Communication and conflict
Breaking the cycle of the same argument.
Online Relationship Counselling · Derry
Online Relationship Counselling in Derry
Online relationship counselling for Derry, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Derry, from within the walls and the centre to the streets around the Peace Bridge, 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 Derry
Relationship Counselling for Derry, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Derry: from within the walls and the centre to the Bogside, the Waterside and Creggan
- Known for
- The city walls, the Peace Bridge and the river Foyle
- Region
- Northern Ireland
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS psychological therapies (Northern Ireland)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Derry
What is going on for people in Derry?
Derry is a city of long memories and short distances. Families stay put across generations, so a couple in Creggan or the Waterside is rarely more than a few streets from a parent, a sister or somebody who taught them at school. That web holds people up through a great deal. It also makes a struggling marriage very hard to keep between the two of you, and the north-west has had more than its share of insecure work and thin months, which is where a lot of the arguing actually begins. Add a past that reached into ordinary homes here more deeply than in most places, and you find households where difficult feeling is handled by not mentioning it. Couples often arrive having managed that way for years.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Derry
BogsideWatersideCregganBishop StreetRosemountCulmoreShantallowthe DiamondBallymagroarty
Wherever you are in Derry, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Derry
Official figures for Derry, for context rather than as a description of you.
In Derry City and Strabane, 10.8% of adults reported a low happiness score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Northern Ireland average of 8.2%, 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)).
In Derry City and Strabane, 28.0% of adults reported a high anxiety score (6 or above out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, well above the Northern Ireland average of 19.0%. Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Personal well-being estimates by local authority (Year ending March 2023 (2022-23)).
In Derry City and Strabane, 7.7% of adults reported a low life satisfaction score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, compared with a Northern Ireland average of 5.2%, 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 actually happens in relationship counselling?
Relationship counselling here, for couples or individuals, slows down the pattern you are caught in and builds healthier ways of hearing and being heard.
Because the work itself is the same wherever you live, the detail sits in one place rather than all of them: the full relationship counselling page sets out the methods, how I work, sessions and fees covers the practicalities, and how to check my registration covers accountability.
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.
No one here needs to weigh up a long drive east for this. Bradley works by secure video from Hove, so the appointment comes to your kitchen table instead. In a city this size that matters: no car left outside a recognised door, no shared stairwell. Attend as a couple or by yourself, at £80 / 60 min or £100 / 90 min when two people both need time to speak. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, with nothing owed after it.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
Which difficulties does relationship counselling address?
Trust and repair
Rebuilding safety after betrayal or addiction.
Distance
Finding your way back to closeness.
Long-distance couples
Sessions you can join from different places.
Anxiety and reassurance
Working with people-pleasing and the need for control.
Individual work
You do not need to come as a couple to change the dynamic.
Relationship Counselling in Derry
Why people in Derry come for relationship counselling
The reason a couple gives on the phone is seldom the reason underneath. Money worry hardens into contempt. One partner withdraws and the other chases. Something happened three years ago and has never been properly said out loud. Alcohol runs through a fair number of these stories: there were 49 alcohol-specific deaths registered in the Derry City and Strabane council area in 2023, the second-highest count of any council area in Northern Ireland out of 341 in total, and the damage drink does to trust and to conversation starts a very long way before that point. Sessions are used to interrupt the pattern rather than referee it, to work out what each of you is protecting, and to practise saying the awkward thing without the night ending badly. You do not need your partner's permission to begin. ASCERT works with families affected by someone else's drinking, and your GP can refer you to talking therapies through Health and Social Care.
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 Derry
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Derry, your GP can refer you to talking therapies and counselling through Health and Social Care. You can find support through Lifeline, Northern Ireland's crisis helpline, free on 0808 808 8000.
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 Lifeline free on 0808 808 8000. Lifeline is free on 0808 808 8000, the Samaritans are on 116 123, and you can text SHOUT to 85258.
Derry questions
Online Relationship Counselling in Derry: common questions
My partner works away most weeks. Can couples sessions still work for us?
Yes, and video suits that better than a shared appointment in a building would. One of you can join from the house in Shantallow while the other joins from wherever the work has taken them, on the same evening, in the same conversation. Time zones and long drives stop being the obstacle.
Will anyone in the city find out I am doing this?
There is no premises here to be seen entering or leaving, and no receptionist who knows your family. Sessions run by secure video from your own home, and confidentiality follows the BACP Ethical Framework, with the small number of legal limits explained clearly before the first full appointment.
What are the fees, and do we pay twice as a couple?
No. One session is one fee whoever attends: £80 / 60 min, £100 / 90 min or £120 / 120 min, and the first 15-minute consultation is free. Couples often prefer the 90-minute slot so neither person runs out of time halfway through what they came to say.
What can we get through the health service here?
Your GP is the starting point and can refer you to talking therapies through Health and Social Care. If a night turns frightening, Lifeline is free on 0808 808 8000 at any hour. Inspire Wellbeing also offers mental health and wellbeing support across Northern Ireland while you wait.
We row about money more than anything. Is that really counselling material?
It is very common material, particularly where work has been unreliable. What gets examined is not the budget but what the argument stands for: fairness, respect, fear about the future, who carries the worry. Once that is named, the same conversation tends to go somewhere different.
Do we both have to travel to Belfast for couples sessions?
No. Because sessions are online by secure video, you and your partner can take part from home in Derry without the journey east. Bradley is based in Hove and works UK-wide, so being in the north-west makes no difference to getting started.
How soon can we start couples counselling in Derry?
Often within a week. After a free 15-minute consultation, Bradley Riddell holds relationship sessions online by secure video, so you can begin from home on either bank of the Foyle without the long drive to Belfast that north-west couples often face for appointments.
How do relationship counselling fees compare with services in the north-west?
Couples sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for two hours, after a free 15-minute call. Statutory and voluntary relationship support around Derry is often free but stretched, so private online work mainly offers a quicker, more flexible start.
Can my partner and I join from different places if one of us has left Derry for work?
Yes. Sessions are online, so one of you can join from Derry and the other from wherever work has taken them, a common situation in the north-west. Bradley offers evenings too, so you can meet after the day without both being in the same room.
Online Relationship Counselling in Derry, 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 Northern Ireland: Lisburn, Craigavon. See all of Northern Ireland.
If relationship counselling is not quite what you are looking for, counselling and therapy, trauma counselling and addiction counselling may fit better in Derry.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about the Imago dialogue for couples.
Within reach of Sussex? relationship counselling is offered in the room in Hove, where the room is as well as online; see the full list of areas.