Chelsea · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Depression counselling for Chelsea
If the Embankment walks and King's Road afternoons you once enjoyed have gone flat and grey, depression counselling offers a fixed weekly hour to talk about it. Hove is a 90-minute drive, so sessions from Chelsea are mostly by video, which helps on days when even getting dressed is an effort.
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 Chelsea
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Chelsea by car
- About 90 minutes with clear roads (52.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies, 020 3317 4200
- 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.
Loneliness behind the riverside addresses
Chelsea can look like a place where nobody could feel low.
The streets are handsome, the Embankment runs beside the Thames and the King's Road is busy most days. Depression pays no attention to addresses, though. It can arrive after retirement, when a working life in town ends and the diary empties. It can follow a long stretch of caring for a partner through treatment at The Royal Marsden, or settle in after a new baby, when the perinatal team at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is one source of help. On the World's End and Cremorne estates, money worries and a food bank appointment can sit alongside the flatness, and in a wealthy district that can add a layer of shame. For some older residents the days shrink to the flat and the corner shop. A place this sociable on the surface can leave you feeling more alone, because everyone else seems to be managing.
Counselling for low mood that has lasted
Depression often shows itself as an absence rather than a feeling: no appetite for things you liked, sleep that brings no rest, a voice saying there is no point. In our sessions we start with how it is for you now, and what a week actually looks like. Then we look for what sits beneath it. That might be a loss that was never grieved, anger turned inward, a life arranged around other people's needs, or a role that ended and took your sense of purpose with it. We also look for small, practical anchors, the things that still give a flicker of interest, and build on them at a pace that asks little of you. Solution-focused questions can help here, noticing the slightly better days and what made them so. If medication is part of the picture, your GP handles that and can work alongside our sessions. If the flatness ever tips into wanting to die or to hurt yourself, ring the CNWL Single Point of Access on 0800 0234 650 or another crisis contact on this page at once, and tell me too; I will listen with complete seriousness.
Low mood in a Chelsea week
After the working life ends
Retirement from a central London career can leave long empty days; Open Age at the New Horizons Centre on Cadogan Street runs group activities for older residents.
Worn down by hospital visits
Months of visits to The Royal Marsden or the Royal Brompton can drain you; Carers Network offers free support to people looking after someone.
Low in pregnancy or after birth
If low mood arrives in pregnancy or the year after birth, the Kensington and Chelsea perinatal service at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital offers specialist support.
Something to do with SMART
At World's End, SMART offers art, music, gardening and a mindfulness group for members with a mental health need, joined through a GP or health professional.
Free and low-cost support for Chelsea
For depression, the free NHS route is Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies, which you can contact yourself on 020 3317 4200. Mind Within, from West London Mind, offers low-cost counselling, and SMART on the World's End estate provides activities and practical support for members. If low mood has tipped into crisis, the CNWL Single Point of Access line is open 24/7 on 0800 0234 650.
- Free NHS talking therapyKensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies020 3317 4200Free 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 itTurning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service)0330 303 8080Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCarers Network
- Local organisationCentral London Samaritans
- Local organisationChelsea Theatre community programme and Community Champions (World's End)
- Local organisationCruse Bereavement Support, Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham branchBereavement support.
For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
Private counselling with me can run alongside any of these; you do not have to choose one or the other.
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 CNWL Mental Health Single Point of Access crisis line, London boroughs) is on 0800 0234 650.
What people in Chelsea ask before starting
Do I need to see a GP before depression counselling in Chelsea?
Private sessions need no referral; you can contact me directly and start with a free 15-minute call. It is still worth telling your GP how you have been, especially if sleep, appetite or energy have changed a lot, because they can check your physical health and talk through medication. Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies also accepts self-referrals.
I can barely get out of bed. Can depression counselling from Chelsea happen at home?
Yes. Sessions are by secure video, so you can join from wherever you feel most comfortable, and there is no expectation to look or sound fine. Driving from SW10 to Hove takes around 90 minutes, so meeting in person is an optional extra for later, and starting never depends on it.
Is there free depression support in Kensington and Chelsea while I wait?
The NHS option is Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies, which sees people for low mood free of charge and takes referrals straight from you, by phone or online. Low-cost counselling comes through Mind Within at West London Mind, and SMART offers groups and practical help for members referred through a GP or health professional. Whichever of those you pick, our weekly video sessions can run beside it, joined from a World's End flat or a King's Road office alike.
My retired father in Chelsea seems withdrawn. What can he do?
Low mood, grief and physical illness can all look similar from the outside, so his GP is a sensible first stop for a check-up. Open Age at the New Horizons Centre on Cadogan Street runs group activities for older people, and Talking Therapies accepts self-referrals. If he would like to talk one to one, he can join video sessions with me from home.
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.
Reach out from Chelsea, even on a flat day
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.