Panic attacks
Support for racing thoughts, panic episodes and chest tightness.
Online Anxiety Counselling · Edinburgh
Online anxiety counselling for Edinburgh, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Edinburgh, from the Old Town and New Town to the streets around the castle, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.

In and around Edinburgh
Life in Edinburgh
This is a city that is exceptionally good at looking composed. The offices of Scotland's financial services sector empty into bars where everybody says the week is fine, and nobody mentions the pressure they went home with. Anxiety here is often high-functioning: you deliver, you are trusted, and you are also awake at four rereading an email you sent at six. Students carry a version of it in Marchmont and Newington, where the rent alone is a source of dread. Then August arrives, the city fills for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and if crowds are already difficult your own streets stop being yours for a month. Meanwhile the flat in Leith or Bruntsfield costs more than it should, and that hums underneath everything else.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Edinburgh, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Edinburgh, for context rather than as a description of you.
In the City of Edinburgh, 30.1% of adults reported a high anxiety score (6 or above out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Scotland average of 24.1%, 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)).
In the City of Edinburgh, 4.0% 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.
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.
Because the work itself is the same wherever you live, the detail sits in one place rather than all of them: everything on anxiety counselling sets out the methods, how I work covers the practicalities, and qualifications, registration and ethics 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 is in Hove, so sessions with people in Edinburgh happen by secure video, with no journey across town at either end. In a city where an hour's appointment can easily cost you half an afternoon, that matters. It also fits professional weeks: a slot before the working day, or in a booked-out meeting hour, is far easier to protect than an evening. In a flatshare, headphones and a shut door do the job perfectly well.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
Support for racing thoughts, panic episodes and chest tightness.
Help with confidence, self-consciousness and fear of judgement.
Support for overthinking, catastrophising and decision paralysis.
Working with the need for control and approval.
Calming a nervous system stuck on high alert.
Tools for when anxiety starts to take hold.
Anxiety Counselling in Edinburgh
People here often apologise for coming, on the grounds that nothing is actually wrong. Anxiety does not require anything to be wrong. It shows up as a nervous system that never quite stands down: sleep that will not start, a stomach that turns before the first meeting, a habit of running every scenario in advance. The work is practical and it moves. We begin by understanding what your body is reacting to and why that pattern was learned, then build settling techniques that hold up in an open-plan office or on a packed bus. Then avoidance comes apart in manageable pieces. Alcohol is the standard local anaesthetic for nerves, and on National Records of Scotland figures the age-standardised alcohol-specific death rate in the City of Edinburgh averaged 20.8 per 100,000 over 2020-2024, just under the Scotland average of 21.9. Through the NHS, your GP can refer you into psychological therapies, NHS inform holds trusted self-help, and Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87.
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 Edinburgh, 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:
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.
Edinburgh questions
Early mornings, lunch hours and the first hour after work are the usual choices, and because nothing involves travel an appointment costs you sixty minutes rather than an evening. We fix a regular time so it sits in your diary like any other commitment.
An hour is £80. Ninety minutes costs £100 and two hours £120, though anxiety work rarely needs the longer slot. The first conversation is a free 15-minute consultation, which is there for you to ask questions rather than to sell you anything.
Through your GP, who can refer you into NHS psychological therapies. Scotland does not run a self-referral service for this, so the GP appointment is the necessary first step. NHS inform has trusted self-help, and Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87.
Absolutely. If crowds set off your alarm, a month of them on your own doorstep is a genuine problem rather than a quirk. We prepare for it in advance, work on settling in busy places, and plan the routes and hours that make the weeks manageable.
No, it means people are good at hiding it. High-functioning anxiety is extremely common in professional Edinburgh precisely because the work still gets done. Being able to perform is not evidence that nothing is wrong, and it is not a reason to keep waiting.
Yes. Many people whose anxiety is tied to demanding work in Edinburgh find that a regular, confidential hour by video gives them somewhere to unpack the pressure and learn to steady it. Because there is no journey across the city, it is far easier to keep the appointment that helps.
Usually within a week or so. After a free 15-minute consultation we agree a first session, held by secure video, so there is nothing to wait for locally. You can begin from a flat in Marchmont, Leith or the New Town without travelling across the city.
NHS Lothian talking therapy is free but the wait for anxiety support can stretch on. My sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free 15-minute consultation first, and no queue before you begin.
Yes. Long professional hours in law, finance and government leave little daytime room, so evening video sessions often work best. You join securely from home in Stockbridge, Portobello or anywhere in the city, with no journey after work and the same private, steady hour.
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: Glasgow, Dunfermline, Falkirk. See all of Scotland.
Also available in Edinburgh: depression counselling, trauma counselling and counselling and therapy.
Some further reading, if that helps before getting in touch: the miracle question and settling a spike of urgency.
For anyone near the coast, the same anxiety counselling runs in person in Hove, where the room is. Every area covered is listed separately.