Gosport · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Anxiety counselling for Gosport
If worry has become the background noise of your days in Gosport, anxiety counselling gives you a weekly hour to understand it and to feel steadier. My room is in Hove, well over an hour away, so we'd usually meet by secure video, whether you live in Alverstoke, Bridgemary or Lee-on-the-Solent, and nobody has to cross the harbour to begin.
The practical facts for Gosport
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Gosport by car
- About 82 minutes with clear roads (55.6 miles); longer at busy times.
- 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.
Life at the end of the peninsula, with the ferry in between
Gosport sits on its own peninsula, and with no station in the town, the way out by rail usually starts with the ferry across the harbour.
When anxiety is high, that shape matters. A trip becomes a queue, a crossing and a change of trains, and each stage is another place for your mind to ask what could go wrong. Some of the worry here is about waiting: for news of a partner who is away with the Navy, or for an outpatient letter from Gosport War Memorial Hospital that stays unopened on the side. Some is about distance, if a posting brought you here and the people you would normally ring are a long way off. Across Hampshire, a 2022/23 survey found 26.3% of adults with a high anxiety score, a level similar to England's 23.8%. That is a county survey result, not a description of you. Day to day it can look like broken sleep, a knot in your stomach before the school run, or saying yes to everyone so that nothing can go wrong.
Calming the alarm first, then asking what it guards
The first sessions are for mapping your anxiety as it really runs: what sets it off, where you feel it in your body, and what you do to get through, such as checking, asking for reassurance or quietly not going. Once the pattern is clear, the work goes two ways. One is about the body, with short ways to slow your breathing and ease the grip of high alert that you can use on the pontoon, in a waiting room or at three in the morning. The other asks what the worry is trying to protect you from, and what it costs you to keep obeying it. If the peninsula has started to feel smaller because the crossing, crowds or phone calls have dropped out of your life, we plan a way back in steps small enough that you pick each one. If a partner's deployment is what sets it off, we can separate the worry you can act on from the worry that only drains you. Chest pain or palpitations should go to your GP first, and so should questions about medication, since that side of things is your GP's to look after. Worry that hums along most of the day is reason enough to get in touch.
What the worry might be about
A partner on deployment
Checking the news, sleeping with the phone beside you, and feeling guilty for being anxious when they're the one away. We work with the worry that won't switch off.
The letter you haven't opened
An appointment from Gosport War Memorial Hospital, a test result, or a symptom you're scared to mention. With health anxiety, the waiting can be the hardest part.
Dreading the crossing
If the queue at the pontoon or the water itself now feels like too much, we plan small, chosen steps back towards the ferry, only if you want them.
Far from family on the peninsula
If work or a posting brought you to Gosport, the people you'd usually lean on may be hours away. Solent Mind's Fareham and Gosport Wellbeing Service runs groups and one-to-one support too.
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 Gosport
NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, once known as italk, sees adults with anxiety without needing a GP to refer them. Solent Mind's Fareham and Gosport Wellbeing Service offers groups, workshops and one-to-one emotional support after a phone assessment, and Anchoring Minds gives peer support to Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel and their families. You can use any of them and still see me privately.
- 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.
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.
In this area you can also text HANTS to 85258.
What people in Gosport ask before starting
How do I refer myself for anxiety support in Gosport?
You can ring NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire yourself on 023 8038 3920. You don't need a GP letter, and the service is free. How long you'd wait for a first appointment varies, so it's worth asking. Private sessions with me are another option if you'd like to choose who you see each week.
I get anxious on the ferry. Will I have to travel to Hove?
No. From Gosport, sessions by secure video are the normal arrangement, so the ferry and the trains never have to come into it. If the crossing is something you'd like to manage again for your own reasons, we can make it part of the work, in steps you choose and at a pace that never goes beyond what you've agreed.
My partner is deployed and I can't stop worrying. Is counselling for that?
Yes. Worry about someone at sea is understandable, but when it takes over your sleep, your eating or your patience with the children, it deserves attention. We'd work on steadying you day to day and on sorting what you can control from what you can't. Anchoring Minds also offers peer support to naval families, and you can use both.
How soon could anxiety counselling start from Gosport?
After the free 15-minute call, if we both think it fits, we find a first video session at a time you can keep, and I'll tell you plainly on the call how soon that can be. If leave, a posting or a change of shifts reshapes your week, we can talk about moving sessions around it rather than losing them.
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.
Start from home, with a quiet 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.