Croydon · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Anxiety counselling for Croydon
If you live in Croydon and your mind keeps running ahead to the worst outcome, anxiety counselling gives you an hour a week to slow it down. We'd meet by secure video from a room where you feel settled, and a free 15-minute call comes first, with nothing booked until you decide.
The practical facts for Croydon
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Croydon by car
- About 63 minutes with clear roads (44.0 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- Direct trains from East Croydon to Brighton; change there for Hove, one stop.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Croydon NHS Talking Therapies, 0203 228 4040
- 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.
Living in the gap between the letter and the answer
A lot of anxiety is waiting. In Croydon that can mean waiting on the Home Office, which moved from Lunar House to Ruskin Square in 2024, for a decision about your visa or your right to stay, and checking your inbox every hour in case today is the day. It can mean the weeks between a scan at Croydon University Hospital and the result, filled with what-ifs. It might be a course at Croydon College fitted around a job, with an assessment you're sure will expose you, or a restructure at a town-centre office that leaves everyone guessing who will still be there next year. Often the body notices first, with a tight chest on the walk along North End or sleep that breaks before dawn. For some people there's no single worry, only a steady hum that has been there so long it feels like part of who they are.
Turning down an alarm that won't stop ringing
Anxiety is your threat system going off too often and too loudly, and it deserves to be understood before anyone tries to quieten it. Early on we work out how yours runs: what sets it off, where you feel it, and what you do for relief, whether that's refreshing for Home Office news yet again or searching symptoms at midnight. Those habits bring a moment's ease and then feed the next wave. You also learn a few ways of settling your body that you can use on a tram or at your desk without anyone noticing, and we practise them until they come easily. When the thing you're waiting on is out of your hands, the aim shifts to living alongside the uncertainty, with your attention back on the parts of the day you can shape. If panic attacks or physical symptoms frighten you, your GP can check them, and that medical side sits alongside the counselling. Where a benefits letter is part of what keeps you awake, Mind in Croydon offers benefits advice and advocacy, so the practical side can be handled while we work on the fear.
What anxiety can attach to in Croydon
Waiting on the Home Office
A visa or settlement decision from the Home Office, whose offices are now at Ruskin Square, and months of checking for news. We work on how you live while the answer is pending.
Before a hospital result
A test, a referral or a relative's stay at Croydon University Hospital in Thornton Heath, and the what-ifs that fill every quiet gap in the day.
A course alongside the job
A course at Croydon College squeezed around shifts or childcare, and the sense that one bad assessment will prove everyone right about you.
When a benefits letter arrives
A letter about benefits can feed anxiety for weeks. Mind in Croydon gives benefits advice, which can take some of the practical weight off while we work on the worry.
Free and low-cost support for Croydon
For free NHS help with anxiety, Croydon NHS Talking Therapies, run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, takes self-referrals on 0203 228 4040. Mind in Croydon runs one-to-one counselling that you can arrange with a phone call. Private sessions with me can happen at the same time as either, and you don't have to pick one route.
- Free NHS talking therapyCroydon NHS Talking Therapies0203 228 4040Free NHS talking therapy for anxiety, low mood and related difficulties. You can refer yourself, with no GP referral needed.
- If drinking or drug use is part of itCroydon Integrated Recovery Service (Drug and Alcohol Service - Croydon)0300 123 9288Run by Change Grow Live (CGL). Free and confidential.
- Local organisationMind in Croydon carers' services
For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
Private counselling with me can run alongside any of these; you do not have to choose one or the other.
If someone at home is hurting, threatening or controlling you, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247.
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 (SLaM) is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511 or text 80991.
What people in Croydon ask before starting
Can I refer myself to Croydon NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety?
Yes. It's free, it's run by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and you can contact it yourself on 0203 228 4040 without seeing your GP first. There may be a wait. If you'd rather choose your counsellor or keep going without a fixed number of sessions, private counselling is another option, and you can use both.
I'm waiting on a Home Office decision about my visa. Can anxiety counselling from Croydon help?
Yes, with the anxiety itself. I can't influence the decision or give immigration advice, so keep any legal adviser you have. What we can work on is the cost of waiting: the checking, the broken sleep, the worst-case stories that fill the silence. Counselling is confidential, and I'll explain the limits of that clearly on the free call.
Would I see you on a screen or in a room, coming from Croydon?
Usually on a screen. From Croydon the Hove room is about 63 minutes by car, and adding a long trip to an anxious week rarely helps. Video lets you start somewhere familiar, and the work is the same. If you'd like to sit in the room one day, perhaps as a goal of your own, we can arrange it.
What happens in a first anxiety session if I'm calling from Croydon?
After the free 15-minute call, if we both want to go ahead, we book a regular video time, and I'll give you a realistic idea of when a slot opens. The first session is about mapping what your anxiety does and when. You won't be asked to face anything you're avoiding yet, and if a message through the contact page feels easier than a call, that's fine.
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.
Bring the worry to a short first call
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.