Anxiety and worry
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
Counselling and Therapy · Woodingdean
Counselling and Therapy for Woodingdean and the surrounding area, in person or online. Woodingdean sits high on the Downs to the east of Brighton, one of the city's highest and breeziest neighbourhoods. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In and around Woodingdean
Life in Woodingdean
Plenty of people up here were raised to get on with it. You do not complain, you do not make a fuss, and you certainly do not pay somebody to listen to you. Then a year goes by in which you have not slept properly, the walk up towards Castle Hill has stopped helping, and you are snapping at people who deserve better. There is nothing you could point to as a cause. High anxiety scores were reported by 26.7% of adults in 2022/23, against an England average of 23.8%, so whatever this is, it is not rare. Counselling and therapy is the starting point that asks for no label and no explanation.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Woodingdean, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Woodingdean, for context rather than as a description of you.
26.7% of adults reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, above the England average of 23.8%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Self-reported wellbeing: high anxiety score (2022/23).
recorded depression on GP registers stood at 14.1% of patients aged 18+ in 2024/25, below the England average of 14.3%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Depression: QOF prevalence (2024/25).
the rate of emergency hospital admissions for self-harm was 161.8 per 100,000 in 2023/24, above the England average of 117 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Emergency Hospital Admissions for Intentional Self-Harm (2023/24).
Reviewed June 2026.
Counselling and therapy here is one steady starting point for whatever you are carrying, anxiety, low mood, addiction, relationships or the past, integrative and led by you, so we begin with what matters most and shape the work around you.
The method travels; only the geography changes. the full counselling and therapy page explains it properly, session lengths and fees answers the practical questions, and professional standards and registration shows how the practice is held to account.
Sessions take place in a private, comfortable room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove, held to the strict BACP confidentiality you would expect. We begin with a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, and the same sessions are available by secure video if travelling is difficult or you would simply prefer it.
The journey is roughly twenty minutes, down off the hill and west across to Hove, by car or on the bus, with sessions held in person in a private room. Most people begin weekly at a fixed time and find that helps in itself. Online by secure video covers bad weather at the top of the hill, awkward shifts, or simply a week when leaving the house is beyond you.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
For the flatness, exhaustion and loss of interest that drain the colour from things.
Alcohol, drugs, gambling or behaviours that have stopped feeling like a choice.
Conflict, distance and trust, as a couple or on your own.
When something you have been through still shapes your present.
For the big transitions, losses and crossroads that leave you unsure which way to turn.
Counselling and Therapy in Woodingdean
This is the general way in, and it is meant to be easy to use. Nothing has to be diagnosed first and there is no expectation that you can describe the problem accurately, or at all. Sessions stay with the present: what these weeks have actually been like, what you are dreading, what would make next month bearable. The work usually runs shorter to medium term, often six to twenty sessions, with the length reviewed between us instead of set at the start. Some people come, sort out one specific thing and stop. Others find that the difficulty has a much longer history and decide to go further, which is a decision for later rather than now. The Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service takes self-referrals for free structured therapy, and Sussex Mental Healthline can be reached at any hour of the night.
Not sure if it is right for you? A free fifteen-minute call is a no-obligation way to talk it through.
Book a free 15-minute callMy counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Woodingdean, you can refer yourself directly to the Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service for free NHS talking therapy, with no GP referral needed.
Seeing me privately usually means you can start sooner and stay with the same counsellor throughout, working at greater depth and pace; the two can run side by side, and I am glad to work alongside any NHS or GP support you already have.
Other local and national support verified for this area includes:
This is not a crisis service. If anyone is in immediate danger call 999. For urgent mental health support, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
Woodingdean questions
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. From Woodingdean the journey down into the city and across to Hove takes around twenty minutes by car or bus. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Woodingdean or blend the two.
Most people manage more than they expect, and nobody is pushed. Silence is allowed. Starting with facts rather than feelings is allowed. The habit of not talking is itself worth understanding, and it tends to loosen once it is not being fought against.
This one, without question. It exists precisely for people who cannot yet name the difficulty. If the picture sharpens into a relationship problem, or something long-standing from your past, the work adjusts to that rather than sending you elsewhere to start again.
Nothing is paid up front. Sessions are £80 / 60 min, or £100 / 90 min and £120 / 120 min when longer suits, and you settle each one as you go. The free 15-minute consultation lets you weigh it up before spending anything.
It is free, you refer yourself without a GP, and for well-defined anxiety or depression it does good work in a set number of sessions. People come privately when the wait is awkward, or when the difficulty will not sit inside a structured programme.
They can. When the road down is unpleasant or the buses are struggling, that week moves to secure video rather than being cancelled. Keeping the weekly rhythm through the darkest months is often when this work is doing the most good.
For many here, yes. Woodingdean sits high on the Downs, and the trip down can be wearing on a hard day, so online video sessions are a real help. They are just as private and effective, and you can always mix them with coming into the Hove room.
Book a free fifteen-minute call first. The road drops down past the racecourse into Brighton, then west to Hove, about twenty minutes by car, with buses following much the same route and parking near the room. When the weather or the day makes travelling hard, the same counselling runs online.
Fees are £80 for an hour, £100 for ninety minutes and £120 for two hours, with a free fifteen-minute consultation. Free NHS talking therapies are available via your GP or self-referral, though waits can be long, so many Woodingdean clients prefer to begin privately without a delay.
Yes. Set high on the Downs, many Woodingdean clients value online sessions by secure video, just as confidential and effective, for days when the journey down is too much. Others welcome the change of scene the Hove room brings. Evening appointments are available, and you can blend both.
A free fifteen-minute call is the simplest place to start, no obligation, just a chance to see if we are the right fit.
Also available nearby: Kemp Town, Rottingdean, Brighton. See all areas I cover.
Close to this in Woodingdean, there is anxiety counselling, depression counselling and psychotherapy.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about how change actually sticks and where to start when you cannot name it.
Prefer to meet remotely? The same counselling and therapy is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.