Fareham · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Anxiety counselling for Fareham
If anxiety has started to run your days in Fareham, Whiteley or Funtley, whether it's waiting for test results, dreading Monday or a racing heart in a busy shop, counselling gives you a steady hour each week to understand it. Sessions are mostly by secure video, so you can begin from home without an hour-long trip to Hove.
The practical facts for Fareham
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Fareham by car
- About 68 minutes with clear roads (50.0 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- Direct trains from Fareham towards Brighton call at Hove on the way.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, 023 8038 3920
- 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.
Referrals, targets and assessment days
Anxiety in Fareham can start somewhere very ordinary.
A GP refers you on, and the weeks until an appointment at Fareham Community Hospital in Sarisbury or Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham fill up with searching your symptoms at midnight. A job at Solent Business Park comes with targets and a presentation you rehearse in the shower. If you're training at HMS Collingwood, you may be assessed in front of others, and the fear of failing can sit in your chest all week. Money adds its own background hum. Survey figures for 2022/23 put the share of Hampshire adults with a high anxiety score at 26.3%, similar to the England figure of 23.8%. It is a broad picture and tells you nothing about yourself. What matters is how anxiety shows up in your own days.
Settling the body first, then the worry underneath
We start by mapping your anxiety: when it arrives, what it does to your breathing, stomach and sleep, and what you do to get through it. Then we work in two directions. One is immediate, building a few ways to settle your body that you can use quietly in a waiting room, at a desk in Whiteley or in the queue at Fareham Shopping Centre. The other goes deeper, looking at what the worry is trying to protect you from and whether that danger is still real. Health anxiety needs particular care. Symptoms are for your GP and hospital team to assess, so keep those appointments and take the questions that frighten you to them; in our sessions we work on the fear around them. What we work on together is the fear that fills the gap while you wait. If avoidance has crept in, such as no longer driving on the motorway or skipping the shops on a Saturday, we can plan small steps back at a pace you choose. And if a drink has become the way you take the edge off, we can talk about that honestly as well.
Where anxiety can surface in a Fareham week
Every twinge sends you searching
A clinic date at Fareham Community Hospital or Queen Alexandra Hospital weeks away, and every ache in between checked online until the early hours.
Pressure at Solent Business Park
Targets, reviews and a presentation that keeps you awake the night before. We look at the fear of being found wanting, and how to steady yourself in the meeting itself.
Being assessed at Collingwood
Training at HMS Collingwood can mean being tested, and the fear of failing in front of your course can follow you home.
Groups as well as sessions
The Solent Mind Fareham and Gosport Wellbeing Service runs workshops and groups, which can sit beside one-to-one anxiety counselling with me.
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 and low-cost support for Fareham
For anxiety, NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, previously italk, takes self-referrals on 023 8038 3920. Solent Mind runs the Fareham and Gosport Wellbeing Service, with groups, workshops and one-to-one emotional support. If anxiety tips into crisis late at night, you can text HANTS to 85258 for the Shout 24/7 text service. Private counselling can run alongside any of these.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Talking Therapies Hampshire023 8038 3920Free 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 itInclusion Recovery Hampshire0300 124 0103Free and confidential.
- Local organisationAnchoring MindsMental health support for Royal Navy and Royal Marines.
For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
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.
In this area you can also text HANTS to 85258.
What people in Fareham ask before starting
Can I refer myself for anxiety support in Fareham without seeing a GP?
Yes. NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire accepts self-referrals, so you can contact it directly on 023 8038 3920, and it's free. Ask about current waiting times when you get in touch. If you'd prefer to choose your counsellor, or want video sessions that fit around your job, private counselling with me is another option, and the two can overlap.
I'm anxious about a hospital appointment in Fareham. Can counselling help while I wait?
It can help with the fear, though not with the medical question. We look at what the waiting does to you, the checking, the searching and the sleepless nights, and find ways to get through the weeks more steadily. Keep your GP or the hospital team as the people you ask about symptoms, and bring the worry about them to our sessions.
Will anxiety counselling from Fareham be by video, and does that work?
From Fareham it would mostly be by video, and for anxiety that has an advantage, because you begin somewhere you already feel safe. Things that are easier to practise in an unfamiliar place can come later, if you want them to, with a trip on the direct train to Brighton and on to the room in Hove.
Do I need to have had panic attacks to come for anxiety counselling?
No. Worry that won't switch off is reason enough, and so is dread that keeps you from things you used to do. Ring for the free 15-minute call and you'll hear which regular times are open. Early sessions usually start with ways of settling yourself that you can try between our meetings.
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 exactly as it is
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.