Panic attacks
Support for racing thoughts, panic episodes and chest tightness.
Online Anxiety Counselling · Aberdeen
Online Anxiety Counselling in Aberdeen
Online anxiety counselling for Aberdeen, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Aberdeen, from the granite centre and the harbour to the streets around the granite architecture, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you
In and around Aberdeen
Anxiety Counselling for Aberdeen, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Aberdeen: from the granite centre and the harbour to Old Aberdeen, Torry and Bridge of Don
- Known for
- The granite architecture, the harbour and the North Sea
- Region
- Scotland
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS psychological therapies (Scotland)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Aberdeen
What brings people in Aberdeen to counselling?
Worry in Aberdeen has a particular grain to it. It is the contract due for renewal, the medical to be passed, the rumour going round Ferryhill and Torry a fortnight before anything is announced. The North Sea oil and gas industry has taught this city that good years do not last, and a nervous system picks that lesson up quickly. Students at the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University carry a different version of it, closer to deadlines and rent. Around it sits the granite, handsome and hard, and a north-east habit of getting on rather than saying you are struggling. Anxiety does well in that quiet. You can be perfectly composed all day in Mannofield and still be awake at two, running the same loop.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Aberdeen
Old AberdeenTorryBridge of DonRosemountFerryhillMannofieldFootdeeDyceCultsKincorth
Wherever you are in Aberdeen, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Aberdeen
Official figures for Aberdeen, for context rather than as a description of you.
In Aberdeen City, 26.9% of adults reported a high anxiety score (6 or above out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, in line with the Scotland average of 24.1%. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
In Aberdeen City, 5.0% of adults reported a low life satisfaction score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Scotland average of 6.1%, a difference the survey's margin of error does not confirm. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
Reviewed June 2026.
What actually happens in anxiety counselling?
Anxiety counselling here is practical and solution-focused: we work on the worry, panic, social anxiety and over-thinking that are actually affecting your day, and on simple ways to settle a nervous system stuck on high alert.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on everything on anxiety counselling, with how sessions run and what they cost for the practical questions and professional standards and registration for registration and ethics.
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.
Bradley works from Hove, so this is online by secure video rather than anything you travel to. On a three-weeks-on, three-weeks-off pattern that is the whole difference between starting and postponing. Keep one slot in your onshore weeks and, where the connection holds, keep it while you are away. At home in Kincorth or Cults, a shut door and headphones do the job. Nothing is posted to your address, and no one need see you arriving anywhere.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What can anxiety counselling in Aberdeen help with?
Social anxiety
Help with confidence, self-consciousness and fear of judgement.
Chronic worry
Support for overthinking, catastrophising and decision paralysis.
People-pleasing
Working with the need for control and approval.
Sleep and tension
Calming a nervous system stuck on high alert.
Responding differently
Tools for when anxiety starts to take hold.
Anxiety Counselling in Aberdeen
Why people in Aberdeen come for anxiety counselling
Very few people ring up and say the word anxiety. They say they cannot switch off, or their chest is tight, or they dread the drive out to Dyce before it is light. The work is practical and it has a direction. First we look at what your body is actually doing and why, in its own way, it makes sense. Then we build reliable ways to bring the alarm down, so panic stops being something that simply happens to you. After that the avoidance gets unpicked a piece at a time: a meeting, a crowded bar, the harbour road you quietly stopped walking. One caution: nerves often get flattened with a drink, and National Records of Scotland put the age-standardised alcohol-specific death rate in Aberdeen City at 21.7 per 100,000 over 2020-2024, close to the Scotland average of 21.9. The NHS way in is your GP, who can refer you on to psychological therapies, with NHS inform for trusted self-help and Breathing Space free on 0800 83 85 87.
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 callFinding support in Aberdeen
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Aberdeen, your GP can refer you to NHS psychological therapies, and you can find trusted self-help through NHS inform. You can find support through NHS inform; for confidential listening support, Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87.
Private sessions with me usually mean you can start sooner and stay with the same counsellor throughout; I am glad to work alongside any NHS or GP support you already have.
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 24 on 111 for urgent mental health support. Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87, the Samaritans are on 116 123, and you can text SHOUT to 85258.
Aberdeen questions
Online Anxiety Counselling in Aberdeen: common questions
I am back onshore in ten days. Could I start then?
Usually yes. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, which is a short call to hear what is going on and decide whether this suits you. Weekly sessions normally begin within a week or two after that. There is no referral and no waiting list to sit on.
What do sessions cost?
A 60-minute session is £80. If you want longer there is £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for two hours, though most anxiety work fits the hour comfortably. The first 15-minute consultation is free, so you can ask everything before you commit to anything.
What is the NHS route for anxiety in Scotland?
It starts with your GP, who can refer you into NHS psychological therapies locally. Waiting times vary by board. NHS inform has trusted self-help you could start tonight, and Breathing Space takes calls free on 0800 83 85 87 when the evenings are the worst part.
Can I keep sessions going when I am offshore?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on your connection and your privacy where you are. Plenty of people instead double up in their weeks at home and pause while away. Either pattern works, as long as we agree it in advance rather than losing the thread by accident.
My anxiety is mostly about losing the job. Is that something counselling helps with?
Yes, and in this city it comes up constantly. We separate the part that is genuine planning from the part that is your alarm system running on nothing. One of those responds to a spreadsheet. The other responds to settling your body first, then thinking.
My anxiety flares up before every trip offshore, can counselling help with that?
It often can. The dread that builds before a rota away is something we can work with directly, understanding what drives it and finding ways to ease it. Sessions fit around your onshore weeks by secure video, so the pattern of your work need not get in the way.
How soon can anxiety counselling start online in Aberdeen?
Usually within a week. After a free 15-minute consultation we set a first video session, so there is no local wait. Being this far north, that matters: you begin from a flat in Rosemount or Old Aberdeen without travelling for specialist help.
What do anxiety sessions cost compared to NHS Grampian?
NHS Grampian talking therapy is free but often carries a wait, and specialist help can be harder to reach this far north. My fees are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free 15-minute consultation first.
Can anxiety counselling work around an offshore rota in Aberdeen?
Yes. Because sessions run by secure video, including evenings, we arrange times that fit your onshore weeks and pick up when you return. There is no clinic to reach, so the rhythm of rig work matters far less than a private hour and a connection.
Online Anxiety Counselling in Aberdeen, 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 Scotland: Dundee, Perth. See all of Scotland.
People who come for anxiety counselling in Aberdeen often also look at depression counselling, trauma counselling and counselling and therapy.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about the miracle question and settling a spike of urgency.
If you can reach the south coast, this work is also done face to face in Hove, where the room is — all in-person areas are listed here.