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

In and around Exeter
Life in Exeter
Exeter carries itself as a county capital, and there is a settled, well-kept feel to the place that leaves little room for admitting you are struggling. The University of Exeter keeps expanding, Met Office staff and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital anchor a steady professional class, and housing costs push people outwards towards St Thomas and Pinhoe. The recorded anxiety figure is among the lower ones in the country: 19.8% of adults reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, below the England average of 23.8%. None of which will mean anything to you at four in the morning. For anyone who arrived without family nearby, being the one busy place for miles can be a distinctly lonely sort of busy.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Exeter, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Exeter, for context rather than as a description of you.
19.8% of adults reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, below the England average of 23.8%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Self-reported wellbeing: high anxiety score (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: the main anxiety counselling page sets out the methods, session lengths and fees 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.
Sessions happen by secure video, with Bradley working from Hove, so no part of this involves driving in from the villages or hunting for somewhere to park. With anxiety that strips out a whole layer of dread before the hour has even begun. You work from your own room, at a time built around lectures, shift patterns or the school run. If you move out of the city, or out of the county, the sessions simply continue.
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 Exeter
Anxiety usually gets brought here once it has taken something concrete: a road no longer driven, a presentation handed to a colleague, a stomach that reacts before you have consciously worried about anything at all. The work is practical, solution-focused and built around what can be tested. We take one episode and lay it out in order, then work on each part in turn, from the trigger to the physical surge to the thought that arrives to explain it and the retreat that quietly confirms the fear. Calming the body comes first, because nobody thinks their way out of an alarm that is still ringing. Then the belief underneath is checked against reality in small steps agreed beforehand. TALKWORKS, Devon's NHS Talking Therapies service, accepts self-referrals in England without a GP letter, and Devon Mind offers further support locally. Using one, or both, is entirely your call.
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 Exeter, you can refer yourself directly to TALKWORKS, Devon's NHS Talking Therapies service for free NHS talking therapy, with no GP referral needed.
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 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
Exeter questions
Because a low figure makes something quieter, not rarer. That reading is from 2022/23 against an England average of 23.8%, and it records how a sample answered a survey. In a place where people are private about difficulty, an average like that can leave you feeling conspicuous when you are nothing of the kind.
You approach it directly. TALKWORKS, Devon's NHS Talking Therapies service, takes self-referrals in England, so no GP letter is needed to get started. It will ask how things have been and offer what fits. Waits vary, and beginning private sessions while one comes through is perfectly acceptable.
Sixty minutes is £80, ninety is £100 and two hours is £120, paid as you go, with nothing bought in advance. The hour is usually enough for anxiety work. The free 15-minute consultation comes first so you can ask whatever you like and then decide against it if you want to.
It can. Sessions are arranged around teaching and assessment rather than the other way round, and they carry on through the holidays if you go home. Deadline anxiety responds well to concrete work: what you do the night before, what you avoid, and how fast you can bring the physical panic down.
Yes, and it is a good example of the kind of anxiety worth taking apart in sequence. We would look at where on the journey it starts, what your body does, and which routes you have quietly begun avoiding. Then we plan graded drives, short ones first, and review each properly afterwards.
Yes. Sessions are held online by secure video, so they can be arranged around shifts and long days without a set commute. We meet from wherever suits you. The counselling room is in Hove, so Exeter is served online.
Anxiety counselling for Exeter is offered online across the city, from St Thomas to Heavitree, so rural Devon distances never delay support. After a free 15-minute consultation, secure video sessions can usually begin within about a week. The counselling room is in Hove, and Exeter is served online.
TALKWORKS, Devon's NHS Talking Therapies service, is free by self-referral, though anxiety support may carry a wait. Privately with me, sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, after a free 15-minute call. Both routes can run together if helpful.
For anxiety, most Exeter clients choose online, avoiding journeys in from the surrounding farms and moor. We meet by secure video from home, with some evening slots for those working at the Met Office or the hospital. In-person appointments suit only those able to reach Hove.
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 South West: Plymouth, Torquay, Taunton. See all of South West.
Also available in Exeter: depression counselling, trauma counselling and counselling and therapy.
There is more on this in my writing: the miracle question and settling a spike of urgency.
Within reach of Sussex? anxiety counselling is offered in the room in Hove, where the room is as well as online; see the full list of areas.