Wandsworth · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Anxiety counselling for Wandsworth
Anxiety may have got into your days in Wandsworth as a pounding heart before a hospital letter, or a dread on the way to work that never quite lifts. Anxiety counselling with me happens over secure video, with no referral or label required. Wandsworth Talking Therapies offers free NHS help too, and using both is fine.
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 NHS talking therapy
- Wandsworth Talking Therapies, 0203 513 6264
- 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.
Waiting on results, and other Wandsworth alarms
Anxiety often fastens on to something real and then won't let go.
Perhaps it's a scan booked at St George's Hospital in Tooting or a follow-up at Queen Mary's in Roehampton, and the days of checking the post and searching symptoms at night while you wait. Perhaps it's the Saturday crowd inside Southside, which you now plan your shopping around. It might be work: an inbox you open on the train out of Wandsworth Town and can't put down again. Or it may have no clear subject at all, just a background hum that turns into a racing heart when you lie down in a flat by Wandsworth Common. Wandsworth is a major town centre and a busy one, and none of that busyness causes anxiety by itself. It can, though, hand a nervous system that is already on high alert a steady supply of things to brace against, until bracing starts to feel normal.
Learning how your anxiety works, then loosening it
We begin with how anxiety behaves in you specifically: what sets it off, where it lands physically, and the things you reach for to get relief. With health worries that might be checking your pulse, rereading a hospital letter or asking people for reassurance. With crowds it might be shopping at odd hours to avoid Southside, or leaving before anyone notices you've gone quiet. These habits bring relief for a moment and narrow your life in the long run, so we examine them without blame and choose together which to loosen first. In sessions we practise ways of settling the body that you can use at a desk or in the small hours, and repeat them until they come more easily. When worry races to the worst case, we slow down and notice what your body does as it happens. New or changing physical symptoms go to your GP first, and counselling works with the fear once the medical questions have been answered.
Where anxiety might catch you in Wandsworth
Before a St George's appointment
Days of dread before a scan or results at St George's Hospital, and the late-night symptom searching that makes the wait feel twice as long.
Inside Southside on a Saturday
Crowds, noise and no quick way out, so you shop early, shop online or send someone else, and the list of places you avoid keeps quietly growing.
Self-referral, no GP needed
Ring Wandsworth Talking Therapies on 0203 513 6264 to refer yourself for anxiety. Private sessions with me can overlap with it.
Workshops and signposting nearby
The Wandsworth Emotional Wellbeing Service, run by Together for Mental Wellbeing, offers workshops and signposting that can sit beside one-to-one anxiety counselling.
Free and low-cost support for Wandsworth
For free NHS help with anxiety, Wandsworth Talking Therapies accepts referrals direct from you, with no GP needed. The Wandsworth Emotional Wellbeing Service offers short one-to-one support and workshops, though it isn't counselling or a crisis service. Allkind is a local mental health charity as well. Private sessions with me can run at the same time as any of them.
- Free NHS talking therapyWandsworth Talking Therapies0203 513 6264Free 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 itWandsworth Community Drug and Alcohol Service (WCDAS)020 3228 1777Free 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.
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).
What people in Wandsworth ask before starting
Can I refer myself to Wandsworth Talking Therapies for anxiety and still see you privately?
Yes. Wandsworth Talking Therapies accepts self-referrals on 0203 513 6264, with no GP appointment needed. It costs nothing, although waits can happen. Seeing me privately during the wait, or alongside their help, needs no referral either. If both run at once, it's worth mentioning each to the other so the work pulls in one direction.
I panic for days before every hospital appointment at St George's. Can counselling help with health anxiety?
It can help with the fear, while the medical side stays with your doctors, so get any new symptoms checked by your GP first. In counselling we look at the cycle of worry, checking and reassurance-seeking that keeps health anxiety going, and practise ways to get through the waiting days without being swallowed by them. Sessions are by video, so there's no extra trip to plan around.
Would I have to travel to Hove from Wandsworth for anxiety counselling?
Not at all. By car Hove takes about 81 minutes, and by train you'd change at Clapham Junction, so from Wandsworth we work by secure video, with you somewhere you feel safe. If a trip to Hove later becomes a goal you'd like to set yourself, we can plan towards it, but sessions never depend on it.
How soon could anxiety counselling start, and what if panic gets worse before then?
You can book the free 15-minute call through the contact page, in writing if speaking feels hard, and you'll hear plainly which weekly times are open. If anxiety becomes overwhelming before we begin, the urgent help section on this page lists who to contact at any hour, including the South London crisis text service on 80991. If you have chest pain, or symptoms you think could be a medical emergency, call 999.
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.
Take one small step, from wherever feels safe
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.