Daily or binge drinking
Support whatever your pattern looks like.
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems · Canterbury
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Canterbury
Online counselling for drinking problems for Canterbury, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Canterbury, from the city walls and the centre to the streets around the cathedral, 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 Canterbury
Counselling for Drinking Problems for Canterbury, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Canterbury: from the city walls and the centre to Wincheap, St Stephen's and Hales Place
- Known for
- The cathedral, the city walls and the Stour
- Region
- London & South East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Canterbury
What brings people in Canterbury to counselling?
In Canterbury a drink is never far away and never remarkable. The pubs inside the walls fill for match days and matriculation weeks alike, the bars near the Marlowe Theatre run late, and a city with this many students carries a very generous idea of ordinary. That is precisely what makes alcohol hard to see clearly here. Drinking that would draw comment elsewhere passes without a word. The people who notice first are usually the ones who stayed on past graduation and now live in St Dunstan's or Barton with work in the morning, because the comparison is no longer a corridor of eighteen-year-olds.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Canterbury
WincheapSt Stephen'sHales PlaceThaningtonBleanSt Dunstan'sSturryBarton
Wherever you are in Canterbury, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Canterbury
Official figures for Canterbury, for context rather than as a description of you.
the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-specific conditions was 463.2 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England average of 611.7 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Admission episodes for alcohol-specific conditions (2023/24).
the alcohol-specific death rate was 10.2 per 100,000 in 2024, below the England average of 13.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Alcohol-specific mortality (2024).
Reviewed June 2026.
What is counselling for drinking problems, in practice?
Counselling for drinking problems here looks beneath the habit at what drives it, you do not need to have hit rock bottom to begin, and signposts medical, detox and peer support where useful.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on the counselling for drinking problems page, with how I work, sessions and fees for the practical questions and how to check my registration for registration and ethics.
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.
Alcohol counselling for Canterbury runs online from Hove. There is no address here to arrive at, which removes both the visibility and the driving. You are not walking past a queue outside a bar to reach an appointment, and you are not getting back into a car afterwards. Daytime and evening slots are both possible, and people take them from home, from a car, or from an empty room at work with the door shut.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What sort of things do people bring?
The cause, not the habit
Looking beneath the drinking to what drives it.
Anxiety and low mood
Working with what the alcohol has been managing.
Privacy at home
Sensitive support without anyone needing to know.
Signposting
Links to medical, detox and peer support where useful.
Without the anaesthetic
Reconnecting with the person beneath the drinking.
Counselling for Drinking Problems in Canterbury
Why people in Canterbury come for counselling for drinking problems
Two beliefs keep people out of alcohol counselling and both are wrong. One is that things must fall apart badly enough first. The other is that you have to arrive having agreed to stop for ever. Neither applies. If the amount, the hour or the reason has begun to nag at you, that is the qualification, and whether abstinence is the destination stays your decision throughout. Most of the early work is about what the drink is doing rather than what it adds up to in units. Locally the rate of hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions was 433.7 per 100,000 in 2023/24, below the England average of 504.1, while recorded depression stood at 17.1% of adults on GP registers in 2024/25 against 14.3% for England. Drinking and low mood tend to arrive together. Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support is the route for structured help, and any change to daily heavy drinking needs a GP first.
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 callDrug, alcohol & addiction support in Canterbury
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Canterbury, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support.
For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.
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.
If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.
Canterbury questions
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Canterbury: common questions
How quickly could I get a first appointment?
The free 15-minute consultation is usually arranged within a few days. If you want to go on from there, a weekly slot is normally free inside a fortnight. Nothing needs a referral and nobody puts you on a list, which is often what matters once you have finally decided to ask.
What am I paying, and for how long do people carry on?
An hour costs £80, with £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for two hours when you want the extra room. There is no minimum number and no block to buy. Some people use six or eight sessions; others stay much longer. The opening 15 minutes costs nothing.
Should I be going to Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support instead?
Possibly as well, rather than instead. It is the statutory service for the city, it is free, and anything medical belongs there, withdrawal included. Change Grow Live runs the Kent Recovery Houses covering the district. Counselling is quicker to start and entirely private, and the two combine well.
Can I do this by video if I live in a shared house in Wincheap?
Plenty of people do. Headphones mean only your side is audible, and the camera can stay off completely. Sessions get taken in bedrooms, in parked cars and on benches. Nobody in the house has to know what the call is, and no post arrives to explain it.
I drank like this as a student and never stopped. Is that a problem?
It is worth looking at. What passed as normal in a hall of residence stops fitting a job, a mortgage and a morning alarm, and the drinking often fails to adjust by itself. Noticing the gap between the two is usually where the useful conversation begins.
Everyone at uni drinks heavily, so how would I know if mine has gone too far?
It is less about matching others and more about how it sits with you: whether you are drinking to cope, missing commitments, or unable to cut back. We can look at your own pattern privately, without judgement, and away from the pressure of the student crowd.
How quickly can I get online help for a drinking problem in Canterbury?
Often within a week. The free 15-minute consultation lets us talk through your drinking first, then we set a regular time around lectures or work. Online means no journey across Kent and no waiting list, so you can start quietly from your room or home in the city.
Can I get drinking problem counselling on the NHS in Canterbury?
Yes. Your GP can refer you and Kent's council-funded alcohol service accepts self-referrals for free, with Drinkline offering confidential phone advice and student welfare available at the universities. Private sessions here are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, after a free consultation.
Can drinking counselling fit the deadlines and homesickness of student life in Canterbury?
It can. Being online, sessions sit in the gaps of a demanding academic week, evening or daytime, with no travel to fit in. That flexibility helps when deadlines and homesickness pile up in a compact, tourist-heavy city. Face-to-face meetings are available in Hove if you can reach the coast.
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Canterbury, 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: Ashford, Margate, Maidstone. See all of London & South East.
Related work in Canterbury: addiction counselling, substance use counselling and depression counselling.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about why practice makes permanent and questioning “once an addict”.
Within reach of Sussex? counselling for drinking problems is offered in the room in Brighton as well as online; see the full list of areas.