Chichester · in person in Hove or online
Counselling and therapy for Chichester
This is for adults in Chichester who would like a therapist outside the city's working and social life. I offer one-to-one sessions by secure video, or face to face at Intergen House in Hove, which direct trains from Chichester reach without a change. Whether you live in Summersdale, Whyke or Graylingwell, you don't need to know what to call the problem first. It all starts with a free 15-minute call.
The practical facts for Chichester
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Chichester by car
- About 48 minutes with clear roads (30.0 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- Direct trains from Chichester to Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies – West Team, 01273 265967
- 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.
Inside the walls, and out towards Goodwood
Chichester is West Sussex's only city and its county town, home to 29,407 people in the parish in 2021, with the cathedral at its heart and the Roman walls still marking out the old centre.
Beyond the walls the city reaches out to Kingsham and Florence Park, with the South Downs just to the north and the harbour close by. A lot of local work is in the public sector, in tourism and leisure, or self-employed, and around the city sit the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars plant at Goodwood, the University of Chichester's Bishop Otter Campus, Chichester College and St Richard's Hospital on Spitalfield Lane. Those are places where colleagues, students, patients and neighbours overlap. If you teach, nurse, work for the council or run your own business, the person you'd most like to confide in might also be someone you'll pass at the Festival Theatre or by the Market Cross. You might prefer to see someone in the city, or you might want a little more distance along the coast.
If you searched for a psychotherapist
You may have searched for counselling or for psychotherapy, and in practice the two words cover much of the same ground. I'm a BACP-registered counsellor in psychotherapy training, which is why I'm a student member of UKCP, and the work can be short and focused or longer and deeper, depending on what you need. Across West Sussex in 2022/23, 24.5% of adults had a high anxiety score, similar to England's 23.8%, which is a county average and no measure of your own life. If you want longer work on patterns that go back years, such as how you came to carry so much at work, it helps that some trains run from Chichester straight to Hove, so weekly sessions in person are possible, and video covers the weeks when they aren't. Local work leans on the public sector, on tourism and leisure, and on self-employment, and each brings its own pressure: stretched services, irregular hours, or a business where nobody covers for you when you're unwell. Students and staff at the University of Chichester, and people working at St Richard's Hospital, may want a therapist with no link to either, and a room in Hove, 48 minutes' drive from the city, keeps that separation. I have more than 25 years in practice, and my own recovery is part of what I bring.
Things you might want to talk through
Work that comes home with you
Public-sector caseloads, tourism and leisure hours around Goodwood or the Festival Theatre, or a business that rests on you alone, and a mind that keeps working at the kitchen table.
Studying, or starting again
Being a student at the University of Chichester or Chichester College far from family, or rethinking a career partway through, can feel lonelier than anyone seems to expect.
Carrying the ward home
Working at St Richard's Hospital on Spitalfield Lane, and lying awake over the patients, the colleagues or the shift you couldn't put down once you were home in Whyke or Kingsham.
When drink becomes a pattern
Weekends that start a little earlier each time, or a glass that has become the only full stop to a working day. DAWN, the free West Sussex drug and alcohol service, can help alongside.
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 Chichester
Private counselling isn't the only door. Chichester Counselling Services is a local charity offering general counselling, though it isn't an addiction service. The city's NHS route, if anxiety or low mood is what you need help with, is the West Team at NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies, and you can refer yourself. For drink or drugs, Change Grow Live offers free help as West Sussex Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Network (DAWN), and Stonepillow supports people in the city facing homelessness.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS West Sussex Talking Therapies – West Team01273 265967Free 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 itWest Sussex Drug & Alcohol Wellbeing Network (DAWN)0330 128 1113Run by Change Grow Live. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWest Sussex MindMental health charity.
- Local organisationBuild on Belief (BoB), lived-experience recovery community
- Local organisationWest Sussex Wellbeing – support for family and friends (council-run)
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 SUSSEX 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 Chichester ask before starting
Is the Hove room close enough to visit from Chichester?
Yes. The room is at 65-67 Western Road in Hove rather than in Chichester, but it's within reach: about 48 minutes by car, or a direct train along the coast with no change needed. You could come weekly, or meet by video most weeks and travel in now and then. If you'd rather drive, travelling outside the rush hour keeps the trip close to those 48 minutes. The free 15-minute call is where we'd start.
I'm looking for psychotherapy in Chichester. Is counselling the same thing?
They overlap a great deal. I'm a counsellor registered with BACP, and I'm training as a psychotherapist, so my UKCP membership is a student one. In practice we decide together whether you want focused work on one problem or something longer and more exploratory. If a particular named therapy has been recommended to you, ask me on the free call whether what I offer fits. Longer work can run weekly in the Hove room, since the train from Chichester needs no change.
Is there free or charity counselling in Chichester itself?
Chichester Counselling Services is a registered local charity offering general counselling, so it's worth contacting them directly about cost and waiting times. For anxiety and low mood, NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies West Team is free, and you can refer yourself on 01273 265967. For alcohol or drugs, DAWN, the Change Grow Live service covering Chichester, is on 0330 128 1113. If you look after a relative, Carers Support West Sussex can help you too.
Will anyone I work with in Chichester know I'm having therapy?
Only if you tell them. Sessions are confidential within the usual professional limits, which I'll go through with you at the start. Because the room is in Hove, you're unlikely to meet colleagues from the hospital, the university or the council on the stairs, and by video there's no waiting area at all. If you live in Summersdale or Florence Park and work in the city centre, that distance can be part of what makes it easier to speak freely.
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.
Talk it over first, then choose how to meet
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.