Anxiety and worry
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
Online Counselling and Therapy · Liverpool
Online counselling and therapy for Liverpool, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Liverpool, from the waterfront and the centre to the streets around the two cathedrals, with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.

In and around Liverpool
Life in Liverpool
Liverpool's warmth, humour and strong sense of community are famous, but the city has also weathered real hardship and disinvestment over the years. Insecure work and money pressure remain part of life for many, and the expectation to stay strong for everyone else can make it hard to admit you are struggling.
Liverpool is a city that talks, sings and remembers. The waterfront at the Pier Head, with its Three Graces and the Albert Dock, looks out over the Mersey that made the place, and the two cathedrals stand at either end of Hope Street. Music is everywhere, from the Cavern's memory to the Phil, and football runs deep on both sides of Stanley Park. Neighbourhoods each have their own character, from Georgian Toxteth to leafy Allerton and the terraces of Anfield and Walton. Scousers are known for humour and for looking out for one another, but that same instinct to stay strong for everyone else can make it harder to say when you yourself are struggling.
Where work follows shifts and the rhythm of the docks, online sessions bend around unsociable hours rather than asking you to fit your life around them.
Liverpool hosts the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the Port of Liverpool. Community drug and alcohol services have been provided by Change Grow Live (River) since April 2025.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Liverpool, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
These figures are local context from official sources, not a description of you, but they show the scale of what people in and around Liverpool are living with, and why local support matters.
22.5% 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 17.4% of patients aged 18+ in 2024/25, above the England average of 14.3%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Depression: QOF prevalence (2024/25).
Local data last reviewed June 2026. Each figure shows the year and links to the official source it was read on.
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 approach is the same wherever you live, so rather than repeat it on every page you can read it in full, the methods, what each session covers and fees, on the main counselling and therapy page and on how I work.
Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link held to the same strict BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, you join each session from any private space using a phone, tablet or laptop, no software to install, no waiting room and no journey at either end.
I work from Hove, on the south coast, and see people across Liverpool online by secure video or phone. Wherever you are, in Aigburth, Wavertree or nearer the docks, the session comes to you, with nothing to arrange but a quiet hour and a connection. A lot of people find the familiarity of home makes it easier to open up. We'd fix a regular time that works around your week, and there'd be no journey into town.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
When your mind will not settle and everything feels urgent.
For the flatness, exhaustion and loss of interest that drain the colour from things.
Alcohol, drugs, gambling or behaviours that have stopped feeling like a choice.
Conflict, distance and trust, as a couple or on your own.
When something you have been through still shapes your present.
For the big transitions, losses and crossroads that leave you unsure which way to turn.
Counselling and Therapy in Liverpool
Behind Liverpool's humour and its strong sense of community, plenty of people quietly carry more than they let on, shaped by years of insecure work and the pressure to keep going for family and friends. Counselling is a space that's just for you. I'm Bradley Riddell, based in Hove, offering talking therapy to people across Liverpool online, by video or phone. From Toxteth to Woolton or the Baltic Triangle, we'd meet at a regular time you choose, with nothing to arrange but a quiet hour. Many find the familiarity of home makes it easier to begin to open up.
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 callMy online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Liverpool, 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:
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.
Liverpool questions
Yes. I work with people right across Liverpool, from the waterfront and the centre outwards, and anywhere else in North West, by secure video, no need to travel to Hove, and just as confidential as meeting in the room.
Absolutely. You do not need a label or a clear problem to begin. We start with whatever is weighing on you most and find the thread together; if something more specific would help, I will say so.
Counselling tends to focus on what is happening now and can be shorter; psychotherapy goes deeper into long-standing patterns and usually runs longer. We can start with counselling and go deeper if it helps.
There is no fixed number. Some people come for a handful of sessions, others for longer; we review together regularly rather than committing you to an open-ended course.
No. I'm an independent counsellor working online from Hove, separate from NHS Talking Therapies Liverpool. Some people come to me while waiting for NHS support, others prefer private sessions from the start. I'm glad to talk through which route might suit you, with no pressure either way.
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 across Merseyside, from Woolton to Kensington, we meet by secure video or phone.
The standard sixty-minute session is £80, with ninety minutes at £100 and two hours at £120. NHS Talking Therapies Liverpool is free but can involve a wait, so some people begin privately with me in the meantime. Your first fifteen-minute consultation costs nothing.
Yes. Online sessions make evenings and quieter daytime times easier to keep, which helps whether you are in the Baltic Triangle studios or on shifts near the docks. We would agree one regular time and hold it week to week, so it becomes dependable rather than one more thing to arrange.
No. I'm an independent counsellor working online from Hove, separate from NHS Talking Therapies Liverpool. Some people come to me while waiting for NHS support, others prefer private sessions from the start. I'm glad to talk through which route might suit you, with no pressure either way.
Yes. Because we meet online, it makes no difference whether you're in the city itself or out towards Bootle, Crosby or the Wirral. The connection is the same wherever you are, so we're not limited by which side of the river you happen to live on.
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, Preston, Chester. See all of North West.
All counselling & therapy in Liverpool: Addiction · Substance Use · Drinking Problems · Anxiety · Depression · Relationship · Trauma · Psychotherapy.
Closer to the Sussex coast? The same counselling and therapy is available in person in Brighton & Hove, or see all in-person areas.