Daily or binge drinking
Support whatever your pattern looks like.
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems · Margate
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Margate
Online counselling for drinking problems for Margate, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Margate, from the Old Town and the seafront to the streets around the sands, 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 Margate
Counselling for Drinking Problems for Margate, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Margate: from the Old Town and the seafront to Cliftonville, Westbrook and nearby Ramsgate
- Known for
- The sands, the Turner Contemporary and Dreamland
- 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 Margate
Why do people in Margate reach out?
Drinking here has a great deal of cover. There is a bar on most corners of the Old Town, a season that runs on hospitality, and a winter that offers rather less. A can on the sea wall at four in the afternoon looks like a holiday whatever month it happens to be. What shifts first is private: the hour at which the first one happens, the reluctance to be anywhere it is not available, the morning that opens with a calculation. Kent's alcohol-specific death rate was 10.2 per 100,000 in 2024, below the England average of 13.8 per 100,000, which is the sort of figure that reassures a county and tells one person nothing whatsoever.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Margate
CliftonvilleWestbrookOld TownGarlingePalm BayNorthdownDane ValleyWestgate-on-Sea
Wherever you are in Margate, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Margate
Official figures for Margate, 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 actually happens in counselling for drinking problems?
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 everything on counselling for drinking problems, with the practical side for the practical questions and how to check my registration for registration and ethics.
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.
Sessions with people in Margate happen online by secure video, since Bradley is in Hove and there is nothing here to travel to. For drinking, the weekly hour then takes place in the same setting as the drinking, which keeps the conversation specific rather than abstract. Daytime and morning slots are available, which suits hospitality hours and suits anyone who would rather not discuss alcohol at six in the evening.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What does counselling for drinking problems help with?
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 Margate
Why people in Margate come for counselling for drinking problems
You do not need to be finished with alcohol to start, and you do not need a disaster to point at. Both of those requirements are imaginary, and both of them keep people waiting for years. Most of the drinking that wears away sleep, temper and money never generates an event worth telling anybody about. It simply becomes the shape of the week. In a town where work is seasonal and the winters are long, alcohol has an obvious job to do, and that job is where this work starts: what it settles, what it fills, what it lets you stop noticing. Then the cost, described by you rather than by a leaflet. Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support handles the statutory and medical side, and East Kent Mind covers wellbeing across Thanet. Counselling runs alongside either without competing with them.
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 Margate
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Margate, 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.
Margate questions
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Margate: common questions
How soon could I start, and is there a wait?
No waiting list and no referral. You book a free 15-minute consultation, normally available within a few days, and decide afterwards whether to carry on. A regular weekly appointment usually opens within a week or two, which is faster than most statutory routes are able to manage.
What will it cost each week?
One hour a week is £80. Ninety minutes is £100 and two hours £120, and some people choose the longer appointment early on when there is a great deal to set out. The first 15-minute consultation is free, so everything can be asked before any money changes hands.
What alcohol help is there locally if I want the NHS route too?
Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support is the way in to statutory alcohol services across the county, Thanet included, and it covers the medical side that counselling cannot. East Kent Mind offers mental health support in Margate. Using both at once is entirely ordinary.
Where do the sessions actually take place?
Wherever you are. They run by secure video from home, or by telephone if that is easier, and there is no building in the town to attend. That removes the bus, the ticket and the walk past people you recognise, all of which matter more here than they would elsewhere.
Half the kitchen drinks after service. Why would mine be a problem?
Comparison will not settle that. A whole bar or kitchen team can drink at a level costing each of them something, and late finishes normalise it because nobody is awake to notice. What matters is your own account: your sleep, your money, your temper, the people at home.
I drink to cope with how tough things really are here. Can counselling help with both?
Yes. Drinking and the hardships behind it, from insecure work to isolation, are closely tied for many in Margate. Online sessions spare you any journey, and we can talk openly about both, working towards changes that are realistic for your circumstances, at your own pace.
How quickly can I get online help for a drinking problem in Margate?
Often within a week. The free 15-minute consultation lets us talk through your drinking before you commit, then we set a regular time. Working online means no journey off the island and no waiting list, so you can start quietly from home wherever you are in Margate.
Can I get drinking problem counselling on the NHS in Margate?
Yes. Your GP can refer you and Kent's council-funded alcohol service accepts self-referrals for free, with Drinkline offering confidential phone advice. Going private, sessions here are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, after a free 15-minute consultation.
Can drinking counselling help with the isolation of life on Thanet?
It can. When insecure work, housing pressure and isolation are part of everyday life beneath the bunting, a confidential online session offers a steady, honest space, reaching you at home with no travel. Evenings are workable. Being on the same coast, Hove is reachable for an in-person meeting if you prefer.
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Margate, 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: Canterbury, Ashford. See all of London & South East.
Related work in Margate: 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”.
For anyone near the coast, the same counselling for drinking problems runs in person in Hove, where the room is. Every area covered is listed separately.