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

In and around Halifax
Life in Halifax
Halifax is a handsome Pennine town built on wool and shaped by its decline, set in steep Calder Valley country prone to flooding. Insecure work, money pressure and the isolation of the hill villages all shape the pressures people here carry.
Halifax stands in steep Calder Valley country, a handsome Pennine town built on the wool trade. Its centrepiece is the Piece Hall, a magnificent Georgian cloth market unlike anything else in Britain, now a lively square of shops and concerts beside the Minster and the vast Dean Clough mills. The town gave its name to the Halifax bank, and the moors above hold Shibden Hall, home of the diarist Anne Lister and familiar to many from the screen. Wainhouse Tower rises as a folly over the western slopes, and the road up the valley leads to Sowerby Bridge and artistic Hebden Bridge. The steep hills that give Halifax its drama also leave the valley floor prone to flooding when the Calder rises.
In a close-knit town where people tend to know one another, online keeps support entirely private, with nobody to pass in a waiting room.
Halifax is served by Calderdale Royal Hospital (Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust); the town is the historic home of the Halifax bank (now part of Lloyds Banking Group) and of the restored Georgian Piece Hall.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Halifax, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
These figures are local context from official sources, not a description of you, but they show the scale of what people in and around Halifax are living with, and why local support matters.
27.1% of adults reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, above the England average of 23.8%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Self-reported wellbeing: high anxiety score (2022/23).
Local data last reviewed June 2026. Each figure shows the year and links to the official source it was read on.
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.
The approach is the same wherever you live, so rather than repeat it on every page you can read it in full, the methods, what each session covers and fees, on the main anxiety counselling page and on how I work.
Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link held to the same strict BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, you join each session from any private space using a phone, tablet or laptop, no software to install, no waiting room and no journey at either end.
I'm based in Hove and work with people in Halifax online, by secure video call, rather than in person. In hill country where getting about can be slow, and after a bad flood harder still, video keeps things steady, you join from home or a quiet room and we agree a regular weekly time that fits around work and family. Sessions come to you.
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 Halifax
Halifax stands in steep Calder Valley country, a handsome wool town built on the trade and shaped by its decline, with hill villages that can feel cut off and a valley floor prone to flooding when the Calder rises. Any of that, insecure work, money worry, the strain of living somewhere on edge, can leave anxiety humming: a tight chest, restless nights, a mind braced for the next thing. I'm Bradley Riddell, a counsellor based in Hove, and I work with people across Halifax by secure video rather than in person. Together we work out what feeds the worry and build steadier ways to hold it, at a weekly time joined from King Cross or Sowerby Bridge.
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 Halifax, you can refer yourself directly to NHS talking therapies for anxiety and depression, with no GP referral needed. You can find support through the NHS Talking Therapies finder.
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.
Halifax questions
Yes. I work with people right across Halifax, from the Piece Hall and the centre outwards, and anywhere else in Yorkshire & North East, by secure video, no need to travel to Hove, and just as confidential as meeting in the room.
Yes. We work on what happens in your body when anxiety spikes and rehearse practical ways to settle it, which translates well to video sessions you do from a place you already feel safe.
That is common and completely workable. We can start with the camera off, keep early sessions short and build up at your pace; many anxious clients find home the easiest place to begin.
It varies, but solution-focused work often makes a difference within a handful of sessions. We review together rather than committing you to an open-ended course.
That's exactly where it earns its place. Distance and steep hills stop mattering when sessions come to you by video, no drive up or down the valley to arrange, and we can hold a regular weekly slot that fits around your week.
Usually within a week. After a free 15-minute consultation we book a first session by secure video. I'm based in Hove and work online across Halifax, so in the steep Calder Valley there's no slow trip into town and no waiting list before we begin.
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for two hours, after a free 15-minute consultation. NHS talking therapies in Calderdale are free but can involve a wait; privately and online, you can usually start sooner and keep one regular time.
Yes. I work from Hove by secure video, not a room in Halifax, so there's no trip in from Sowerby Bridge or the hill villages, and none lost to flooding on the valley floor. Evening slots are often possible to fit around work and family.
No, I work from Hove on the south coast and see Halifax clients by secure video. For people up in the hill villages around the valley, meeting online removes a slow trip into town and makes a weekly session much easier to keep up.
That's common, and we can work around it. People join sessions from a parked car, a spare room, or somewhere quiet away from the house. What matters is that you can talk without being overheard; the video connection itself is secure and confidential.
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 Yorkshire & North East: Huddersfield, Bradford. See all of Yorkshire & North East.
All counselling & therapy in Halifax: Addiction · Substance Use · Drinking Problems · Depression · Relationship · Trauma · Counselling & Therapy · Psychotherapy.
Closer to the Sussex coast? The same anxiety counselling is available in person in Brighton & Hove, or see all in-person areas.