Kensington · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Kensington
When a Kensington life looks fine on paper but feels heavy from the inside, talking it through with a BACP-registered counsellor is a sensible first move. My one room is in Hove, about 95 minutes south by car, so sessions from Kensington happen over secure video. You get one counsellor, a settled weekly time and no travel, plus a Hove visit now and then if you want it.
The practical facts for Kensington
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Kensington by car
- About 95 minutes with clear roads (53.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies, 020 3317 4200
- 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.
Museums, newsrooms and a quiet flat after dark
From the outside, Kensington can look settled.
Visitors stream along Exhibition Road towards the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, students cross between Imperial College's South Kensington campus and the Royal College of Music, and Kensington High Street stays busy with shoppers and with the staff of Northcliffe House. Behind the polish, the borough's own health profile describes a densely populated place with a high proportion of single households. Across Kensington and Chelsea, one in five residents said they had felt high anxiety the day before they were asked, and nearly a third of people aged 65 and over live alone. Those are borough-wide figures, and they say nothing about you in particular. They do suggest that an elegant postcode and an easy inner life are separate things, and that feeling flat, wound up or lonely in a flat in Earl's Court or Brompton is less unusual than it looks.
Beginning before you have a name for it
Nobody expects a neat explanation from you at the outset. Some people arrive with something specific: a relationship that has ended, a parent growing frail a few streets away, a newsroom job that never quite switches off, or a PhD at Imperial that has started to swallow every evening. Others only know that sleep has thinned out, that patience at home runs short, or that the second glass of wine has quietly become routine. Any of these is enough to start with. In the first weeks we separate the threads: which strain came first, which one feeds the others, and where our weekly hour would help most. If a different service would suit you better, such as Imperial's student counselling or an NHS team, I will tell you so plainly. My way of working is integrative and borrows from Internal Family Systems among other traditions; a separate page sets out the detail. Behind it sit 25 years and more in practice, plus a recovery of my own, which tends to make frank conversation easier.
Pressures that come home with you to W8 and SW7
Deadlines off the High Street
If you work in media at Northcliffe House or anywhere along Kensington High Street, the news cycle can follow you home and leave little room to notice how you are.
Exams and studios on Exhibition Road
Studying at Imperial College, the Royal College of Music or the Royal College of Art, high standards can tip into dread. Imperial students also have the college's own counselling service.
Alone in a crowded borough
Solitude can feel heavier on streets full of visitors. In Kensington and Chelsea, an estimated 8,900 people over 65 are living alone, and younger single households are common too.
Looking after someone close
Caring for a partner or parent can quietly use you up. Carers Network supports unpaid carers locally, and counselling gives you one hour a week that is only about you.
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 Kensington
Free support can sit alongside private counselling. For anxiety and low mood, the borough's Community Living Well service runs Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies, which you can approach yourself. West London Mind runs Mind Within, a low-cost counselling service, and Carers Network helps people looking after someone. Imperial students have the Imperial College London Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service, and Central London Samaritans are there to listen.
- Free NHS talking therapyKensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies020 3317 4200Free 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 itTurning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service)0330 303 8080Free and confidential.
- Local organisationBuild on Belief (BoB): Acorn Hall Weekend ServiceRecovery community.
- Local organisationThe Alcohol Service @ Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster (CGL): family and carer support
- Local organisationCruse Bereavement Support, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham branchBereavement 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.
Locally, the CNWL Mental Health Single Point of Access crisis line, London boroughs) is on 0800 0234 650.
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 Kensington ask before starting
Is there anywhere in Kensington I can see you in person?
In-person work happens only in Hove, roughly 95 minutes from Kensington by car, or a Circle line ride to Victoria and then a Southern train to the coast. Weekly sessions from Kensington are therefore held over secure video, which keeps a steady hour without that trip. If being in one room with your counsellor matters to you, an occasional Hove appointment can be added.
Is there a wait to begin, and what NHS help is open to Kensington residents?
After the free 15-minute call, I share the weekly times still open in my diary and you choose one, with no waiting list in between. Alongside private work, for anxiety or low mood, residents of the Royal Borough can refer themselves to Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies on 020 3317 4200 or online, either beside our sessions or in their place.
I'm an Imperial student in South Kensington. Should I use college counselling or see you?
The Imperial College London Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service is free for students and takes referrals by online form or phone, so it is often the natural first stop. Some students prefer someone entirely outside the college, or want the same counsellor through the holidays and beyond graduation. Private video sessions with me can offer that, and we can talk through which suits you.
Where can I get help in Kensington tonight if I feel I can't cope?
The CNWL Mental Health Single Point of Access is a 24/7 crisis line for the London boroughs it covers, on 0800 0234 650. Central London Samaritans will also listen at any hour. Where someone's life is at immediate risk, ring 999. The same Kensington numbers are repeated in this page's urgent help box for quick reference.
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 Kensington, without the trip south
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.