Folkestone · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Folkestone
Perhaps life somewhere between Cheriton and the Harbour Arm has felt heavier lately, for reasons you haven't pinned down, and you'd like an unhurried place to begin. I'm a BACP-registered counsellor, and my room is in Hove, 113 minutes away by car. With that distance, our weekly hour runs on secure video, with me as your counsellor each time and nothing to travel for. A visit to Hove is there whenever you'd like one.
The practical facts for Folkestone
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Folkestone by car
- About 113 minutes with clear roads (97.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway, 0333 091 0414
- 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 of two halves, set between two cliffs
Folkestone sits in a valley between two cliffs, and its own district council calls it a town of two halves.
Some streets around the centre and to the north-east are among the most deprived in England, while other parts of town are among the least deprived anywhere, and the council links that gap to a stark difference in health and wellbeing. Both halves can show up in a single week. The Harbour Arm fills with live music and DJ sets at weekends, the Creative Quarter around the Old High Street draws crowds for the Triennial, and the high-speed line puts some residents in London in under an hour. Others are working at the Eurotunnel terminal in Cheriton, looking after an ageing parent, or making money go further than it wants to. Whichever half you live in, you can look settled from the outside and feel far from it in private.
Getting in touch before you know what it is
Plenty of people make contact without a tidy reason. It might be a loss, a relationship that has gone quiet, or a job at Saga or in the town centre that has started to fill your nights with worry. It might be harder to pin down: a flatness since moving to the coast, a short fuse with the people you love, or evenings on the Harbour Arm that have begun to end later and blurrier than you meant. Each of those is a reasonable way in. Early on we map what is weighing heaviest and what keeps feeding it: high-speed trips to St Pancras that leave little of you for home, an older relative who needs more each month, stretched money, or an old hurt that has resurfaced. Then we agree where the work should focus. When another kind of help would serve you well too, such as your GP for medication questions or South Kent Mind's groups for company between sessions, I'll say so plainly. I've counselled for 25+ years and know recovery from the inside, with Human Givens as one strand in an integrative way of working, so whatever you bring from Folkestone, you can say it plainly.
What Folkestone life can leave you carrying
Two halves of one town
Living near the centre, where the council records some of England's most deprived streets, or in a quieter, comfortable part of town, and finding that worry follows you either way.
Under an hour to St Pancras
The high-speed line makes London work possible from Folkestone, and it can also mean dark starts, late returns and very little of you left over for home.
An older district, more caring
Census 2021 counted 22.7% more people aged 65 and over in Folkestone and Hythe than in 2011, and keeping an eye on an ageing mum, dad or partner can wear down what you have left for yourself.
Evenings when it gets too much
On the nights between our sessions, adults can walk into Folkestone Safe Haven on Rendezvous Street, any day from 6pm to 11pm, without a referral.
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 Folkestone
Private counselling can sit beside free help in Folkestone. Folkestone residents with anxiety or depression need no GP letter: self-referral is open, and NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway answers directly. South Kent Mind on Dover Road runs wellbeing check-ins, groups and low-cost counselling, and Live Well Kent and Medway offers wider community support. Folkestone Safe Haven opens every evening, and Amparo supports anyone affected by suicide.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway0333 091 0414Free 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 itEast Kent community drug and alcohol service (The Forward Trust)0300 123 1186Free and confidential.
- Local organisationAge UK South Kent Coast (The Marigold Centre, Folkestone)
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.
Locally, the Release the Pressure Helpline - Kent is on 0800 107 0160. Local drop-in crisis support: Folkestone Safe Haven (Mental Health Matters) (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 Folkestone ask before starting
Can I see a counsellor face to face if I live in Folkestone?
The only room I use is at Intergen House in Hove, 113 minutes' drive from Folkestone, and there's no direct train. Regular sessions from the Kent coast therefore happen on secure video, keeping a fixed weekly slot with me and sparing you nearly two hours on the road each way. Should sitting face to face matter to you, booking the odd 90 or 120 minute session at Intergen House gives that near four-hour round trip from the Kent coast more to show for it.
I live in Folkestone. How soon could counselling begin?
Your first contact with me is a free 15-minute call, phone or video as you prefer, where you can put any question to me and get a feel for how sessions run. Should we both feel it's a fit, I'll offer the session times I genuinely have open and you pick one, with no travel to plan around. Alongside that, for anxiety or depression, NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway answers on 0333 091 0414.
What free mental health support is there in Folkestone?
South Kent Mind, based at 24-26 Dover Road, offers wellbeing check-ins, weekly groups, suicide prevention support and low-cost counselling led by trainees. Folkestone Safe Haven at 3 Rendezvous Street is a walk-in evening service for adults, open daily from 6pm to 11pm. Live Well Kent and Medway connects people with community support across the area, and any of these can run alongside private sessions.
My Folkestone home isn't very private. Can video counselling still work?
Usually, yes. Headphones help a great deal, and a parked car, a borrowed spare room or a booked space at work can all serve as your counselling room for the hour. We might pick a weekday morning after the school run, when a Sandgate or Morehall house often falls still. If privacy is hard to find for a while, we can talk about it on the first call and plan around it.
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.
Fifteen unhurried minutes, from Folkestone, to begin
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.