Stratford · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Stratford
If you are searching for rehab in Stratford, whether it is your own use or a grown-up son's or daughter's, the free door in Newham is CGL Newham Rise, whose team assesses people and sets up a detox or a residential stay when one is needed. My part is weekly one-to-one counselling over secure video, ahead of treatment, through it or after it, and worried parents can book too.
The practical facts for Stratford
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Stratford by car
- About 94 minutes with clear roads (70.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- CGL Newham Rise (Newham Drug and Alcohol Service, adults), 0800 652 3879
- 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.
Who to phone first when rehab is the word you typed
In Newham, adult drug and alcohol treatment is run by Change Grow Live as CGL Newham Rise, on 0800 652 3879.
Its workers talk through what is happening and, where it fits, organise anything from outpatient support to a detox or time in a residential unit, so it is the place to start if a bed somewhere is what you have in mind. For people in recovery, Build on Belief runs a Newham weekend service, which helps when the structure of the working week falls away. Relatives in Maryland, East Village or the Carpenters Estate have a place too, as Newham Rise also supports the family, friends and carers of anyone whose drinking or drug use worries them. Life around Stratford can blur all of this. Drinking slips easily into the after-work routine at Westfield, a match day at the London Stadium or student nights near the Park, so it is easy to tell yourself it is ordinary until it plainly is not.
Counselling that runs beside Newham Rise
Addiction counselling with me is outpatient and one to one, a steady weekly hour by video. Nobody needs to have stopped, or promised to stop, before our first session. We look honestly at when the pull arrives, what the alcohol, drugs or gambling seems to be doing for you, and what it has been costing. Often something older sits underneath, grief, shame or years of anxiety, and we give that time as well. Once a detox or residential placement arranged by Newham Rise is over, the walk back through the crowds at Stratford station, past the old drinking spots and the old phone contacts, is often where things wobble, and a weekly session gives you one fixed point while the rest settles. Partners, parents and adult children can book for themselves. Those sessions are about you: the nights waiting for a key in the door, the covering up, the arguments and where your limits are. Newham's 2023/24 count of alcohol-specific hospital admissions came to 516.1 per 100,000 residents, lower than the 611.7 per 100,000 seen across England, and a figure for the whole borough cannot tell you what is happening at your own kitchen table. I have made my own way out of addiction and spent over 25 years in practice, so whatever the weekends around Westfield or the London Stadium have looked like, you can tell me straight.
Why you might be reading this in Newham
Needing an assessment for treatment
CGL Newham Rise, on 0800 652 3879, talks through your situation and agrees with you what level of treatment is right, from help at home up to a residential stay.
Worried about someone you love
Newham Rise has support for family, friends and carers. Counselling with me can give you a weekly hour that belongs only to you, whatever they decide.
Weekends without the weekday routine
Build on Belief runs a Newham weekend service for people in recovery, offering company and structure on the days when work stops.
Coming home after treatment
Returning to Stratford after a residential stay can feel exposed, with familiar places and faces close by. Weekly video sessions offer one fixed point while life restarts.
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 Stratford
Free treatment for adults across the borough is run by Change Grow Live as CGL Newham Rise on 0800 652 3879, and relatives can use the service's own strand for the people around a drinker or user. When Saturdays and Sundays feel long in recovery, Build on Belief's Newham weekend service helps fill them, while Mind in Tower Hamlets, Newham and Redbridge covers mental health more broadly. Any of them can run alongside our sessions.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceCGL Newham Rise (Newham Drug and Alcohol Service, adults)0800 652 3879Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationNewham Carers Community
- Local organisationEast London Recovery College
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: Newham Together Café (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 Stratford ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Stratford, and how would we get a place?
Detox and residential places for Newham residents are generally arranged after an assessment by CGL Newham Rise, the free borough service, on 0800 652 3879. That could mean support while you carry on living at home, a detox, or a residential stay. Counselling with me can sit before, alongside or after that, and you can book a first call without waiting for them.
My partner in Stratford drinks every night and won't see anyone. What can I do?
Help for you can begin this week, on your own timetable rather than your partner's. Newham Rise offers help for family, friends and carers affected by someone else's drinking. Our sessions can centre on you: what you are carrying, what you will keep covering for and what you will stop, and how to protect your own health. Should the drinking be heavy and daily, look at the urgent help box on this page before they try stopping all at once.
Can addiction counselling from Stratford be done online?
Yes, and from Stratford it usually is. With roughly 94 minutes' drive to Hove and a train route that needs a change in London, weekly sessions run on secure video from somewhere private, a bedroom or a parked car. Talking from your own space can make it easier to be frank about drinking or using. Now and then a longer session in the Hove room can be booked, reached by the Jubilee line to London Bridge and a Thameslink train south.
Is there anything at weekends for people in recovery in Newham?
Build on Belief runs a Newham weekend service for people in recovery, which can fill the hours when weekday structure drops away. Mind THNR also offers wider support across the borough. Our weekly video hour can sit next to both, a steady place to talk through what is tugging you back towards the old Stratford routine and what is keeping you on course.
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.
Talk it through first, whoever is drinking or using
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.