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

In and around Rochdale
Life in Rochdale
Rochdale gave the world the Co-operative movement, and something of that instinct survives: people here look out for one another. The flip side is that everyone knows everyone, and a town that notices things is a hard place to have a secret. Addiction in Rochdale is usually a private arrangement conducted in plain sight. The cans in Castleton after a shift. The betting account that runs all week from a phone in Heywood. The tablets in Milnrow that were prescribed for something real and stayed on afterwards. What stops people asking is not a shortage of services but the thought of being the one who needed them, in a town where that would be remembered.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Rochdale, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Rochdale, for context rather than as a description of you.
the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions (narrow definition) was 485.2 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 4.4 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below 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.
What actually happens in the room is the same everywhere, so it is written up once: see the main addiction counselling page for the methods, how I work, sessions and fees for fees and session lengths, and how to check my registration if you want to check who you would be working with.
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 is in Hove and there is no room in Rochdale, so this happens by secure video. In a borough where being seen matters, that is the whole appeal: no local building, no reception, nobody who might mention it to your cousin. The session is a fixed hour and can be taken anywhere you can close a door. Early and late slots exist for people whose days are already full, and times can shift when work does.
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 Rochdale
Addiction counselling here covers alcohol, drugs, prescribed medication, gambling and any compulsive habit that has stopped being optional. The borough carries real alcohol harm: hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions were 824.3 per 100,000 in 2023/24, well above the England average of 611.7 per 100,000. Behind a number like that are households in Norden, Bamford and Wardleworth where nothing looks wrong from outside. The work does not start with a target or a pledge. It starts with what the habit is doing, why it turns up when it does, and what has been left unattended long enough for something to grow in its place. Rochdale Borough Council's drug and alcohol help and Turning Point's Rochdale and Oldham Active Recovery cover treatment and prescribing, and Rochdale and District Mind covers the wider mental health side.
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 Rochdale, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Rochdale Borough Council's drug and alcohol help.
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.
Rochdale questions
It is straightforward. There is no venue in Rochdale, no appointment card, and no local service holding your name. Bradley works under the BACP Ethical Framework, so confidentiality is the starting position and the narrow exceptions are spelled out before you begin. Nothing goes to a GP unless you want it to.
Certainly. Gambling, gaming and compulsive spending are all part of what addiction counselling deals with. The mechanics are much the same: relief, then chasing, then secrecy. The difference is that the damage shows up in money rather than in health, which often means it goes further before anyone asks.
It points to Turning Point's Rochdale and Oldham Active Recovery, the service covering the borough. That is where assessment, prescribing and structured recovery happen, and where medically supervised withdrawal is arranged if it is needed. Counselling is separate and private, and there is no rule about which order you use them in.
Sixty minutes is priced at £80, ninety minutes at £100, and two hours at £120. Before any of that there is a free 15-minute consultation with nothing to pay and nothing to sign. Sessions are paid one at a time, which keeps the decision about continuing entirely with you.
Usually a week or so. You get in touch, take the free consultation at a time that suits, and if it feels workable a regular slot is agreed. There is no waiting list and no referral, so the delay is only about finding a time that fits both diaries.
Yes. Nobody sees you attend, because there's nowhere to attend. We meet by secure video or phone from wherever you're private, so there's no building to be spotted entering. For people in a close town like Rochdale, that's often the deciding factor.
Usually within a week. We begin with a free 15-minute consultation, then set your first session by secure video or phone. I am based in Hove and work across Rochdale online, from Castleton to Littleborough, so there is nothing to arrange but a quiet hour and no clinic list to wait on.
The free option in Rochdale is Rochdale Borough Council's drug and alcohol help, linked below alongside the other local services. My own fees are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, after a consultation that costs nothing.
I do not work in person here; my room is in Hove and Rochdale sessions are all online. That saves any trip into town, and working online makes evening and quieter daytime slots easier to arrange around work and family.
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 North West: Oldham, Manchester, Bolton. See all of North West.
Related work in Rochdale: 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.
If you can reach the south coast, this work is also done face to face in Brighton — all in-person areas are listed here.