Surbiton · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Surbiton
Looking up rehab from Surbiton usually means someone, perhaps you, perhaps a partner or grown-up child, is in deeper trouble with drink or drugs than the tidy streets suggest. Kingston Wellbeing Service arranges detox and residential care, and I add weekly counselling. Hove sits a 69-minute drive from Surbiton's art deco station, so from KT5 and KT6 our sessions usually run on secure video.
The practical facts for Surbiton
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Surbiton by car
- About 69 minutes with clear roads (50.8 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Surbiton, change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Kingston Wellbeing Service (KWS), 0300 303 4614
- 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.
The 20-minute train and the drink at home
Surbiton is built around its art deco station, and the council puts fast trains to Waterloo at around 20 minutes.
That makes it easy to keep two lives apart: one in town, one at home near the clock tower. A can on the platform, a bottle tucked into the recycling, a few more on a Friday in the town centre's growing bar and cafe scene beside the older pubs, and nobody at the office or the hockey club need ever put them together. Often it is a partner who notices first, from the other side of the kitchen. Parents of a son or daughter in Berrylands or Long Ditton may see it in missed calls and money that vanishes. Across Kingston upon Thames, admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) were 311.9 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England rate of 504.1 per 100,000. A lower borough rate is little comfort when the problem is in your own house, and it says nothing about one person.
Assessment through Via, weekly sessions with me
In Surbiton, the free door into treatment is Kingston Wellbeing Service, run by Via, on 0300 303 4614. Its staff carry out the assessment and, where it is needed, arrange a supervised detox, a community programme or a residential placement. What I add is one-to-one counselling, and it can begin before that first call, carry on while someone is in community treatment, or pick up when they come home to the same commute and the same Friday evenings. Our sessions ask what job the betting app, the bottle or the drugs have been doing for you, perhaps softening a long week of Waterloo commutes, hushing mortgage worries, or filling a Berrylands house that falls silent in the evenings. Sessions can begin while you are still drinking or using, and the hour holds no telling-off, whatever the week in Surbiton has looked like. Hidden cans on a Surbiton platform are unlikely to surprise me, after more than 25 years as a counsellor and a recovery of my own. If you are the partner or the parent, the hour is yours to use. Kingston Carers' Network on Ewell Road in Tolworth supports people caring for someone with a substance misuse problem, with free counselling and peer support, and our work can sit alongside it.
Where a Surbiton household might be starting from
The commuter who drinks alone
A fast train to Waterloo, a capable day, then cans on the way home and a bottle afterwards. Counselling can start before you feel ready to phone Via.
The partner smoothing things over
If you have taken over the bills and the excuses, Kingston Carers' Network in Tolworth offers carers free counselling and peer support, and an hour with me can be yours too.
Worried about a grown-up child
When a son or daughter in their twenties is drinking or using more than their friends, you can come on your own to work out what to say and what to stop funding.
Low mood and drinking together
Mind in Kingston runs evening drop-in cafes at Alfriston on Berrylands Road, which can sit beside our sessions when a low mood and the drinking keep feeding each other.
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 Surbiton
Kingston Wellbeing Service, run by Via, assesses Surbiton residents and arranges detox or residential places. Kingston Carers' Network at 418 Ewell Road supports families caring for someone with a substance misuse problem, and its Mental Health Carers Support Group meets monthly at Fircroft Trust on Ditton Road. Mind in Kingston and Kingston Samaritans offer wider support. Each of them fits alongside weekly sessions with me.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceKingston Wellbeing Service (KWS)0300 303 4614Run by Via. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationKingston Carers' Network
- Local organisationKingston Journey Recovery Hub
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 Text Service is another option: text 80991. Local drop-in crisis support: Kingston Journey Recovery Hub (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 Surbiton ask before starting
Does Surbiton have its own rehab, or is a place arranged elsewhere?
Residential rehab and detox for Surbiton residents are arranged after an assessment with Kingston Wellbeing Service, run by Via, on 0300 303 4614, rather than by turning up at a local building. That assessment decides what level of care fits. Counselling with me can come before the call, run alongside community treatment, or follow a residential stay once someone is back in KT6.
My husband commutes to Waterloo and drinks every night. Can I get help on my own?
Yes. You can book sessions just for yourself, even if he denies there is a problem. We can look at what you have been absorbing, what you say and when, and where your limits sit. Kingston Carers' Network in Tolworth supports partners caring for someone with a substance misuse problem, and Via is where his own assessment would begin when he is willing.
Can addiction counselling from Surbiton happen on video?
It can, and that is how weekly work from Surbiton usually runs, since Hove is 69 minutes by car or a change at Clapham Junction by train. You join from a private room or a parked car at the same time each week. An occasional in-person session in Hove can be arranged whenever sitting in the room would help.
How quickly could I start, and do I need my GP or Via to refer me?
You can contact me directly with no referral. After the free call I will tell you which weekly slots are genuinely open. Where the drinking is heavy and daily, sudden withdrawal can be dangerous, so a word with your GP or with Via at Kingston Wellbeing Service comes before stopping, along with the safety note in the urgent help box on 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 short first call from Surbiton, for you or them
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.