Andover · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Andover
If you're in Andover and something has felt wrong for a while, counselling is a sensible first step even before you can name it. Hove sits close to two hours down the road from the Test Valley, so our weekly hour would run on secure video from your home in Augusta Park, Picket Twenty or wherever you live, with me each time. A trip to Hove now and then is open to you.
The practical facts for Andover
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Andover by car
- About 117 minutes with clear roads (89.1 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.
Army headquarters, a growing town and long drives everywhere
Andover sits on the River Anton at the eastern edge of Salisbury Plain, and much of its working life runs through the Ministry of Defence, the town's largest employer, with Army Headquarters at Marlborough Lines since 2012.
Others clock in at Twinings, Simplyhealth, Stannah or Cengage, on the shop floor of the Chantry Centre, or on a ward at Andover War Memorial Hospital. It is a younger place than the rest of Test Valley, with a quarter of residents aged 19 or under, so plenty of households are juggling small children, shifts and a mortgage or rent at once. Newer streets in Augusta Park, Picket Twenty and Saxon Fields fill with people who moved for a posting or a job and left their own families behind. And the gap between neighbourhoods is wide: parts of the centre and north rank among England's 30% most deprived areas, while some streets to the south-east sit among the 10% least deprived.
When you aren't sure what kind of help you need
Plenty of people get in touch with no tidy label for what's wrong. You might feel worn thin after a move to Andover for a partner's posting, with no friends nearby yet and a house full of boxes. You might be a civilian at Marlborough Lines whose job keeps changing shape, a parent in Charlton running on four hours' sleep, or someone who has noticed that evenings now start with a drink and end late. It could be grief, a relationship that has gone quiet, or an old memory that keeps surfacing. Whatever you bring, our first sessions are for working out together what is actually going on and what keeps it in place. Then we agree what the counselling should focus on, and if a different service suits you better, I'll say so and point you to it. My integrative way of working, which includes Internal Family Systems, is laid out on the how I work page. Over 25 years of practice, shaped by my own recovery, mean you can speak plainly without worrying about shocking me.
Pressures that build up over an Andover week
Life around Marlborough Lines
Postings, restructures and long hours at Army Headquarters, whether you wear a uniform, work there as a civilian or keep the household going around someone who does.
New estate, no one nearby
Moving into Augusta Park or Picket Twenty for work can mean a lovely new house and nobody close enough to call on when things get heavy.
Shop floor and factory shifts
Retail employs almost a quarter of Andover's workforce, and early starts, weekend rotas and tight money can wear down sleep and patience at home.
Looking after a relative unpaid
When you look after a parent or partner in Andover, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire, at Andover War Memorial Hospital, gives free help that can sit beside our work.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. "Similar to England" means the difference is not statistically significant. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free and low-cost support for Andover
Free and low-cost help in Andover can run alongside private counselling. Andover Mind has its wellbeing centre at Westbrook Close, South Street, with peer groups, courses and its own low-cost counselling. Andover adults can refer themselves to NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, once known as italk, for anxiety or low mood. Family carers in the Test Valley have The Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire, and Inclusion Recovery Hampshire helps when alcohol or drugs are the concern.
- 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 organisationAndover Mind counselling
- Local organisationThe Countess of Brecknock Hospice bereavement support
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. Local drop-in crisis support: Aldershot Safe Haven; North and Mid Hampshire Safe Haven (Andover Mind) (check opening times before you go).
If you 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 Andover ask before starting
Can I sit in a room with a counsellor rather than use video from Andover?
Face-to-face work happens at Intergen House in Hove, about 117 minutes' drive from Andover, which turns a single session into a long outing. Regular weekly work from Andover happens over secure video, and it is the same hour with the same counsellor. Should sitting in the same room feel important, we can plan the odd extended Hove session along the A303 and M27 route, and a few Test Valley clients choose that for their opening meeting.
Is there a long wait for counselling if I live in Andover?
We begin with the free 15-minute consultation, by phone or video. If we both want to continue, you pick from my real weekly openings, perhaps one that fits around a shift at Marlborough Lines. NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire answers self-referral calls about anxiety or low mood on 023 8038 3920, while Andover Mind at Westbrook Close keeps a low-cost counselling list with its own waits.
What can I do in Andover if I need help this evening?
Andover Mind runs the North and Mid Hampshire Safe Haven, which takes calls from 6pm to 10pm on all 365 evenings. Its drop-in is in Basingstoke, so from Andover the phone line or the online video waiting room is quicker. You can also text HANTS to 85258 at any hour. Andover War Memorial Hospital has a minor injuries unit but no emergency department, so in an emergency call 999.
My partner is in the Army at Andover. Is counselling just for me an option?
Yes. You can come on your own, whatever your partner does for a living, and what you say stays confidential, within the usual limits I explain at the start, including from anyone at Marlborough Lines. Postings, absences and the pressure of keeping a household steady are all fair things to talk about. Because sessions happen by video, a move or a change of shift pattern need not interrupt the work.
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 first conversation, from wherever you are in Test Valley
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.