Rochester · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Depression counselling for Rochester
When you live in Rochester and the days have gone grey, when you're getting through work but nothing lands and the people who love you seem far away, depression counselling offers an hour a week where you don't have to pretend. Sessions are by secure video, which matters on mornings when getting out of the door feels impossible.
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 Rochester
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Rochester by car
- About 84 minutes with clear roads (69.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Rochester, change at London Bridge for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- 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.
When the week keeps moving and you don't
Low mood seldom arrives with a label. You still drive to work in Chatham and do the school run from The Tideway, and you still say fine when someone asks how you are. What has slipped is harder to see: the Sunday walk by the river, the friends you meant to ring back weeks ago, the choir or the five-a-side you stopped going to without ever quite deciding to. Food tastes of less. Sleep comes too early or not at all. In an urban area of about 250,000 people, it is still possible to go days without a real conversation. Sometimes the cause is plain, a death, a divorce, a job that disappeared, frightening news about someone's health. Sometimes there's no reason you can name, and that can feel worse, as if you have no right to it. Grief can settle into this shape too, months after the funeral, once everyone else has gone back to normal and you are left with a grey, distant quiet.
Small steps, sized for your worst day
You don't need to arrive with a topic or an explanation, and long silences are allowed. In early sessions we build a picture of how the low behaves: which hours are heaviest, what lifts it even slightly, and what it has quietly stolen. Then we look at what keeps it in place. For one person that's a harsh inner commentary that never lets up. For another it's years of putting a parent, a partner or a job first until nothing is left over. We agree changes small enough to manage on your worst day, one text answered, ten minutes outside, one meal cooked rather than skipped, and we look honestly at what happened. When grief sits underneath, the person you lost gets real room in the sessions. Medication, and any decision to change it, stays with your GP. If you've had thoughts of hurting yourself, or of ending your life, please tell me. I won't panic and I won't brush it aside, and between sessions the urgent contacts further down this page are meant for those moments.
Some shapes low mood takes in Medway
Men who keep it to themselves
North Kent Mind runs a 12-week peer support group for men in Medway. Sitting with others who feel the same can make it easier to start one-to-one counselling as well.
Waiting on the NHS list
If you're waiting on NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway about low mood and the wait drags, private sessions can fill the gap without getting in the way.
Talking at three in the morning
Samaritans of Medway, Gravesham and Swale have their branch on Priory Road in Strood, and 116 123 is free at any hour when the dark thoughts won't let up.
When the London years end
After years on the high-speed line to St Pancras, retirement or redundancy can take away routine and company in one go, and the quiet afterwards can settle into low mood.
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 Rochester
Low mood falls squarely within NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway's work, and its self-referral number is 0333 091 0414. North Kent Mind's wellbeing services in Medway include group support, and its Affordable counselling is a lower-cost option, though the wait can be long. Keep your GP in the picture, especially around medication. If a child at home is low too, Medway Therapeutic Alliance supports ages 5 to 18. You can use any of these while you see me privately.
- 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 itMedway (RIVER) Treatment and Recovery Service0300 123 1560Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSamaritans of Medway, Gravesham and SwaleLocal Samaritans branch, Priory Road, Strood, Rochester ME2.
- Local organisationNorth Kent Mind Counselling & Therapy Services
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.
Local drop-in crisis support: Medway Safe Haven; Gillingham Safe Haven (check opening times before you go).
What people in Rochester ask before starting
What free depression support is there in Rochester?
First, there's NHS Talking Therapies Kent and Medway. It helps with low mood, and the self-referral line is 0333 091 0414, so no GP letter is needed. Your GP is worth seeing too, to rule out physical causes of tiredness and to talk about medication if you want to. North Kent Mind runs low-cost counselling and group support across Medway.
Some nights I think everyone would be better off without me. Who can I talk to in Rochester tonight?
If you might act on those thoughts, call 999. The Medway Safe Haven, which is at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, is open around the clock for adults, with no referral, on 07850 901 151. Samaritans answer free on 116 123 day and night. Those thoughts can also be talked about in counselling, and I would take them seriously.
Is it possible to have all my depression counselling by video from Rochester?
Yes. My room in Hove is about 84 minutes' drive from Rochester, so weekly sessions would be by secure video, and the sessions run the same way they would in a room. On your hardest weeks that means a session can still happen without getting dressed or going anywhere. A face-to-face session can be planned later if you want one.
How soon could I begin from Rochester, and does it matter that I can't explain why I'm low?
It doesn't matter at all. Plenty of depression arrives without a clear reason, and working that out can be part of what we do. When we've had our free 15-minute talk, I'll give you a plain answer about when a weekly slot opens. If things get worse while you wait, use the urgent contacts on this page rather than holding on alone.
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.
Begin on a grey day, not a good one
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.