Canterbury · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Depression counselling for Canterbury
If Canterbury has gone grey for you, nights are restless, messages pile up unanswered and you can't remember enjoying anything lately, depression counselling gives you one steady hour a week with someone who listens. The Hove room is 106 minutes by car from the cathedral city, so we usually meet on secure video and the only distance you cover is to a private corner of your home.
If you are thinking about ending your life, call 999 or the Samaritans free on 116 123, day or night. More urgent help is on this page.
The practical facts for Canterbury
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Canterbury by car
- About 106 minutes with clear roads (90.5 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway, 0333 091 0414
- 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.
Grey months after the crowds, and grief that lingers
Low mood rarely announces itself. In Canterbury it might creep in as the visitors thin out in autumn and a seasonal job shrinks to a handful of hours, or settle on a graduate who stayed on in St Stephens after every friend moved away. The district has a larger share of people in their seventies than the Kent average, and for some of them a long marriage has ended in the care of Pilgrims Hospice on London Road, leaving a house that feels far too quiet. Grief and depression can look alike from the inside: tiredness, flatness, no pull towards the cricket at St Lawrence Ground or the shows at the Marlowe Theatre that once filled a week. In 2024/25, 17.1% of adult patients at Kent GP practices had depression recorded, set against 14.3% for England; the figure reflects what surgeries have noted down, not everyone quietly carrying it. None of this says anything about you, and you need no label before we talk.
Working with the heaviness, not against it
Depression tends to insist that talking is pointless and that you ought to manage alone. Our sessions begin gently, often with how your days actually pass: how you sleep, what you have stopped doing, and when the weight lifts a little, if it ever does. Then we trace what keeps the heaviness going: grief never given space, shifts at Kent and Canterbury Hospital or a summer of cathedral visitors that empty you out, a critical voice in your own head, or one glass after work quietly becoming several. We hold on to small, realistic steps, because energy is scarce and pressure only adds weight. Where something older lies underneath, we take it slowly. The methods I draw on are described on a separate page about how I work; on this one, the point is simply that the pace is yours. After 25 years and more in the counselling chair, and a recovery of my own, I won't need you to act as if you are fine. Should you start thinking about harming yourself or about not being here, say so to me; together we agree how you stay safe between sessions, and the Kent contacts in the urgent help box on this page are there too. Any question about antidepressants is one for your GP, and that care and ours can run side by side.
How a heavy mood shows itself around the city
When someone died at Pilgrims
Losing someone in the care of Pilgrims Hospice Canterbury can leave a flatness that outlasts the funeral, and counselling gives that grief a regular place to settle.
When the course ends
Graduates who stay on after studying at Christ Church or the University of Kent can find the city suddenly empty of the people who made it home.
Caring until you run dry
The Rethink Canterbury and Coastal Carers' Support Group meets in Hales Place on the third Tuesday each month for people caring for someone with mental health problems.
An evening that stretches too long
Canterbury Safe Haven at 22-23 North Lane opens to adults every evening from 6pm until 11pm, in person, by phone or by video, and asks for no referral.
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 Canterbury
Private counselling can sit alongside free NHS help. When the low mood won't lift, a Canterbury GP surgery is a good place to begin. NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway, reached on 0333 091 0414, also takes self-referrals for depression. The Canterbury Umbrella Centre on St Peters Place offers peer groups and a weekday cafe, and Live Well Kent and Medway can connect you with further community support across the county.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway0333 091 0414Free 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 itEast Kent community drug and alcohol service (The Forward Trust)0300 123 1186Free and confidential.
- Local organisationRethink Canterbury and Coastal Carers' Support Group
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 Release the Pressure Helpline - Kent is on 0800 107 0160. Local drop-in crisis support: Canterbury Safe Haven (Mental Health Matters) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Canterbury ask before starting
How soon can I start depression counselling from Canterbury?
First comes a free 15-minute call, where sharing a little about the low mood is as welcome as sharing a lot. Should it feel right to us both, you choose a regular weekly slot from those I have free, and we meet on video wherever you are in the city, from Wincheap to Hales Place. Already waiting on the Kent and Medway NHS Talking Therapies list? Starting with me in the meantime is fine.
For depression in Canterbury, should I see my GP first or contact NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway myself?
Either is a reasonable first step. Your GP can check for physical causes of tiredness and low mood and talk with you about medication. For structured, shorter-term help you can ring 0333 091 0414 yourself and be put through to the Kent and Medway NHS Talking Therapies service, which Vita Health Group and With You deliver together. Weekly video sessions with me can sit alongside the GP or the Vita Health Group service, or follow on once that course finishes.
Can depression counselling work over video if I barely leave the house in Canterbury?
It can suit that situation well. You need a phone, tablet or laptop and somewhere private, and you can keep a blanket and a cup of tea beside you. The Hove room is 106 minutes away by car, so video is the normal way we would meet from Canterbury, with an occasional in-person session in Hove if you ever want one.
Is this depression or grief after losing someone at Pilgrims Hospice in Canterbury?
The two often overlap, and you don't need to sort them out before getting in touch. Grief can bring exhaustion, numbness and a loss of interest that feel very like depression. In counselling we make room for whatever is there, sadness, guilt, anger or relief, without a timetable. Cruse Bereavement Support and your GP are other places to turn, alongside our sessions.
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.
A quiet first conversation, at your own pace
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.