Anxiety and worry
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
Online Counselling and Therapy · Lancaster
Online Counselling and Therapy in Lancaster
Online counselling and therapy for Lancaster, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Lancaster, from the city centre and the castle to the streets around the Ashton Memorial, 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 Lancaster
Counselling and Therapy for Lancaster, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Lancaster: from the city centre and the castle to Bowerham, Scotforth and nearby Morecambe
- Known for
- The castle, the Ashton Memorial and the river Lune
- Region
- North West (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Talking Therapies
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Lancaster
What is going on for people in Lancaster?
Term time here changes the whole feel of the city, and so does the long stretch when the students have gone. Either can leave you feeling out of step. Plenty of people in Lancaster book a first counselling session with nothing they can point to: a new job at Lancaster University or the University of Cumbria that turned out to be lonelier than expected, a winter in Skerton or Freehold where you stopped going out, a low hum that has not lifted since spring. The Royal Lancaster Infirmary is for what is acute. This is for the thing that has never quite become a crisis and has quietly gone on far too long.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Lancaster
the city centreBowerhamScotforthSkertonMarshFreeholdHaltonnearby Morecambe
Wherever you are in Lancaster, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Lancaster
Official figures for Lancaster, for context rather than as a description of you.
22.1% 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).
recorded depression on GP registers stood at 18.1% 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 114 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England average of 117 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Emergency Hospital Admissions for Intentional Self-Harm (2023/24).
Reviewed June 2026.
What does counselling and therapy involve?
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.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on counselling and therapy in detail, with how sessions run and what they cost for the practical questions and professional standards and registration for registration and ethics.
What do I need for 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.
Everything is online from Hove, video or phone, and that removes the practical objections that stop people trying. No drive in the dark, no parking, no waiting area where you might see somebody you teach or work with. You can book one session and see how it feels. Nothing is prepaid, nothing is committed, and stopping requires no explanation. If your connection is poor out towards Halton, a voice call does the job perfectly well.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
Which difficulties does counselling and therapy address?
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 Lancaster
Why people in Lancaster come for counselling and therapy
This is the version of therapy that asks least of you at the start. No diagnosis, no label, no need to have worked out what is wrong before you begin. We stay in the present and look at what is draining you now, and the work is usually short to medium: a few months, reviewed as we go. Interestingly, reported anxiety here sits just under the national picture, at 22.1% of adults in 2022/23 against an England average of 23.8%, which is a reminder that a low figure is not the same as feeling fine. Plenty of what people bring has no tidy name. NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Talking Therapies takes self-referrals free of charge, and Lancashire Mind is a further local option. Inspire Lancashire, run by Change Grow Live in the north of the county, is the route if alcohol has become part of how you cope.
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 Lancaster
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Lancaster, you can refer yourself directly to NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria 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.
Lancaster questions
Online Counselling and Therapy in Lancaster: common questions
I cannot describe the problem yet. Can I still book?
That is the most common way people arrive. Bring it half-formed and we will work out the shape of it together. Being able to explain your difficulty clearly is generally something counselling produces rather than something it requires in advance.
What are the fees and how many sessions are typical?
£80 an hour or £100 for 90 minutes, with a free 15-minute conversation first. Shorter work often runs six to twelve sessions, though there is no fixed course. We review together as we go and you can finish whenever it feels done.
Should I self-refer to the NHS as well?
It is worth doing. NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Talking Therapies takes referrals directly from you, without a doctor, and costs nothing. Some people start here while waiting and then choose. Running both for a short period is not a problem.
Is this suitable for students, or only for staff and residents?
Anyone over eighteen can book, students included. Your university may also have its own counselling provision, which is worth asking about first since it is free. Some students prefer somebody entirely outside the institution, which is a reasonable thing to want.
Others have it worse. Should I really be booking?
Almost everyone who gets in touch says some version of that. Suffering is not a queue you have to earn a place in, and waiting until you are bad enough usually means arriving later and needing longer. If this is affecting your sleep, your work or the people around you, it warrants attention now.
I'm a student here, can you fit around term and study?
Yes. Being away from home at university brings its own pressures, and I work with students often. Online sessions are easy to arrange around lectures and deadlines, and we can continue over the holidays too, wherever you are, so support doesn't stop and start.
How quickly can I start counselling in Lancaster?
Generally within a week or so. Working 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 Skerton to Halton, we meet by secure video or phone, with nothing to travel to.
How much is counselling, and should I try the NHS in Lancaster first?
Sessions are £80 for the standard sixty minutes, with longer options at £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours. NHS Talking Therapies is free but often has a wait, so some people start privately with me while it comes through. The first fifteen-minute consultation costs nothing.
Do you offer evening sessions for people around Lancaster?
Yes. Online work makes evenings and quieter daytime slots easier to keep, which matters where support can otherwise mean a long drive. Whether you are a student or working near Morecambe, we would agree one regular time and hold it week to week, so it becomes dependable.
Online Counselling and Therapy in Lancaster, 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: Preston, Blackpool, Carlisle. See all of North West.
Close to this in Lancaster, there is anxiety counselling, depression counselling and psychotherapy.
Some further reading, if that helps before getting in touch: where to start when you cannot name it and how change actually sticks.
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.