Westerham · in person in Hove or online
Addiction counselling and rehab advice for Westerham
If you've searched for rehab from Westerham or Crockham Hill, worried about your own drinking or a husband's, wife's or parent's, detox and residential care are arranged free through Change, Grow, Live, which runs the West Kent drug and alcohol service. I provide one-to-one addiction counselling beside it, usually by secure video, sometimes in Hove.
The practical facts for Westerham
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Westerham by car
- About 57 minutes with clear roads (43.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From No station in Westerham, change at East Croydon for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free local drug & alcohol service
- West Kent community drug and alcohol service (Change, Grow, Live), 0330 128 1113
- 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.
Drinking that hides inside a settled small town
Westerham, a town of 4,498 around Market Square and The Green, sits in a district that leans older, with a median age of 44 in 2021 against 40 for England.
That shapes how drink tends to show up here. It might be a first glass that creeps earlier once work has stopped, a long marriage in which one of you has quietly begun counting the bottles, or a grown-up child visiting from London who notices more than they say. Westerham looks after its own, through lunch clubs at Westerham Hall, the monthly Forget-Me-Not Café and The Westerham Practice on Market Square, and in a town that close, saying that home life has slipped can feel harder. With no station since 1961, households lean on the car, which adds its own worry when drink is involved. Sevenoaks district logged 436.5 hospital admissions per 100,000 for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) in 2023/24, lower than England's 504.1, a district number that can't describe your household.
Counselling beside Change, Grow, Live in West Kent
For West Kent, Change, Grow, Live is the free drug and alcohol provider, on 0330 128 1113, and anyone in Westerham can phone them directly. They meet the person, weigh up what is needed and, where it's right, book a detox with medical support or a bed in residential care. My part is the weekly conversation around that. Counselling can come first, while someone is still wondering whether their drinking counts as a problem in their seventies, or in mid-career with a demanding job towards London. Sessions continue while CGL provides community support, and they resume once someone returns from residential care to the Green, the familiar pub and the long quiet afternoons. Together we work out what the alcohol has been doing: easing loneliness after a bereavement, filling the shape that retirement took away, softening pain or worry. Then we look at what else could hold some of that. I've been in recovery myself and in practice for over 25 years, so frankness is welcome and nothing needs to be tidied up first. If it's a partner of many years whose drinking frightens you, the sessions can be for you alone, about what you've been carrying and how you want to respond.
Westerham households this page has in mind
A wife or husband counting bottles
Al-Anon Family Groups, which Kent County Council signposts, supports people affected by someone else's drinking, and sessions with me give you a private hour of your own.
Grown-up children further away
If you're worried about a parent in Westerham from a distance, the Kenward Trust has a service for relatives like you, and video works wherever you live.
Caring has crept into everything
If managing the house, the money and a partner's health now falls to you, Imago's Kent Carers Support backs adult carers in West Kent as people with needs of their own.
Drink and money worries together
Citizens Advice has an outreach point at Russell House on Market Square and a monthly drop-in at the Westerham Foodbank, for when debts are tangled up with the drinking.
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 Westerham
Change, Grow, Live runs West Kent's community drug and alcohol service for Westerham, handling assessment and booking any detox or residential stay, with our private sessions alongside. For relatives, the Kenward Trust and Al-Anon both offer support, and The Westerham Practice can help with physical health questions. On a hard night, the Release the Pressure helpline for Kent is on 0800 107 0160, and Sevenoaks Samaritans covers the town.
- Free drug and alcohol serviceWest Kent community drug and alcohol service (Change, Grow, Live)0330 128 1113Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationImago - Kent Carers Support (West Kent adult carers service)
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.
Locally, the Release the Pressure Helpline - Kent is on 0800 107 0160. Local drop-in crisis support: Kent and Medway Safe Havens (Mental Health Matters) (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 Westerham ask before starting
My husband drinks every day. How does he get a rehab place from Westerham?
Phone Change, Grow, Live, the free West Kent provider, on 0330 128 1113, or encourage him to. Once their team has talked with him, they decide together whether he needs community help, a detox or a residential place, and they arrange it. While he decides, the Kenward Trust is there for relatives like you, and your own sessions can start straight away, whatever he chooses.
Where can I get support near Westerham as the partner of someone who drinks?
Relatives can turn to the Kenward Trust, which supports friends and family, and to Al-Anon Family Groups, which Kent County Council signposts. If looking after him has turned into caring, Imago's Kent Carers Support covers West Kent. Alongside those, weekly video sessions with me give you an hour that belongs to you, to think about what you've noticed and what you want to do next.
Would addiction counselling from Westerham mean travelling to Hove each week?
Usually not. Hove is 57 minutes by car, and by rail you'd start from Oxted and change at East Croydon, so weekly addiction counselling from Westerham normally happens by secure video from home. A face-to-face hour in Hove every so often is still possible, and a longer session there is an option once the work has settled.
My mother has been drinking more since my father died. Is it too late at her age to get help?
Age doesn't close the door. Counselling can make room for the grief and the drinking together, at her pace, and video means she can talk from her own sitting room without arranging a lift. If she agrees, Change, Grow, Live can assess the drinking and The Westerham Practice can look at her physical health. Cruse Bereavement Support also offers help with the loss itself.
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 private word, from Westerham or Crockham Hill
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.