts for Southend-on-Sea
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Southend-on-Sea by car
- About 107 minutes with clear roads (86.1 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Southend Treatment and Recovery Service (STARS), 01702 431889
- 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.
Pier lights, late trains and what goes unsaid
Southend-on-Sea is a seaside resort city, and drinking is woven through a lot of its leisure: evenings on the seafront near Adventure Island, a show at the Cliffs Pavilion or the Palace Theatre, a Southend United match, the last c2c train home from Fenchurch Street.
For most people that is simply a good night out. For some it slowly becomes the thing the week is organised around, and families in Westcliff or Shoeburyness can watch it happen for a long time before anyone names it. Across the city in 2023/24 there were 550.2 alcohol-specific hospital admissions per 100,000 people, lower than the England rate of 611.7 per 100,000. A city-wide figure tells you nothing about your own household. What matters is whether drinking or using has started to cost you, or someone close to you, more than you can afford.
What counselling adds to treatment in Southend
When someone in Southend searches for rehab, they usually need two kinds of help at once. The first is assessment and treatment. Southend Treatment and Recovery Service (STARS), run by The Forward Trust with partners Open Road, is the city's drug and alcohol service, and it is the route to community treatment, to supervised detox and to residential rehab where those are needed. The second is room to work out how the drinking or using got its grip, and what job it has quietly been doing for you. That is where one-to-one counselling with me fits. We can meet before you contact STARS, while you're working with them, or once a programme has ended and the quieter months begin. Sessions look at what tends to come before a drink or a use, the feelings it numbs, the shame that keeps people silent, and what you want your life to hold instead. Recovery is part of my own story as well as my work over more than 25 years, so I won't flinch at what you tell me. If you're the parent or partner, you can have sessions in your own right, focused on how you cope and where your limits lie, whether or not the person you're worried about is ready.
Where help comes from around Southend
Assessment through STARS
Southend Treatment and Recovery Service, from The Forward Trust and Open Road, assesses adults and arranges community treatment, detox or residential care when it is needed. Call 01702 431889.
Support for the family
STARS family and friends support helps parents, partners and friends of someone drinking or using drugs, so you aren't carrying the worry alone while we work on your side of it.
When it's your teenager
Open Road Southend Young Person Drug and Alcohol Service (YPDAS) works with young people directly, while counselling gives you, the parent, room to think straight.
After a programme ends
When treatment finishes, weekly video sessions from home can help you hold on to the changes, spot old patterns early and build a life that no longer turns on a drink.
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 Southend-on-Sea
Counselling with me works alongside Southend's free services. Southend Treatment and Recovery Service (STARS) is the starting point for assessment, detox and rehab referrals, with STARS family and friends support for the people around the drinker or user. Open Road Southend Young Person Drug and Alcohol Service (YPDAS) helps young people. South East and Central Essex Mind (SECE Mind) offers counselling that includes recovery from substance misuse, and HARP supports people in Southend facing homelessness.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceSouthend Treatment and Recovery Service (STARS)01702 431889Run by The Forward Trust. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCarers First Southend-on-Sea
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.
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 Southend-on-Sea ask before starting
Where does rehab for Southend-on-Sea residents actually start?
In the city, a detox or a residential rehab place comes through Southend Treatment and Recovery Service (STARS), which The Forward Trust runs alongside Open Road. You can ring them on 01702 431889 to ask for an assessment, and they will talk through community options and whether residential care is right for you. I offer one-to-one counselling by video before, alongside or after that treatment.
Could my addiction sessions be online from Southend, with no trip to Hove?
Yes, and for most people in Southend that is how it works. The drive is 107 minutes each way, so weekly sessions happen on a secure video link from wherever you can talk privately. The counsellor and the hour are exactly the same as in the room. If you would like to meet in Hove occasionally, we can plan that around a day when the trip suits you.
My partner drinks too much and won't get help. Is there support in Southend?
There is. STARS family and friends support, run by The Forward Trust and Open Road, is there for people worried about someone else's drinking or drug use. You can also book counselling with me for yourself, to look at how the worry is affecting you, what you have been covering for, and what you want to change, whatever your partner decides.
How soon can I start counselling in Southend if I'm worried about my drinking?
Begin with a short free call to talk about what has been happening and what you hope for. If we agree to go ahead, you pick a weekly video slot from the times I have open, with no list to join. If stopping might bring on withdrawal, speak to your GP or STARS before you change anything, and look at the withdrawal warning further up this page.
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 conversation, wherever you are in Southend
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.