Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Basingstoke
Online Substance Use Counselling in Basingstoke
Online substance use counselling for Basingstoke, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Basingstoke, from the town centre and Brighton Hill to the streets around the ring road, 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 Basingstoke
Substance Use Counselling for Basingstoke, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Basingstoke: from the town centre and Brighton Hill to Chineham, Hatch Warren and Old Basing
- Known for
- The ring road, War Memorial Park and the surrounding downs
- Region
- London & South East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Basingstoke
Why people in Basingstoke get in touch
Drug use in Basingstoke rarely resembles the version people carry in their heads. More often it belongs to somebody on a rota at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, or somebody in the corporate offices with a number to hit, who uses on days off and has done for years with nothing visibly falling over. The town filled up fast with people who arrived for work rather than roots, so a street in South Ham or Lychpit can be perfectly neighbourly while nobody knows the shape of your week. That is often a relief. It also lets a pattern shift by degrees until no one, yourself included, can point to when it stopped being a choice.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Basingstoke
Brighton HillChinehamHatch WarrenOld BasingPopleySouth HamBuckskinOakridgeLychpit
Wherever you are in Basingstoke, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Basingstoke
Official figures for Basingstoke, for context rather than as a description of you.
2.1 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, below the England average of 4.5 per 1,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Adults in treatment at specialist drug misuse services (2020/21).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 4.1 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
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 professional standards and registration 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.
Basingstoke is seen online, since Bradley works from Hove. Where drugs are concerned that is practical rather than second best: nobody watches you arrive anywhere, so the thing that stops most people, being recognised outside a named building, simply does not arise. All you need is a door that shuts and a phone or a laptop. A fair number of people take the hour in a car on a break instead of at home, and that works.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What sort of things do people bring?
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 Basingstoke
Why people in Basingstoke come for substance use counselling
You do not have to have stopped, and you do not have to be planning on it. Opening with an instruction to quit tends to produce a tidier account of the week and very little else. Whether it is cocaine at weekends, cannabis every night, ketamine, or tablets that were prescribed for something real and then stopped being about that, the questions are the same: what the substance does for you, what it has quietly begun to take, and what would have to be different before less of it felt survivable. None of this is medical. Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support covers prescribing, supervised treatment and harm reduction, with Inclusion Recovery Hampshire running that work locally. Only 2.1 adults per 1,000 were in specialist drug-misuse treatment in 2020/21, against an England average of 4.5 per 1,000, which describes who feels able to walk in rather than who might need to.
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 Basingstoke
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Basingstoke, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug 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.
Basingstoke questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Basingstoke: common questions
Can I start while I am still using?
Yes, and most people who get in touch are. Nothing has to be given up before the first conversation and there is no test of any kind. The free 15-minute call is not an assessment. If it feels worth continuing, weekly sessions can normally begin a week or two afterwards.
What does it cost if I only want to try a few?
Each hour is £80 and you pay as you go, so four sessions cost only those four. A 90-minute appointment is £100 and a two-hour one is £120. Nothing is sold as a block or a package, and the initial 15-minute conversation carries no charge whatsoever.
What can Hampshire County Council's alcohol and drug support do that this cannot?
The medical part of it. Prescribing, supervised treatment, testing and harm-reduction supplies all sit with them, delivered around this part of Hampshire by Inclusion Recovery Hampshire. Bradley is a counsellor and not a doctor. Running both at once is ordinary, and they genuinely do different jobs.
Is a video session private if the house is full?
It can be. Headphones keep your half of it to yourself, and speaking is all that is asked of you; nobody needs to see the screen. People take sessions in cars, on a bench, in a locked bathroom or on a break at work. The appointment travels to you.
I use at weekends and function all week. Am I overthinking it?
That is worth turning over with somebody rather than at three in the morning alone. Plenty of use holds steady for years and then stops holding. What tends to matter is whether the choice still feels like yours, and whether the working week has begun quietly arranging itself around Saturday.
There's no one here who'd really notice. Does that make online counselling harder?
No, if anything it can help. You need no local network to begin; you simply join from home. That distance can make honesty easier, and we can also look at the rootlessness of a town you came to for work, which is often part of what lets a habit grow.
Can I get online substance use counselling quickly in Basingstoke?
Generally yes. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, then a regular time, often within a week. There is no clinic to reach and no referral queue, so you can join securely from home in Brighton Hill, Chineham or the town centre, around the working week.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Basingstoke?
There are free routes: your GP can refer you, Hampshire's drug and alcohol service takes self-referrals, and FRANK offers confidential national advice online or by phone. This counselling is private, at £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free consultation.
Online or in person in a town many moved to for work, not roots?
Online often helps, since thin local ties and a demanding job leave people quietly frayed, and a session that reaches you at home needs no travel and no new place to work out. Evenings suit many here. In-person is possible in Hove, a straightforward run to the coast, if you prefer.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Basingstoke, 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: Reading, Southampton. See all of London & South East.
Also available in Basingstoke: addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about once an addict, always an addict? and three ways to handle a craving.
Within reach of Sussex? substance use counselling is offered in the room in Hove, where the room is as well as online; see the full list of areas.