Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Ballymena
Online Substance Use Counselling in Ballymena
Online substance use counselling for Ballymena, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Ballymena, from the town centre and the Braid to the streets around the town clock, 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 Ballymena
Substance Use Counselling for Ballymena, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Ballymena: from the town centre and the Braid to Harryville, Ballykeel and Galgorm
- Known for
- The Braid, the town clock and the Antrim countryside
- Region
- Northern Ireland
- Local NHS / support route
- ASCERT, which supports people across Northern Ireland with drug and alcohol use
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Ballymena
What brings people in Ballymena to counselling?
Drugs in a town like Ballymena are easier to hide than to avoid. There is little anonymity in the town centre and none at all in the queue at the chemist, so use happens indoors, among a few people, in the estates and the outlying villages alike. Some of it is weekend cocaine that stopped being confined to weekends. Some of it is tablets, shared or bought, that started with pain or with sleep. Above all that, the Braid, the shops and the school run carry on as usual. Around Dunclug, Ballee or out past Broughshane, what people describe is seldom chaos. It is a slow narrowing of the week.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Ballymena
HarryvilleBallykeelGalgormBroughshaneBalleeDunclugCullybackeyDoury Road
Wherever you are in Ballymena, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Ballymena
Official figures for Ballymena, for context rather than as a description of you.
There were 19 drug-related deaths registered in the Mid and East Antrim council area (which covers Ballymena) in 2023, 11.2% of the 169 drug-related deaths registered across Northern Ireland that year, which had an age-standardised rate of 9.1 per 100,000. Source: NISRA - Drug-related and drug misuse deaths in Northern Ireland, 2013-2023 (Table 9a) (2023).
In Mid and East Antrim, the council area covering Ballymena, 5.0% of adults reported a low life satisfaction score (4 or below out of 10) in the year ending March 2023, in line with the Northern Ireland average of 5.2%. 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 substance use counselling?
Substance use counselling here is non-judgemental and one-to-one, working with the pain, fear or loneliness the substance has been managing, at a pace that protects your sense of safety.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on the full substance use counselling page, with how I work for the practical questions and qualifications, registration and ethics for registration and ethics.
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.
Sessions run online by secure video, since Bradley is in Hove. For anyone here that removes the two hardest parts of asking for help with drugs, which are being seen going in and managing to get there at all. No reception, no sign-in sheet, no shared corridor. Where your days are shaped by use, the hour goes somewhere you can genuinely use it, and it can be moved when a particular week turns out badly.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What can substance use counselling in Ballymena help with?
The false self
Letting go of the protective self that no longer serves you.
Specialised attention
One-to-one sessions shaped entirely around you.
Self-discovery
Rediscovering the authentic self beneath the coping.
Anxiety and low mood
Treating what the substance has been masking.
Sustainable change
Growing into recovery rather than forcing it.
Substance Use Counselling in Ballymena
Why people in Ballymena come for substance use counselling
Nothing starts with a promise to stop. You can be using this week and still do real work in the hour; insisting otherwise only produces a tidier account than the true one. What the time is for is the honest shape of it. What the drug does that nothing else does. What it has already cost. What happens in the stretches when it is not there. Underneath that there is generally something older, and often something never spoken about in a house that did not go in for speaking about things. Anything medical stays with a GP through Health and Social Care. ASCERT works across Northern Ireland on drugs and alcohol, and the NHS find a service directory shows what operates near you. If a night gets frightening, Lifeline answers free on 0808 808 8000.
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 Ballymena
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Ballymena, your GP can refer you to local drug and alcohol services, and you can find support through ASCERT, which supports people across Northern Ireland with drug and alcohol use.
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 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.
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.
Ballymena questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Ballymena: common questions
Will I be tested or asked to prove anything?
No. There are no samples, no breath tests and no monitoring of any kind, because this is counselling and not a treatment programme. Nobody counts your days. What you say about your use is taken at your word, and the point of the hour is that you can afford to be accurate in it.
How much does it cost and what am I committing to?
One hour is £80, ninety minutes £100, and two hours £120. Your first 15-minute conversation is free and commits you to nothing beyond that call. Sessions are usually weekly, though people stop when the work is done rather than at a fixed number agreed at the start.
What is the official route in Northern Ireland for drugs?
A GP referral is the front door into Health and Social Care, and ASCERT provides drug and alcohol support right across Northern Ireland without needing one. The NHS find a service directory lists services by area. Any prescribing or medical treatment has to sit with them rather than with counselling.
The broadband out in the villages is poor. Does that rule me out?
It does not. Video is the usual arrangement, but the telephone works perfectly well and the fee is unchanged. Plenty of good work happens by phone, and some people find it easier to be truthful about drug use without a camera on them at the same time.
I only use at the weekend. Is that really a reason to come?
It can be. What matters is not the timetable but the grip: whether the weekend now organises the week, whether you can leave it alone when you plan to, and what the Monday costs you. Plenty of people here are functioning perfectly well and still quietly stuck.
Do I need to have stopped before I can start?
No. Counselling begins wherever you are, whether you have cut down or not. There is nothing to prove first. Held online by secure video across Northern Ireland, sessions let you talk honestly from home in Ballymena, working towards change at your own pace.
How quickly can substance use counselling begin in Ballymena?
Often within days. A free 15-minute call helps us see whether this is a good fit, then we set a first session soon after. Everything is online by secure video, so mid-Antrim is no further from help than the city, and you can start from home in Ballymena.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Ballymena?
NHS drug and alcohol services here sit within the Northern Trust and cost nothing, though access can take time. My sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for two hours, with a free 15-minute consultation first and no waiting to begin.
Are evening online substance use sessions available for Ballymena?
Yes. With local employers gone, support is not tied to what is nearby, and an evening session from home is simple. Held by secure video, from Ballykeel to Galgorm you can take part in private with only a quiet space and a reliable connection.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Ballymena, 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: Newtownabbey, Belfast. See all of Northern Ireland.
If substance use counselling is not quite what you are looking for, addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling may fit better in Ballymena.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about calming a craving as it rises and once an addict, always an addict?.
Closer to the Sussex coast? The same substance use counselling is available in person, in Hove, where the room is, or see every area I cover.