Sidcup · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Sidcup
If something has been wearing you down in Sidcup and you can't yet put a name to it, this page is a sensible first stop. I'm a BACP-registered counsellor and psychotherapist working from Hove, 72 minutes south by car. From DA14 or DA15 we would usually meet on secure video: the same hour with the same counsellor, minus the drive. The Hove room stays open whenever you'd like to sit in it.
The practical facts for Sidcup
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Sidcup by car
- About 72 minutes with clear roads (60.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Bexley Talking Therapies, 020 8303 8932 (option 1)
- 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.
Old Kent houses, London trains and quiet parkland
Sidcup sits 11.3 miles south-east of Charing Cross and belonged to Kent until 1965, and it still has something of both.
Large Victorian and Edwardian houses stand a few streets away from 1930s semis, and parks kept from former estates, Lamorbey Park among them, give the town a greener feel than its London postcode suggests. Four Southeastern trains an hour leave for Charing Cross off-peak, so the city is close at hand. Queen Mary's Hospital on Frognal Avenue is part of ordinary life here too, whether you work there, visit someone there, or have a relative on a ward at the Woodlands Unit. A settled, suburban place can make difficulty easy to hide. The front gardens look tidy, the High Street carries on, and it can seem that everyone around you is coping while you lie awake turning the same thoughts over.
Starting when you only know something feels wrong
General counselling suits the moment before you've decided what the problem is. You might arrive with something definite: a parent's decline, a marriage that has gone quiet, a job you dread on Sunday evenings. Or the trouble may be vaguer, such as irritability with the people closest to you, a flatness that has hung on since spring, or an evening glass of wine that now regularly stretches to three. Any of those is a fair opening. Early on, the two of us sketch a rough map: what weighs heaviest, and which habits or circumstances feed it, perhaps a long stretch of looking after someone, the strain of a working week tied to the trains, or an old hurt that has woken up again. From that map we agree where to aim the work, and I'll tell you honestly if another kind of support would serve you better alongside or instead of me. My way of working is integrative, borrowing from Human Givens and other traditions; the how I work page sets out the detail. I have more than 25 years in this work and lived experience of recovery myself, so you can speak about shame, drinking or anything else without softening it for my sake.
What a Sidcup life can bring to the room
A relative on the Woodlands wards
Having a partner, parent or child in the Woodlands Unit at Queen Mary's Hospital is frightening and tiring, and your own feelings about it deserve an hour of their own.
Student life in the parkland
Rose Bruford College is a conservatoire, and if you study or teach there, constant assessment of your work and money worries can pile up quietly.
A week built round Southeastern
If your days begin and end on the line to Charing Cross, there may be little left for yourself, and video sessions mean no further travel.
Older age and quieter days
Retirement, widowhood or children moving away can leave long, still days. Counselling can sit beside the Age UK Bexley befriending cafes in Blackfen and at Frank Godley Court.
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 Sidcup
Free help in Bexley can run alongside private sessions. You can refer yourself to NHS Bexley Talking Therapies (delivered by Mind in Bexley) when worry or low mood has taken hold. Counselling Matters Bexley is another local option, and the Bexley Crisis Cafe (Mind in Bexley) offers drop-in support when things feel too much. Where alcohol or drug use is involved, The Pier Road Project (Bexley Drug and Alcohol Service) can assess you and support your family too.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Bexley Talking Therapies020 8303 8932 (option 1)Free 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 itThe Pier Road Project (Bexley Drug and Alcohol Service)01322 357940Free and confidential.
- Local organisationMind in Bexley Carers Service
- Local organisationPier Road Project service user groups, peer mentors and SMART Recovery groups
- Local organisationCarers' Support (Bexley)
- Local organisationHelix (Healing Experience of Loss and Trauma) Service, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis WhatsApp Service is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511. Local drop-in crisis support: Bexley Crisis Cafe (Mind in Bexley) (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 Sidcup ask before starting
Would I ever need to travel down from Sidcup for sessions?
Only if you choose to. Face-to-face work happens in Hove, at Intergen House, about 72 minutes' drive from Sidcup, or two changes by train via London Bridge and Brighton. Week in, week out, secure video from home tends to suit Sidcup better. If sitting in one room matters to you at certain points, an occasional Hove session can be booked, and a longer one helps make the trip worthwhile.
How do I refer myself to NHS Bexley Talking Therapies from Sidcup?
NHS Bexley Talking Therapies is run by Mind in Bexley, and you can refer yourself without seeing your GP first, by calling 020 8303 8932 and choosing option 1. It is a free service for anxiety and low mood. You are welcome to use it and see me privately as well, or to come to me while you wait.
I live in Sidcup and feel ready now. What happens first?
It starts with a brief, free consultation by phone or video, where you tell me a little of what's happening and ask anything you want. Should it feel right on both sides, you choose whichever of my open weekly slots suits you. There's no waiting list to join, and you are under no pressure to decide on the spot.
My relative is in the Woodlands Unit at Queen Mary's. Is counselling for me too?
It can be. When someone close to you is an inpatient, your own worry, guilt and exhaustion often get pushed aside. Sessions give you a place to put them. Mind in Bexley also runs a Carers Service and carers information sessions at the Woodlands Unit itself, which can sit alongside our work.
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.
Ready to talk, from DA14, DA15 or nearby
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.