Online Counselling in Scotland

Why people across Scotland work with me online

Scotland's difficulty with substances is not a rumour, and it is not evenly spread. The local material for Glasgow describes a culture that talks to strangers and says very little to itself: quick humour, real warmth, and a durable habit of getting on with things that makes admitting to trouble feel like letting the side down. That is generous and it is costly. A habit can run for years inside it, particularly one that costs money rather than showing on your face.

Industrial loss runs through much of the rest. Paisley's textiles, Kirkcaldy's linoleum and coal, Falkirk's petrochemical works at Grangemouth and the uncertainty hanging over them, Dundee's reinvention around design and games sitting next to some of the sharpest deprivation in Scotland. In each case the local material describes the same pairing, insecure work and a strong civic pride that makes it hard to say you are struggling.

Then there is distance, which in Scotland is on a different scale from anywhere in England. Inverness is a small city serving a vast and sparsely populated region, where the nearest specialist can be hundreds of miles away, and where long dark winters and rural isolation are simply part of the year. Perth's rural hinterland brings low wages and the same problem in milder form. Ayr's tourism trade ebbs with the seasons and Glasgow's opportunities are a train ride that not everyone can make weekly.

Aberdeen has a pressure that belongs to it alone: an economy that has lived through the booms and busts of oil and energy, long rotas offshore, and the strain that falls on families left behind between them. Edinburgh has the opposite shape, a high-pressure professional, financial and festival city with some of the highest living costs in Scotland, where the intensity of work and the seasonal crowds make private space scarce. Livingston and East Kilbride, both new towns built for people moving out of the cities, share a third thing again: a spread-out, car-shaped layout and a population drawn from elsewhere, which makes putting down roots slower than it looks.

I should say clearly where I sit in this. I work from Hove, in Sussex. I have no room in Scotland, no Scottish practice, and no personal connection to any of these places. Everything above comes from the verified local material behind these pages, and I would rather tell you that than perform a familiarity I do not have. What I can offer is the counselling itself, and honesty about which Scottish service to call.

Online work suits Scotland for reasons that are practical rather than fashionable. Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link with the same BACP confidentiality as meeting in a room, and you join from any private space on a phone, tablet or laptop. In the Highlands that removes a drive that would otherwise make weekly work impossible. In Glasgow and Edinburgh it removes the need to cross a slow city at a fixed hour, and it means nobody sees you going into a building, which matters in a place where the culture prizes coping. It also means you can choose a counsellor for the work rather than for the postcode. The first fifteen-minute consultation is free. Sessions are then £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, paid as you go.

Wherever you are in Scotland, online counselling means you can choose the right counsellor for what you are facing, not just whoever practises nearby, and begin sooner.

How mental health and addiction support works in Scotland

The first thing to be clear about is what does not apply. NHS Talking Therapies, the English self-referral programme for anxiety and depression, does not exist in Scotland. If you have read advice about referring yourself online without seeing a GP, that advice was written for England. Following it here wastes time you may not have.

In Scotland the usual route to psychological therapy is your GP, who can refer you into NHS psychological therapies within your health board. Which board that is depends on where you live: NHS Lothian for Edinburgh and Livingston, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for Glasgow and Paisley, NHS Grampian for Aberdeen, NHS Tayside for Dundee and Perth, NHS Highland for Inverness, NHS Forth Valley for Stirling and Falkirk, NHS Fife for Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, NHS Lanarkshire for East Kilbride, and NHS Ayrshire and Arran for Ayr. NHS inform is the national health information service and carries trusted self-help material on mental health while you wait.

Alongside that sits Breathing Space, which is free on 0800 83 85 87. It is a listening and advice line for people in Scotland feeling low, stressed or anxious, and it is worth knowing its hours rather than finding out the hard way: Monday to Thursday from 6pm to 2am, and continuously from Friday at 6pm until Monday at 6am. Outside those hours, and for anything urgent, NHS 24 is on 111. The Samaritans are on 116 123 at any time, and you can text SHOUT to 85258.

Drug and alcohol support in Scotland is organised differently again, through Alcohol and Drug Partnerships. Each council or health and social care partnership area has one, and it commissions the local treatment and recovery services. Several of the ones covering these cities publish their own routes in: Edinburgh Alcohol and Drug Partnership, which runs locality recovery hubs, Dundee Alcohol and Drug Partnership, Perth and Kinross Alcohol and Drug Partnership, Renfrewshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership for Paisley, Falkirk Alcohol and Drug Partnership, Fife Alcohol and Drug Partnership for Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, and the South Ayrshire partnership for Ayr. Glasgow's NHS treatment service is Glasgow Alcohol and Drug Recovery Services, run through the council. NHS inform's drugs and drug use pages are the national Scottish starting point.

The named local services are worth writing down. Edinburgh has NEDAC in the north of the city. Glasgow has Glasgow Council on Alcohol, now Murray's Initiative, for alcohol counselling. Aberdeen has Alcohol and Drugs Action, with a helpline and a drop-in. Dundee, Fife and South Ayrshire are covered by We Are With You. Stirling and Falkirk share the Forth Valley Recovery Service. Livingston has the West Lothian Drug and Alcohol Service. East Kilbride has the Community Addiction Recovery Service, run by NHS Lanarkshire, with The Beacons recovery hubs across South Lanarkshire. Perth has Tayside Council on Alcohol. Paisley has the RCA Trust. Inverness has Mikeysline, the Highland mental health and suicide prevention charity.

One safety point. If you drink heavily every day, or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or your local alcohol and drug service first, so a safe, medically supported reduction can be arranged. Counselling works alongside that, never in place of it.

NHS & local support across Scotland

Across Scotland, free NHS psychological therapies are available through your GP or local service. For drug and alcohol support, each local council runs a free service, and FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) offers confidential advice UK-wide. My private online sessions can run alongside any NHS or council support you already have.