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Online Anxiety Counselling · Portsmouth
Online Anxiety Counselling in Portsmouth
Online anxiety counselling for Portsmouth, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Portsmouth, from across Portsea Island, Southsea and Old Portsmouth to the streets around the Spinnaker Tower, 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 Portsmouth
Anxiety Counselling for Portsmouth, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Portsmouth: across Portsea Island, from Southsea and Old Portsmouth to Fratton, Cosham and Copnor
- Known for
- The Spinnaker Tower, the harbour and the seafront
- Region
- London & South East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire (italk)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Portsmouth
What brings people in Portsmouth to counselling?
Portsmouth is the most densely populated city in the country outside the capital, and that density gets into how anxiety feels here. Everything sits close together on Portsea Island, everyone knows somebody, and a bad week is hard to keep to yourself. For families tied to HM Naval Base Portsmouth there is a particular version of it: the run-up to a deployment, the not- knowing, the effort of holding a household steady while pretending it is routine. For others it is a shift pattern at Queen Alexandra Hospital, a degree at the University of Portsmouth, or the plain arithmetic of rent. In Fratton or Copnor the walls are thin, and worry can end up feeling like the only thing with space to grow.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Portsmouth
SouthseaOld PortsmouthFrattonCoshamCopnorNorth EndPortseaMiltonBuckland
Wherever you are in Portsmouth, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Portsmouth
Official figures for Portsmouth, for context rather than as a description of you.
23.2% 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.
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.
What actually happens in the room is the same everywhere, so it is written up once: see the anxiety counselling page for the methods, session lengths and fees for fees and session lengths, and professional standards and registration if you want to check who you would be working with.
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, along the same stretch of coast, and Portsmouth sessions are online by secure video. On an island city where privacy is scarce that counts for something: no waiting area, no chance of passing a neighbour on the way in. It also travels. If you move with a posting, or spend months elsewhere, the same hour with the same person carries on wherever you land, which no local appointment can offer.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What does anxiety counselling 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 Portsmouth
Why people in Portsmouth come for anxiety counselling
People here often leave it late, because asking can feel like an admission in a city where families are used to coping. By then anxiety has usually narrowed things: dreading the phone, avoiding the crossing, panic arriving fully formed in a supermarket queue. The work is practical rather than open-ended. We start with the physiology, because a pounding chest and shallow breathing can be brought down with technique rather than willpower. Then we go through the avoidance in graded steps, so the things quietly deleted from your week come back into it. Locally, 23.2% of adults reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, just below the England average of 23.8%. NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, known as italk, accepts self-referrals without a GP appointment, and Solent Mind provides support in the city.
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 Portsmouth
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Portsmouth, you can refer yourself directly to NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire (italk) 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:
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 111 and choose the mental health option. The Samaritans are free, day or night, on 116 123, or text SHOUT to 85258.
Portsmouth questions
Online Anxiety Counselling in Portsmouth: common questions
How soon could I start if a deployment is coming up?
We can usually arrange the free 15-minute call within days, and weekly sessions often begin the following week. If time is short before you go, we prioritise practical tools you can use straight away, and sessions can carry on while you are away when the connection allows.
What does an hour of anxiety counselling cost?
The fee is £80 for an hour, £100 for ninety minutes and £120 for two hours. Anxiety work usually needs the hour. The opening 15-minute call is free and nothing is payable until you decide to book, with no packages and no minimum commitment of weeks.
Is italk, the Hampshire NHS service, worth contacting too?
Yes. NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire takes self-referrals from anyone registered with a GP, so no appointment is needed to start the process off. Waits vary. A lot of people put their name down there and begin private sessions rather than waiting with nothing happening.
Portsmouth is small and people talk. How confidential is this really?
Completely. Sessions are online, so there is no building for anyone to see you entering and no local reception desk. Bradley is BACP-registered and bound by its Ethical Framework. The limits to confidentiality concern immediate safety, and they are explained plainly at the very start.
My partner is away for months and the anxiety is worst at night. Can that be worked with?
Yes, and it is a common pattern in a naval city. We look at what the nights are actually doing, separate realistic worry from the spiralling kind, and build something that settles the body before sleep. Session times can also be set for evenings once the house is quiet.
My anxiety is tied to my partner's deployments and never knowing what's next. Can counselling help?
Yes. The uncertainty of service life, with deployments and moves, is a real source of anxiety for many Portsmouth families. Online sessions give you a private space to work through it, held from your own front room whether your partner is home or away.
How soon can I start anxiety counselling online in Portsmouth?
Usually within a week. Bradley sees Portsmouth people online, from Southsea and Fratton to Cosham, so naval deployments, shift work or study need not get in the way. A free fifteen-minute consultation comes first, then a first anxiety session within days.
What are the fees, and can I get anxiety help on the NHS in Portsmouth?
Sessions are £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours, following a free fifteen-minute consultation. You can self-refer free to NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, though waits vary, so some in Portsmouth start privately to be seen sooner.
Is online anxiety counselling better than travelling in Portsmouth, and are evenings offered?
On an island city with tight schedules, online spares a trip across Portsea after work. Bradley offers some evening slots for naval and shift patterns, and the Hove practice room is reachable along the coast by train if you would rather meet in person.
Online Anxiety Counselling in Portsmouth, 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 London & South East: Southampton, Chichester. See all of London & South East.
Close to this in Portsmouth, there is depression counselling, trauma counselling and counselling and therapy.
You may also find it useful to read about the miracle question and settling a spike of urgency.
Closer to the Sussex coast? The same anxiety counselling is available in person, in Hove, where the room is, or see every area I cover.