Orpington · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Orpington
If you live in Orpington, Crofton or Green Street Green and want someone to talk to, I can work with you by secure video, at a time that fits around the trains. My one room is in Hove, a long way from Orpington, and I'd rather tell you that now than after you've booked.
The practical facts for Orpington
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Orpington by car
- About 67 minutes with clear roads (54.3 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Orpington, change at London Bridge for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Bromley Talking Therapies, 0300 003 3000
- 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.
On the edge of London, with one foot in Kent
Orpington sits on the south-eastern edge of Greater London, close to the Kent border.
It was a small village surrounded by soft-fruit farms, hop fields and orchards, and it grew after the railway arrived in 1868. Today the station has eight platforms and frequent trains to Victoria, Charing Cross and Cannon Street, so if you commute, your working day may start and finish on a platform, with little room left to notice how you're doing. Your days may not involve those trains at all if you work on a ward at the Princess Royal University Hospital on Farnborough Common, or study at the University Centre in The Walnuts. Orpington is also one of the London Plan's major centres, busy enough that a walk along the High Street can mean bumping into people you know, which matters when you're deciding where to look for help.
Help near Orpington station, or a screen at home
Several of Orpington's mental health services are on Station Road, near the station. South East London Mind has its Orpington Centre at Anchor House, the Bromley Recovery and Wellbeing College runs courses from the same building, and Bromley and Orpington Samaritans have their branch at 9b. If walking in somewhere close to home suits you, that closeness is a real advantage. If you'd worry about meeting a neighbour from Crofton or Poverest on the way in, it may be what stops you going at all. Video takes that worry away. You can join from a spare room at home, a meeting room at work before the train back from Cannon Street, or a parked car by Goddington Park, and nobody in the town needs to know. In the first session I'll mostly listen while you explain things in whatever order they come, and ask just enough to find what is weighing on you most. You don't need a tidy account before you start. With over 25 years of practice behind me, and my own recovery too, nothing you tell me about drinking, using or keeping things hidden will shock me.
Where an Orpington first session might begin
The commute is wearing you down
Months of early trains to Charing Cross, Cannon Street or Victoria and late returns, until tiredness turns into irritability and you stop recognising yourself by Friday.
Looking after others all day
A shift on the wards at the Princess Royal University Hospital, or in the therapy and outpatient services at Orpington Hospital, and nothing left over for yourself by the evening.
Grief that hasn't eased
A death that still catches you months later. Cruse's Bexley and Bromley branch offers bereavement support, South East London Mind runs a Suicide Bereavement Service, and we can talk about it here as well.
Habits you'd rather not have
Drinking, gambling or using that has crept up, and the effort of keeping it out of sight. The Clean Slate Project is Bromley's recovery hub, and here we can talk about it plainly.
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 Orpington
South East London Mind runs its Bromley services from its Orpington head office, and they include Mindful Mums, Being Dad, the Suicide Bereavement Service and support for mental health carers. If you look after an adult relative, Bromley Well supports unpaid adult carers across the borough. Seeing me privately doesn't stop you using those Orpington services too, and nothing about one rules out the other.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Bromley Talking Therapies0300 003 3000Free 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 itChange Grow Live (CGL) Bromley Drug and Alcohol Service020 8289 1999Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCGL Bromley family and carer support
- Local organisationCruse Bereavement Support, Bexley and Bromley branchBereavement support.
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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis WhatsApp Service () is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511.
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 Orpington ask before starting
Can I see a counsellor face to face in Orpington?
Not with me. I see people in person only in Hove, at Intergen House, about 67 minutes' drive from Orpington, so from Orpington we'd normally work by secure video. If you'd like to sit in a room together, you can come to Hove now and then for a longer session. For support in the town itself, you can contact the Orpington Centre of South East London Mind on Station Road.
How soon could I start, and what's free on the NHS for Orpington?
There's no referral and no assessment form with me. You book a free 15-minute call, I tell you when I have a regular slot, and if it feels right to us both, it's yours. NHS Bromley Talking Therapies, on 0300 003 3000, accepts self-referrals from Orpington for anxiety or low mood, and the Bromley Mental Health Hub, which Oxleas runs together with South East London Mind, assesses adults aged 18 to 64 and points them on. You can see me while you wait.
Is there help in Orpington for women abused as children?
Yes. The Bromley Woman's Service is an NHS evening psychotherapy service in Orpington, run by Oxleas, for women who experienced childhood sexual abuse. You might choose that, private work with me, or both at different times. With me we'd go slowly, and the Rewind Technique, one of the approaches I use, works with painful memories without asking you to retell them in detail.
I'm drinking more than I'd like. Who can I talk to near Orpington?
Change Grow Live runs the Bromley Drug and Alcohol Service for adults, on 020 8289 1999, and the Clean Slate Project is the borough's recovery hub. The CGL service can assess what you need and arrange detox or residential care, and Clean Slate offers a recovery community alongside it. Our sessions can sit around that, whether you're waiting, in treatment or afterwards, and you can be honest here about how much and how often.
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 minutes on the phone, from Orpington
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.