Weybridge · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Counselling and therapy for Weybridge
I'm a counsellor who sees people from Weybridge, Oatlands and St George's Hill by secure video. The one room I use is in Hove, about 70 minutes' drive away, so from here we meet on screen at a regular weekly time. Sessions are private and one to one, and nobody in town needs to know you're having them.
The practical facts for Weybridge
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Weybridge by car
- About 70 minutes with clear roads (57.9 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Weybridge, change at Clapham Junction for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Mind Matters Surrey, 0300 330 5450
- 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.
Between the rivers and the Brooklands offices
Weybridge sits close to where the River Wey meets the Thames, about 17 miles south-west of central London, and takes in Oatlands, Portmore Park, Brooklands and St George's Hill.
Brooklands, the world's first purpose-built motor-racing circuit, opened here in 1907, and aircraft were built on the site until 1988. Today the same land holds the European headquarters of Sony and the UK headquarters of Procter and Gamble, alongside Brooklands Museum and Mercedes-Benz World. Trains run direct to Waterloo by two routes, via Surbiton and via Staines and Hounslow. It is a small town, with 15,449 people at the 2011 census, and St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey, about 3 miles away, is the nearest accident and emergency department. In a place that size, where the neighbours can seem to be managing well, it can be harder to admit that you aren't sleeping or that you dread Monday.
Counselling for people used to holding it together
If you're used to being the capable one, asking for help can feel like an admission of something. Counselling gives you an hour each week where you don't have to perform. You might bring burnout, anxiety that shows up as irritability or broken sleep, a marriage under strain, the death of a parent, or drinking that has drifted from social to necessary, or you may not be able to name it yet. If your working life runs through an office at Brooklands, at Sony's European headquarters, Procter and Gamble's UK one or elsewhere on the site, we can look at where the job stops and you start. If you take the Surbiton or Staines line to Waterloo each day, sessions can sit in the evening once you're home. In a small town where both GP practices share the Health Centre on Church Street, it's understandable to want help that doesn't run past people you meet on the High Street. If medication or a physical check might help, that stays a conversation for your GP, whose surgery in Weybridge is at the Health Centre on Church Street.
What can sit behind a well-run life
When the Brooklands job takes over
Work at one of the corporate headquarters at Brooklands that spreads into your evenings and weekends until there is no real rest left in the week.
Two lines into London
Direct trains via Surbiton or via Staines make Waterloo easy to reach and the days easy to fill, until there's no time left for the people at home.
Grief and getting older
Losing a partner or parent, or watching one change. Cruse's Surrey North Area branch and CHEER in Elmbridge can help; counselling gives you a weekly hour of your own.
Drinking that crept up
Wine with dinner turning into most of a bottle. We can look at it plainly, and Catalyst Community Connections in West Elmbridge offers drug and alcohol wellbeing support too.
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 Weybridge
Private sessions can run alongside free local support. Catalyst Community Connections covers West Elmbridge, including Weybridge, with mental health and wellbeing support. CHEER offers befriending and practical help for older people in Elmbridge, and Cruse Bereavement Support has a Surrey North Area branch for anyone grieving. People in Weybridge troubled by anxiety or low mood can also refer themselves to Mind Matters Surrey.
- Free NHS talking therapyMind Matters Surrey0300 330 5450Free 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 iti-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSearchLight Counselling and Therapy
- Local organisationAction for Carers Surrey
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 Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS FT Mental Health Crisis Helpline is on 0800 915 4644.
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 Weybridge ask before starting
Could I meet a therapist in person rather than online from Weybridge?
Only in Hove, because that is where my one room is, about 70 minutes' drive away. From Weybridge, meeting on screen saves you that drive each week. If face-to-face matters to you, you're welcome to come to Hove occasionally, and a 90 or 120-minute session makes the drive more worthwhile.
Does the NHS offer free counselling to people in Weybridge?
Yes. Surrey's free NHS route for anxiety and low mood is run by Surrey and Borders Partnership under the name Mind Matters Surrey, and you can refer yourself on 0300 330 5450 without seeing a GP first. You can also raise it with your GP; both Weybridge practices are in the Health Centre on Church Street. Private sessions with me are for when you'd rather pick the person you talk to.
What happens first if I want counselling in Weybridge, and how soon can it start?
We begin with the free 15-minute call, then agree a weekly video time if it suits us both, and the call is where we check that a time fits around Brooklands hours or the Waterloo train. In the first session you mostly talk and I listen: what has been going on, how long it has felt this way, and what you'd like to change. There's no test to pass, and you decide afterwards whether to carry on.
I work at Brooklands. Is online counselling private enough?
It can be, with a little care. I never contact employers, and what you tell me stays between us unless I were seriously worried about someone's safety. Use a personal phone or laptop rather than a work device, and pick a room where you can't be overheard, whether that's at home or a parked car at lunchtime.
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.
Arrange a quiet first call
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.