Online Addiction Counselling · Basingstoke

Online Addiction Counselling in Basingstoke

Online addiction counselling for Basingstoke, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Basingstoke, from the town centre and Brighton Hill to the streets around the ring road, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.

Online across the UKSecure videoFree 15-min consultation
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
Bradley Riddell, BACP-registered counsellor offering online addiction counselling for Basingstoke, introducing his approach
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you

In and around Basingstoke

Addiction Counselling for Basingstoke, at a glance

Areas covered online
All of Basingstoke: from the town centre and Brighton Hill to Chineham, Hatch Warren and Old Basing
Known for
The ring road, War Memorial Park and the surrounding downs
Region
London & South East (England)
Local NHS / support route
Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support
Format
Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.

Life in Basingstoke

What is going on for people in Basingstoke?

Basingstoke grew quickly as an overspill and business town, and most of what happens here is still organised around work. The corporate offices fill in the morning, the commuter line to Waterloo takes another slice of the town away for the day, and the evening is whatever is left over. A habit settles neatly into that arrangement. Something that runs on targets, deadlines and the wind-down afterwards can pass for a demanding job for years. In Chineham or Hatch Warren your neighbours are people you moved in beside rather than grew up with, and streets in Popley or Buckskin are quiet enough that nobody registers a pattern forming in the hours between finishing and sleeping.

the corporate office sectorBasingstoke and North Hampshire Hospitalthe commuter line to Waterloo

Areas covered

Neighbourhoods in and around Basingstoke

Brighton HillChinehamHatch WarrenOld BasingPopleySouth HamBuckskinOakridgeLychpit

Wherever you are in Basingstoke, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.

The local picture

The local picture in Basingstoke

Official figures for Basingstoke, for context rather than as a description of you.

Reviewed June 2026.

What actually happens in addiction counselling?

Addiction counselling here treats the pain beneath the habit, not just the symptom, alcohol, drugs, gambling, food or behavioural, so recovery is something you grow into rather than force.

Because the work itself is the same wherever you live, the detail sits in one place rather than all of them: the full addiction counselling page sets out the methods, how sessions run and what they cost covers the practicalities, and professional standards and registration covers accountability.

How do online sessions actually work?

Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link, held to the same BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call, you join from any private space on a phone, tablet or laptop.

There is no Basingstoke venue to attend. Bradley works from Hove and sees the town by secure video, which for something you have told nobody about is an advantage rather than a compromise. No reception desk, no car park, no chance of passing someone from the office on the way in. An hour drops into a lunch break or the gap after the last train, and people take it from a spare room, a parked car, or a quiet corner with headphones.

Book a free 15-minute call

What I help with

What sort of things do people bring?

Alcohol

For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.

Drugs and substances

Compassionate, confidential help with substance use.

Gambling

Breaking the cycle of compulsive gambling, guilt and debt.

Food and behavioural

Support for food and process addictions.

Affected by a loved one

Help for those living alongside someone's addiction.

The pain underneath

We treat the cause, not just the symptom.

Addiction Counselling in Basingstoke

Why people in Basingstoke come for addiction counselling

Addiction counselling is the widest of the three doors, and it needs no substance at all to be the right one. Gambling is frequently what brings someone here: an account topped up on the commute, a limit raised on a bad Tuesday, money that has to be accounted for at home. Gaming, spending, pornography and the phone in general run on the same mechanism, which is why the work pays more attention to the loop than to the label. What does it reliably do for you? What has it started to take? What feeling turns up just ahead of it? Shame does plenty of damage and no useful work, so nothing here is met with a telling-off. Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support is the statutory route, delivered around the town by Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, and anything prescribed or medical belongs with them rather than here.

A free, unhurried first step

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 call

Drug, alcohol & addiction support in Basingstoke

My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Basingstoke, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support.

For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.

Other local and national support verified for this area includes:

If you need urgent help now

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.

If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.

Basingstoke questions

Online Addiction Counselling in Basingstoke: common questions

How do I begin without anyone at the office finding out?

You book the free 15-minute consultation and take it somewhere private. It is a conversation rather than an assessment, and no case file is opened on the strength of it. If you want to go on, a weekly slot is usually free within a fortnight. Nothing needs signing off by a GP.

What are the fees, and do I pay in advance?

An hour is £80, which is what most people book. Ninety minutes is £100 and two hours is £120 when something needs more space. Payment happens session by session rather than upfront, and the opening 15-minute conversation costs nothing at all, whatever you decide afterwards.

Should I contact Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support too?

You can, and it is free at the point of use. That is the statutory route covering Basingstoke, delivered locally through Inclusion Recovery Hampshire, and it holds the medical side along with structured treatment. Counselling sits beside it and looks at why the habit took hold and what it has been holding up.

Can sessions fit round the commuter line to Waterloo?

Yes. Since nothing has to be travelled to, early and late appointments are genuinely usable, and the whole thing costs an hour rather than an evening. Booking the same weekday each week helps most people. If the habit leans hardest on one day, that is often the day worth choosing.

My gambling happens entirely on an app. Does that count?

It counts. Nothing has to be swallowed for something to take your money, your sleep and your straightness with the people at home. An app leaves no empties and no smell, which is exactly what lets it run for months in a house in Old Basing without a single question being asked.

My job is relentlessly target-driven and I moved here for it, so I don't have much of a support network. Can counselling help?

Yes, and that combination is very familiar in Basingstoke. Online sessions offer a steady, confidential space that does not depend on any local network, arranged around a demanding job. We can look together at the pressure and at feeling rootless in a town you came to for work.

How soon can I start online addiction counselling in Basingstoke?

Usually within a week. After a free 15-minute consultation we agree a regular time. The ring road is rarely a pleasure and the fast line into Waterloo already claims hours, so online adds nothing; you join securely from home in Chineham, Hatch Warren or Old Basing, evenings included.

What are the fees in Basingstoke, and can I get addiction counselling on the NHS?

Privately, £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, after a free 15-minute consultation. For free NHS support, your GP can refer you and Hampshire's council-funded drug and alcohol service accepts self-referrals, separate from this private practice.

Around a target-driven office job, are evening online sessions possible in Basingstoke?

Yes. Because it is online, sessions sit in the evening or on a remote-working day, without a trip round the ring road or up to Waterloo. That helps when the pace of a target-driven role leaves wellbeing at the bottom of the list. The room is in Hove for in-person meetings if preferred.

Online Addiction Counselling in Basingstoke, whenever you are ready

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 online across London & South East: Reading, Southampton. See all of London & South East.

Also available in Basingstoke: substance use counselling, counselling for drinking problems and trauma counselling.

There is more on this in my writing: illness or indulgence? and a cognitive-restructuring exercise for compulsive behaviour.

Within reach of Sussex? addiction counselling is offered in the room in Brighton as well as online; see the full list of areas.