Wandsworth · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Wandsworth
If you've typed 'rehab Wandsworth' for yourself, a partner or a grown-up child, here is the plain answer about who does what. Detox and residential places are arranged through the borough's free drug and alcohol service. My own recovery sits behind the counselling I offer: weekly video sessions before, during or after that treatment, and sessions for worried relatives too.
The practical facts for Wandsworth
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Wandsworth by car
- About 81 minutes with clear roads (58.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Wandsworth Town, change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service (WCDAS), 020 3228 1777
- 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.
When the search starts with someone else's drinking
Quite often the person searching for rehab is standing next to the problem, worried about someone else.
It might be a mother on West Hill who has stopped believing the explanations, or a partner in a flat off Old York Road counting what has gone from the joint account. Sometimes it's you, and you've only got as far as typing the word. Either way, rehab tends to stand in for a bigger question: who can actually help, and how soon. In Wandsworth the honest answer runs through one free service, with private counselling around the edges of it. Relatives need something for themselves as well, because living alongside someone's drinking or drug use wears people down in ways that rarely get named, and that strain deserves attention in its own right.
Who arranges treatment, and where counselling fits
If you live in Wandsworth, the service to contact is the Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service, known as WCDAS, on 020 3228 1777. It's led by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, working with We Are With You, CDARS and St Mungo's. WCDAS carries out the assessment, and if it shows someone needs a supervised detox or time in residential care, WCDAS makes that decision with them and sets it up. Alongside or after structured treatment, the WCDAS Recovery Hub and the CDARS Wandsworth and Richmond Day Programme are part of the local recovery picture. My part is narrower: a weekly hour by video that can begin while you're still deciding whether to ring WCDAS, carry on through community treatment, or pick up when someone comes home from a residential stay. In sessions we get honest about what the drinking, using or betting gives you, such as taking the edge off pressure or switching off a loud mind, and about what makes the coming week harder or easier. You don't need to be sober to start. I've been in recovery myself, so you won't need to tidy up the story for me. A parent or partner can book sessions of their own, whether or not the person they're worried about is getting help.
Four doors in the borough
Ringing WCDAS for an assessment
The Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service, on 020 3228 1777, assesses residents and, when the assessment calls for it, organises detox or a residential place. A counselling session can help you prepare for that call.
As treatment winds down
The WCDAS Recovery Hub is the recovery community attached to the service, worth asking about as structured treatment ends and ordinary life in Wandsworth starts again.
Structure for the daytime
The CDARS Wandsworth and Richmond Day Programme is another local recovery option, and weekly counselling with me can run at the same time as it.
Help for the family first
Substance Misuse Carer Support, run by Wandsworth Carers' Centre, is for family and friends of people who drink or use drugs, whether or not that person wants help yet.
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 Wandsworth
Beyond WCDAS itself, Substance Misuse Carer Support at Wandsworth Carers' Centre helps relatives in their own right, and Wandsworth Bereavement Service supports people left behind after a death. If a night turns into a mental health crisis, Tooting Recovery Café (Hestia) is listed on the local NHS trust's urgent-help page, alongside the urgent numbers further down. The WCDAS Recovery Hub is a recovery community for ongoing support; urgent help comes from those crisis routes. Weekly counselling with me can sit beside any of these.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceWandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service (WCDAS)020 3228 1777Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWandsworth Carers' Centre
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 or WhatsApp 0303 330 1511. Local drop-in crisis support: Tooting Recovery Café (Hestia) (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 Wandsworth ask before starting
Is there a rehab in Wandsworth I can just book?
Not in the sense most people mean. Residential rehab and detox for Wandsworth residents are normally reached through an assessment with WCDAS, the Wandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service, on 020 3228 1777, which works out with you what level of help is safe. My counselling can start before that assessment and carry on afterwards.
My grown-up son in Southfields won't admit there's a problem. What can I do?
You can't make an adult accept help, and pushing harder can make every conversation tenser. What you can do is look after your own footing. Substance Misuse Carer Support at Wandsworth Carers' Centre is there for relatives, and counselling gives you somewhere to decide what you'll keep doing and what you'll stop. Telling him once, calmly, that WCDAS exists keeps a door open.
I'm still drinking. Can I begin addiction counselling from Wandsworth anyway?
Yes. Nobody has to refer you, and stopping first isn't a condition. Book the free 15-minute call and tell me roughly what's going on, and I'll say honestly when a weekly time is free. Because Hove is 81 minutes away by car, we'd meet on screen. Anyone drinking heavily every day should read the withdrawal warning on this page before changing anything.
What happens when someone comes back to Wandsworth after a residential stay?
Coming home can be a hard stretch, because the old streets and routines are still there. WCDAS can explain how its Recovery Hub supports people afterwards, and the CDARS Wandsworth and Richmond Day Programme is another local option. Weekly counselling gives you a fixed hour to talk through cravings and setbacks as they come, by video so there's no travelling.
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.
Whoever you're asking for, start with a call
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.