Anxiety and worry
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
Online Counselling and Therapy · Chester
Online Counselling and Therapy in Chester
Online counselling and therapy for Chester, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Chester, from the Rows and the walls to the streets around the river Dee, 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 Chester
Counselling and Therapy for Chester, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Chester: from the Rows and the walls to Hoole, Boughton and Blacon
- Known for
- The city walls, the Rows and the river Dee
- Region
- North West (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS Talking Therapies (find via the NHS finder)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Chester
Why people in Chester get in touch
There is a particular kind of stuck that is common in Chester: nothing is visibly wrong. You have work, you have people, you live somewhere pleasant, and you feel steadily worse. In a sociable city where a lot of life happens in company, that is isolating, because everyone assumes you are fine and you keep confirming it. Students at the University of Chester describe it too, and so do people twenty years into a career. The Countess of Chester Hospital deals with the serious end of things. What sits underneath, the flatness and the low-level dread, has no obvious front door, and the absence of a crisis becomes the reason not to ask for help.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Chester
the city centre within the wallsHooleBoughtonBlaconHandbridgeNewtonUptonVicars Cross
Wherever you are in Chester, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Chester
Official figures for Chester, for context rather than as a description of you.
25.4% 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).
recorded depression on GP registers stood at 16.9% of patients aged 18+ in 2024/25, above the England average of 14.3%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Depression: QOF prevalence (2024/25).
the rate of emergency hospital admissions for self-harm was 138.5 per 100,000 in 2023/24, above the England average of 117 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Emergency Hospital Admissions for Intentional Self-Harm (2023/24).
Reviewed June 2026.
What is counselling and therapy, in practice?
Counselling and therapy here is one steady starting point for whatever you are carrying, anxiety, low mood, addiction, relationships or the past, integrative and led by you, so we begin with what matters most and shape the work around you.
The method travels; only the geography changes. counselling and therapy in detail explains it properly, how I work answers the practical questions, and qualifications, registration and ethics shows how the practice is held to account.
What happens in an online session?
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 are delivered online from Hove, which is often what makes a first appointment possible. There is no waiting area, no receptionist and no journey into the centre, so a single session can be tried without anybody knowing about it. Bookings come straight to me and need no referral. You can start with one conversation, decide afterwards whether to continue, and stop at any point. Voice-only calls are available if you would rather not be on camera.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What can counselling and therapy in Chester help with?
Low mood and depression
For the flatness, exhaustion and loss of interest that drain the colour from things.
Addiction and habits
Alcohol, drugs, gambling or behaviours that have stopped feeling like a choice.
Relationships
Conflict, distance and trust, as a couple or on your own.
Trauma and the past
When something you have been through still shapes your present.
Life feeling stuck
For the big transitions, losses and crossroads that leave you unsure which way to turn.
Counselling and Therapy in Chester
Why people in Chester come for counselling and therapy
This is deliberately the easiest kind of help to begin. You do not need a diagnosis, a label or a coherent explanation. We stay with what is happening now, and the work is short to medium term: often six to twelve sessions with a review as we go. That fits a great many people here. Anxiety is more prevalent locally than the city's easy surface implies, with 25.4% of adults reporting a high anxiety score in 2022/23 against an England average of 23.8%. Some of that is money, some is work, some is the effort of appearing to be doing well. The NHS Talking Therapies finder gives free self-referral in England, and My Mind is the local NHS route worth looking at alongside it. Via - New Beginnings covers drug and alcohol support across Cheshire West and Chester if that has become part of the picture.
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 Chester
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Chester, 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:
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.
Chester questions
Online Counselling and Therapy in Chester: common questions
Does it count if my life looks good from the outside?
Yes. A comfortable life does not prevent low mood, and quite often it delays people asking, because they feel they have no right to complain. How things look is not the measure. How you feel most days is, and that is what we would work with.
What is the price, and is there anything to pay up front?
Nothing up front. It is £80 for 60 minutes and £100 for 90 minutes, paid session by session, with a free 15-minute consultation before you commit to anything at all. No block bookings, no packages and no notice period if you want to stop.
Is the NHS Talking Therapies finder likely to be faster?
It might be, and it costs nothing, so it is worth putting your name down. Waits differ by area and time of year. Some people begin private sessions while they wait, then choose between the two once an NHS place comes up.
I am a student here and money is tight. Any options?
Say so at the free consultation. Fortnightly sessions are cheaper over a term than weekly ones and still useful. The NHS Talking Therapies finder and My Mind both cost nothing, and your university may have its own provision worth asking about first.
How is counselling different from talking to friends?
Friends have a stake in what you decide, and you edit accordingly. An hour with someone outside your life carries no social cost, so you can say the unflattering version. It is also structured: we return to the same thread rather than moving on politely.
Everyone around me seems fine, why do I feel like this?
Because what people show rarely matches what they feel. In a polished city it's easy to assume everyone else is coping, but plenty aren't. How you feel is valid whatever the surface suggests, and it's exactly the sort of thing counselling can help you make sense of.
How quickly can I begin counselling in Chester?
Generally within a week or so. Being online from Hove means no local waiting list, so after a free fifteen-minute call I can usually offer a first session soon after. Wherever you are, from Blacon to Vicars Cross, we meet by secure video or phone.
What are your fees, and should I try the NHS in Chester first?
The standard sixty-minute session is £80, with ninety minutes at £100 and two hours at £120. NHS Talking Therapies is free but can involve a wait, so some people begin privately with me meanwhile. Your first fifteen-minute consultation costs nothing.
Do you offer evening counselling for people working in Chester?
Yes. Online sessions make evenings easier to keep, with no parking in the centre to battle, whether you are at the university or in the tourism trade around the Rows. We would agree one regular time and hold it week to week, so it becomes dependable.
Online Counselling and Therapy in Chester, 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 North West: Warrington, Liverpool, Crewe. See all of North West.
People who come for counselling and therapy in Chester often also look at anxiety counselling, depression counselling and psychotherapy.
There is more on this in my writing: how change actually sticks and where to start when you cannot name it.
For anyone near the coast, the same counselling and therapy runs in person in Brighton. Every area covered is listed separately.