Sutton · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Sutton
If you live in Sutton, Belmont or Benhilton and want a counsellor you've picked for yourself, I work with adults by secure video, at a set time each week. My one room is in Hove, a little over an hour's drive south, so sessions from Sutton nearly always happen on screen.
The practical facts for Sutton
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Sutton by car
- About 61 minutes with clear roads (43.3 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Sutton Talking Therapies, 0800 032 1411
- 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 hospital town tucked inside a shopping town
Sutton's High Street runs for nearly a mile from Sutton Green to the station, and from the station frequent direct trains go to Victoria, London Bridge and Blackfriars.
The town is also a centre for cancer care and research. The Royal Marsden is on Downs Road with the Institute of Cancer Research next to it, and St Helier Hospital is in neighbouring Carshalton. Large offices sit among the shops, with RELX at Sutton Park House and Subsea 7 making the town the site of its new world headquarters. You might sit in a waiting room on Downs Road with someone you love, or work in one of those buildings and hear other people's bad news as part of your week, then go home and carry on as if nothing had happened. A counselling session can be an hour set aside for what that leaves you with, held somewhere nobody from the ward or the office will see you.
Living alongside illness, worry and care
With the Royal Marsden and the Institute of Cancer Research on Downs Road, what you bring to counselling from Sutton may sit close to serious illness. You might be a patient going in and out of the Marsden, or the partner who drives them there and waits in the car. Cancer treatment and medication are for your medical team, and our sessions make room for what it all does to you. You might be the one who keeps the family informed and finds there is nobody left to ask how you are. You might work at the Institute of Cancer Research or elsewhere on the London Cancer Hub, near serious illness every working day, and find it follows you home. Or the pressure might come from the other side of town: an office at Sutton Park House, a train up to London Bridge, and evenings spent on everybody but yourself. We would begin with whatever this week has held, a scan date at the Marsden or a tense stretch at work, and what you hope might change. If one moment, a phone call or a consultation, keeps replaying, the Rewind Technique is one way to work with it without going over every detail each time. When you work in the hospitals or offices here, it can matter that your counsellor has no link to any of them. I bring more than 25 years in practice and lived experience of recovery.
Four things worth saying out loud
Waiting for news
The weeks between an appointment at the Royal Marsden and the result, yours or someone else's, when you can't concentrate and can't switch off either.
Caring for someone who is ill
Runs to Downs Road or St Helier, appointments and being the steady one, while your own needs slide to the bottom of the list. Sutton Carers Centre can help alongside.
Working close to serious illness
A job at the Institute of Cancer Research or elsewhere on the London Cancer Hub, where other people's fear is part of the work and still comes home with you.
A drink to wind down
When the evening glass has become nightly, we can look at it calmly. Inspire also holds drug and alcohol appointments at Belmont Connect on Tuesdays, 12pm to 2pm.
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 Sutton
Private counselling can sit beside free help in the borough. Sutton Mental Health Foundation runs drop-in peer support at Belmont Connect, Sutton Carers Centre is there for people looking after someone, and Cruse Bereavement Support, Sutton, helps after a death. On hard evenings Sutton Crisis Café on Downs Road in Belmont is open in person from 6.30pm to 11pm, seven days a week.
- Free NHS talking therapySutton Talking Therapies0800 032 1411Free 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 itInspire (Cranstoun Inspire), Sutton's Adult Drug & Alcohol Service020 8773 9393Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCranstoun Inspire Family and Carer Support (Sutton)
- Local organisationInspire peer-led recovery activity
- Local organisationCommunity Discovery and Recovery Services
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 Text Service is another option: text 80991 or WhatsApp 0303 330 1511. Local drop-in crisis support: Sutton Crisis Café (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 Sutton ask before starting
Can I see a therapist in Sutton face to face?
Not with me in Sutton itself. The one room I use is in Hove, at Intergen House, about 61 minutes away by car, and there's no direct train from Sutton to the coast. That's why sessions from Sutton are almost always by secure video. If an in-person meeting matters to you now and then, we can plan an occasional longer session in Hove.
Can I get counselling on the NHS in Sutton?
Sutton Talking Therapies is the NHS service for anxiety and low mood, run by South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, and you can contact it directly on 0800 032 1411. It's free, and you don't need to see your GP first. Seeing me is a separate, paid route, with one counsellor and the same weekly video time kept for you.
I work at the Royal Marsden. Can I talk about what I see at work?
Yes. Work is a reasonable thing to bring, and in a cancer hospital it can mean carrying other people's illness and fear as well as your own pressures. I'm independent of the Royal Marsden and of any employer, and nothing you tell me goes back to the hospital or your manager, apart from the narrow exceptions around serious risk, which I explain at the start.
How quickly can I get started from Sutton?
Begin by booking a free 15-minute call, perhaps from a quiet corner at work or after the train back from Victoria. If we both feel it could work, we agree a regular weekly slot for video sessions, which can sit before work or after the train home. You don't need a GP referral to see me privately.
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.
An hour of your own, starting with a short call
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.