Alcohol
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Online Addiction Counselling · Peterborough
Online addiction counselling for Peterborough, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Peterborough, from the cathedral and the centre to the streets around the river Nene, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.

In and around Peterborough
Life in Peterborough
Peterborough has grown fast, and much of that growth arrived for work. The logistics and distribution sector along the A1 runs on nights, agency shifts and unsociable hours, while the East Coast Main Line commuter link takes another part of the city away before dawn. A lot of people here are relatively new and still building the friendships that would notice something going wrong. Compulsions expand into that gap. Locally, 7.5 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, above the England average of 4.5 per 1,000, which suggests a city where these problems are both common and, unusually, actually being brought forward.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Peterborough, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Peterborough, for context rather than as a description of you.
the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) was 406.1 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England average of 504.1 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Admission episodes for alcohol-related conditions (narrow) (2023/24).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 6.7 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
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 my BACP registration covers accountability.
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.
Bradley works from Hove, so there is nowhere in Peterborough to attend, and for a shift-working city that turns out to be the point. A session can sit at eight in the morning after a night in a warehouse, or at nine in the evening from a room in Bretton or Orton. No bus, no parking, no hour lost either side. If you move house, change employer or start commuting again, the arrangement stays exactly the same.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
For when drinking has stopped feeling like a choice.
Compassionate, confidential help with substance use.
Breaking the cycle of compulsive gambling, guilt and debt.
Support for food and process addictions.
Help for those living alongside someone's addiction.
We treat the cause, not just the symptom.
Addiction Counselling in Peterborough
The word covers a good deal more than substances. Gambling, especially on a phone during a long shift, comes up as often as cocaine or drink, and so do compulsive spending, gaming and pornography. Every one of them works the same way: a reliable method of altering how you feel, repeated until it starts running your week. In a city of new arrivals, isolation is the accelerant. Without the people who would have raised an eyebrow years ago, a habit can double in size unremarked. Sessions look first at what it is holding together for you. Peterborough City Council's drug and alcohol misuse support is the free route into structured treatment, delivered by the Aspire recovery service run here by Change Grow Live, and CPSL Mind covers the wider mental health ground alongside it.
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 online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Peterborough, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Peterborough City Council's drug and alcohol misuse 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:
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.
Peterborough questions
Not long. There is no list, the free 15-minute call is usually within a few days, and the first full session typically follows a week or two later. Nothing needs a referral, which matters when the impulse to ask for help tends not to last very long.
£80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, paid session by session after a free 15-minute conversation. If gambling or cocaine has already taken a serious bite out of your wages, say so early and we can set a frequency that is actually sustainable.
Quite different, and complementary. The council route is free and leads to Aspire for assessment, prescribing and groups. Counselling gives you one private hour a week with the same person, working on the causes. A great many people here keep both going.
They can. Morning slots after a night shift and late evening slots both work, and the time can move week by week with a changing rota. That flexibility is difficult to get from any service that runs to fixed office hours in one building.
It commonly does. Without established friendships, nobody is close enough to comment, and the habit becomes the most reliable company in the evening. That isolation is a real part of the problem and it gets worked on directly rather than treated as background.
Yes. Because everything is online from Hove, we are not tied to clinic hours or a commute across the city. We can find a time that works around rotas at the distribution parks or an early London train, and you join from home.
Usually within a week. I work from Hove by video and phone with people across Peterborough and the Fens, and there is no local waiting list. We start with a free 15-minute consultation, then set a first session that fits around shift patterns or an early London train.
I charge £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free 15-minute consultation first. NHS addiction services in Peterborough are free but can involve a wait, whereas private online sessions with me start quickly and are not tied to clinic opening hours.
I work online only, by video or phone from Hove, not from a room in the city. That suits lives run by rotas at the distribution parks, and evening or early times are available. From Bretton or Orton, you join from home with nothing to travel to.
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 East of England: Cambridge, Kettering, Lincoln. See all of East of England.
People who come for addiction counselling in Peterborough often also look at substance use counselling, counselling for drinking problems and trauma counselling.
There is more on this in my writing: the four-stage cycle of addiction and the four Rs framework.
For anyone near the coast, the same addiction counselling runs in person in Brighton. Every area covered is listed separately.