Daily or binge drinking
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Online Counselling for Drinking Problems · Swansea
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Swansea
Online counselling for drinking problems for Swansea, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Swansea, from the centre and the marina to the streets around the bay, 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 Swansea
Counselling for Drinking Problems for Swansea, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Swansea: from the centre and the marina to Uplands, Sketty and Morriston
- Known for
- The bay, the marina and the Gower beyond
- Region
- Wales
- Local NHS / support route
- DAN 24/7, the Wales Drug and Alcohol Helpline
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Swansea
What is going on for people in Swansea?
Swansea drinks in the open and it drinks at home, and the second one is what brings people here. The alcohol-specific death rate in the city for the three years to 2024 was above the Wales average, and very little of that comes from the visible sort of drinking. It comes from routine: a bottle opened at six in Sketty or Killay, an evening measured out in glasses, a quiet fortnight planned every January. From the seafront the city looks as if nothing much is wrong. Inside a lot of ordinary houses somebody is counting, and has been for a while, without telling a soul.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Swansea
UplandsSkettyMorristonMumblesBrynmillTownhillSt ThomasLandoreGorseinonClydachKillayBonymaen
Wherever you are in Swansea, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Swansea
Official figures for Swansea, for context rather than as a description of you.
In Swansea the age-standardised alcohol-specific death rate was 18.8 per 100,000 in 2022 to 2024, above the Wales average of 16.6 per 100,000. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Alcohol-specific deaths in England and Wales by local authority (2022 to 2024).
In Swansea, 5.5% of adults reported a low life satisfaction score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Wales average of 6.9%, a difference the survey's margin of error does not confirm. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
Reviewed June 2026.
What does counselling for drinking problems involve?
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 my BACP 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.
Bradley works from a single room in Hove, so Swansea is reached by secure video. Two features of that matter for drinking. The session can be put at the exact hour where the evening usually begins to slide, and there is no coming home afterwards past somewhere that sells it. If your clearest head is in the morning, we use the morning. Either way it stays at the same time each week so it becomes automatic.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What can counselling for drinking problems in Swansea 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 Swansea
Why people in Swansea come for counselling for drinking problems
Two things do not have to be true before you get in touch. You do not have to be sure you want to stop for good, and you do not have to have hit anything resembling a bottom. Both beliefs are widely held and both keep people drinking well past the point where they wanted out. If it costs more than it gives, that is the whole test. What the work does is take the drinking seriously as something that has been useful to you, because it has, and then look at what it has been useful for. Sleep that will not come, a body that aches after years of hard work, a grief nobody mentions, the loneliness of a city that looks sociable from outside. Barod covers substance use services here, the NHS find a service directory lists alcohol support, and CALL is on 0800 132 737. Heavy daily drinking should be discussed with 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 Swansea
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Swansea, your GP can refer you to local drug and alcohol services, and you can find support through DAN 24/7, the Wales Drug and Alcohol Helpline.
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 press 2 for urgent mental health support. The CALL Helpline for Wales is free on 0800 132 737, the Samaritans are on 116 123, and you can 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.
Swansea questions
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Swansea: common questions
How do I tell whether my drinking has become a problem?
Look at the hold rather than the amount. Whether you think about it more than you would like, whether the week is arranged around it, whether stopping for a fortnight is genuinely easy. Those questions answer it far better than counting what is in the recycling.
What are your fees for alcohol counselling?
They are the same as for any other work I do: £80 an hour, £100 for 90 minutes, £120 for two hours, and no charge for the first 15-minute call. Most people book an hour weekly and keep it for as long as it is useful to them.
What NHS or local alcohol help is there in Swansea?
Barod, within the Newid partnership, provides substance use services covering the city, and the NHS find a service directory lists what is close to your postcode. For immediate support there is CALL, the mental health helpline for Wales, on 0800 132 737.
Do I have to stop drinking to start counselling?
No, and being made to promise it early tends to backfire. You can begin exactly where you are. The one practical request is that you are sober enough in the session itself to remember what we said, since otherwise the hour is wasted for both of us.
I drink alone after work and nobody has ever mentioned it. Is that a bad sign?
It is a reason to look at it rather than proof of anything. Drinking alone attracts no comment and no natural limit, which is what lets it climb unnoticed. The absence of anybody raising it says more about the privacy than about whether it is doing you harm.
Do I need to want to give up drinking entirely?
Not at all. Some people want to stop, others to cut back or simply understand their drinking better. The goals are always yours. We start from where you are and work at your pace, by secure video, wherever you are in Swansea.
How quickly can I get help for a drinking problem in Swansea?
Often within days. We start with a free 15-minute consultation, then book your first full session. Because everything is online by secure video, wherever you are in Swansea, from Sketty to St Thomas, there is no queue and no journey across the bay to be seen.
What does drinking problem counselling cost compared with NHS help in Swansea?
NHS alcohol services through Swansea Bay health board and the free Dan 24/7 line cost nothing but can carry a wait. My fees are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, beginning with a free 15-minute consultation.
Are there evening online sessions for a drinking problem in Swansea?
Yes. Evenings, especially around a lively centre like Wind Street, are often when drinking feels hardest, so I keep some later slots. You meet me by secure video from home anywhere in Swansea, which keeps the work private and removes any travel at the end of the day.
Online Counselling for Drinking Problems in Swansea, 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 Wales: Neath, Llanelli, Cardiff. See all of Wales.
If counselling for drinking problems is not quite what you are looking for, addiction counselling, substance use counselling and depression counselling may fit better in Swansea.
You may also find it useful to read 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.