Online Counselling and Therapy · Chichester

Online Counselling and Therapy in Chichester

Online counselling and therapy for Chichester, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Chichester, from the cathedral quarter and the city centre to the streets around the Market Cross, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.

Online across the UKSecure videoFree 15-min consultation
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
Bradley Riddell, BACP-registered counsellor offering online counselling and therapy for Chichester, introducing his approach
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you

In and around Chichester

Counselling and Therapy for Chichester, at a glance

Areas covered online
All of Chichester: from the cathedral quarter and the city centre to Summersdale, Whyke and nearby Bognor
Known for
The cathedral, the Market Cross and the harbour
Region
London & South East (England)
Local NHS / support route
NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies
Format
Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.

Life in Chichester

What is going on for people in Chichester?

Nothing has happened, which is part of the problem. From the outside your life is entirely in order: the house near Fishbourne or Portfield, the work, the garden that gets done. Inside, something has been off since the winter and you would struggle to explain it to anybody who asked. Chichester presents well. A great many people here are self-employed or retired, which means no colleagues to notice a change in you and nobody at work asking how it is going. The season comes and goes and the weeks after it are longer than they look on paper. Counselling is the ordinary place to take something that has not yet earned a name, and having no name for it is not a disqualification.

Chichester Festival Theatrethe University of Chichesterthe Goodwood estateChichester Harbour

Areas covered

Neighbourhoods in and around Chichester

SummersdaleWhykeFishbourneParklandsPortfieldGraylingwellDonningtonFishbourne Road

Wherever you are in Chichester, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.

The local picture

The local picture in Chichester

Official figures for Chichester, for context rather than as a description of you.

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. the main counselling and therapy page explains it properly, how sessions run and what they cost answers the practical questions, and professional standards and registration shows how the practice is held to account.

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 sees people in Hove and nowhere else, so this happens online by secure video. In a small city where you may well know the person in the next seat at the Chichester Festival Theatre, having your hour without walking through town to a door is worth something. All it takes is a room you can close and sixty minutes nobody will interrupt. Daytime slots suit people who set their own hours; evenings suit those who do not.

Book a free 15-minute call

What I help with

What can counselling and therapy in Chichester help with?

Anxiety and worry

When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.

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 Chichester

Why people in Chichester come for counselling and therapy

Start here when you cannot yet put the difficulty into a sentence. This is present-focused work and generally shorter than psychotherapy: what is going on now, what it is costing you, and what could be different in a few months rather than a few years. Worry brings most people through the door. Some 24.5% of adults in this area reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, above the England average of 23.8%, which is worth knowing if you have privately concluded that everybody else is coping. The first session sets out the ground rather than solving anything: sleep, drink, money, work, who you can be honest with, and what changed and when. A good many people find six to twelve sessions enough to get their footing back. If something older keeps surfacing we can consider longer work at that point. NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies is the free self-referral alternative.

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 call

Finding support in Chichester

My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Chichester, you can refer yourself directly to NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies 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.

Chichester questions

Online Counselling and Therapy in Chichester: common questions

Is it worth booking if I cannot explain what is wrong?

It is, and it happens constantly. Part of the work is finding words for something that has never had any. You might begin with the practical facts, the broken sleep or the short fuse or the dread on a Sunday evening, and the shape underneath usually appears while you are talking about them.

What are the fees here, and can I stop when I want to?

Each session is paid for as you have it: £80 for an hour, £100 for ninety minutes, £120 for two hours. There is no block booking and no notice period, so you can stop the moment you have had enough. A free 15-minute call comes first so you know what you would be starting.

Should I use NHS West Sussex Talking Therapies instead?

It is free, you refer yourself, and for many people it is a sensible first move. The courses are structured, time-limited and built around anxiety and depression, and waits vary. Some take that and come here for whatever does not fit a protocol. West Sussex Wellbeing lists other county support.

I am self-employed and my week has no shape. When could sessions be?

A fixed weekly hour tends to help precisely when the rest of the week is shapeless. Mornings and early afternoons are often free, which suits people who set their own diary, and a standing appointment is much easier to protect than one rearranged around whatever work turns up.

Everybody in this city seems to be doing well. Does that make it harder to ask?

It often does. Where things look well-kept and people speak to each other in reassurances, the gap between how you appear and how you feel becomes a burden of its own. You do not have to arrive with evidence that your life is bad enough. Being wretched and unable to say why is enough.

Everything looks fine on the surface. Is it still worth talking to someone?

Yes. In Chichester a good deal of anxiety and low mood sits behind comfortable, composed exteriors. How life appears is no measure of how it feels, and an online session gives you a discreet, unhurried hour to be honest, entirely privately, from your own home.

How quickly can counselling begin online in Chichester?

Generally within days. With no waiting list, a free 15-minute consultation is usually followed by a first session that same week. It is held securely online, joined from home near the Market Cross or out towards Fishbourne, so there is no local waiting room and no journey to make.

How do the fees work versus the NHS in Chichester?

You pay £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes or £120 for 120 minutes, after a free 15-minute consultation. NHS Talking Therapies is free to self-refer to but can mean waiting, while private counselling with Bradley starts sooner and holds a steady weekly time.

In a place where appearances matter, low mood is hard to voice. Is online counselling private?

Yes. Where calm and comfort can make difficulty harder to admit, online sessions let you speak openly without being seen entering a practice. You join from a private room at home, at an evening time if you prefer, and everything you share stays confidential.

Online Counselling and Therapy in Chichester, 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: Portsmouth, Crawley, Horsham. See all of London & South East.

Also available in Chichester: anxiety counselling, depression counselling and psychotherapy.

If you would like to read more first, I have written about how change actually sticks and where to start when you cannot name it.

Closer to the Sussex coast? The same counselling and therapy is available in person, in Hove, where the room is, or see every area I cover.