Basingstoke · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Basingstoke
Perhaps life in Basingstoke has felt heavy lately without any obvious reason. Here is how one-to-one counselling with me would work from the town. With Hove a 99-minute drive away, we would mostly talk over secure video at one fixed weekly time, with me each week and no trip to the coast.
The practical facts for Basingstoke
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Basingstoke by car
- About 99 minutes with clear roads (85.6 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.
A town rebuilt for newcomers, and the people still arriving
Basingstoke has changed shape more than once.
A market town of about 25,000 after the war, it was rapidly developed in the late 1960s under the London Overspill plan, and by 2021 around 107,642 people lived there. Across Basingstoke and Deane the population rose by 10.3% in the ten years to 2021, quicker than the South East or England as a whole. If a job brought you here, on Basing View, at the AA's Fanum House or in one of the IT and insurance firms, your family and oldest friends may live some distance away. Weekdays can run to office hours and the station, where around seven trains an hour leave for Waterloo outside the peak. Weekends shrink to Festival Place, a concert at The Anvil or an afternoon at the Aquadrome. None of that is unusual, and it can still leave you feeling that nobody here really knows how you are.
Bringing an unnamed weight to a first session
Some people arrive with a clear reason: a restructure at work, a parent admitted to Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, a marriage that has gone quiet. Others only know that they have been short-tempered for months, sleeping badly in a rented flat in Eastrop, or pouring the evening glass of wine a little earlier than they used to. Either is enough to begin with. In the first sessions we sort out what is pressing hardest, what keeps it going and what you would like to be different, in your own words rather than a checklist. Together we then settle on what to work on and roughly how many weeks it might take, and if your GP or a free Basingstoke service would serve you better, I will say so plainly. The approach is integrative, with Human Givens as one thread, and a separate page describes each method in more detail. Behind my 25 years and more of practice sits my own recovery, so you can speak plainly about whatever is going on, including the parts that feel embarrassing.
Pressures that come with Basing View hours and borrowed homes
Working past 49 hours
In 2021, 11.0% of employed Basingstoke and Deane residents worked over 49 hours a week. When work spills into every evening, worry has a way of surfacing at 3am.
Far from where you grew up
If a job or a cheaper rent brought you to Popley, Brighton Hill or Hatch Warren, the people who have known you longest may now live a long way off.
Renting and moving on
Private renting in the borough reached 15.4% of households in 2021. Short tenancies and moves between neighbourhoods can make it hard to feel settled anywhere.
A Vyne Road door open till late
Adults struggling on a given evening can walk into the North and Mid Hampshire Safe Haven at 3 Vyne Road between 6pm and 10pm, any day of the year, without booking.
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 Basingstoke
Sessions with me can run next to the free support Basingstoke and Deane already has. No GP appointment is needed first: NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire (previously italk) lets you refer yourself when anxiety or a dip in mood is the concern. Andover Mind runs peer and therapeutic groups from its Basingstoke wellbeing base, Basingstoke Counselling Service offers open-ended counselling with weekly fees set by income, and YPI Counselling sees young people aged 11 to 25, and parents, free of charge.
- 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 organisationThe Princess Royal Trust for Carers in Hampshire (Hampshire Carers Support Service)
- Local organisationSamaritans of BasingstokeVolunteer-run Samaritans branch at 5 Essex Road.
- Local organisationSt. Michael's Hospice bereavement servicesHospice bereavement support in Basingstoke, low-cost or fee-paying.
- Local organisationAndover Mind Basingstoke wellbeing baseLocal Mind wellbeing base running peer support, low-cost or fee-paying.
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.
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 Basingstoke ask before starting
Can I see you in person from Basingstoke, or is it all online?
My counselling room is at Intergen House in Hove, a 99-minute drive from Basingstoke, which is why regular sessions run on secure video, with a longer face-to-face meeting there whenever you would like one. If weekly sessions in a room in town matter most to you, Basingstoke Counselling Service at Goldings on London Road is a local charity worth contacting.
How long is the wait to start counselling from Basingstoke?
Once the free call is done and you want to go ahead, I send over my open weekly times, perhaps a lunch hour away from Basing View, and you choose the one that fits. When worry or a low patch weighs most, NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire on 023 8038 3920 will take your call directly, whether you use it alone or while weighing up private sessions.
Where can I go in Basingstoke tonight if I'm really struggling?
The North and Mid Hampshire Safe Haven, run by Andover Mind at 3 Vyne Road, is open from 6pm to 10pm with no appointment. Samaritans answer 116 123 at any hour, and the Basingstoke branch on Essex Road is part of that listening service. You can also text HANTS to 85258. Where someone's life is at risk this minute, ring 999, and the other Hampshire crisis lines are collected in this page's urgent help box.
Can I have a video session in my lunch hour from a Basing View office?
Yes, as long as you can be somewhere private for the full hour, such as a bookable meeting room with the door shut or your car parked quietly. Headphones help. We would fix a regular slot that fits around your working day, and if lunchtimes get swallowed by meetings we can look at an early evening time instead.
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 Basingstoke, by phone or on screen
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.