Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Canterbury
Online Substance Use Counselling in Canterbury
Online substance use counselling for Canterbury, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Canterbury, from the city walls and the centre to the streets around the cathedral, 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 Canterbury
Substance Use Counselling for Canterbury, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Canterbury: from the city walls and the centre to Wincheap, St Stephen's and Hales Place
- Known for
- The cathedral, the city walls and the Stour
- 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 Canterbury
Why people in Canterbury get in touch
Two universities and a cathedral give Canterbury a particular rhythm, and drugs run through it in ways that rarely look alarming from outside. There is what happens in student housing around Hales Place and Blean, and there is what happens quietly among people who finished at the University of Kent or Canterbury Christ Church University and stayed on. Then there are the shifts: nights at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, hospitality hours around the Marlowe Theatre and the centre. Something taken to get through a rota, or to come down from one, can hold its shape for years. The city is small, which makes it hard to talk about and easy to assume everybody already knows.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Canterbury
WincheapSt Stephen'sHales PlaceThaningtonBleanSt Dunstan'sSturryBarton
Wherever you are in Canterbury, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Canterbury
Official figures for Canterbury, for context rather than as a description of you.
2.6 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 4.8 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.
The method travels; only the geography changes. substance use counselling in detail explains it properly, the practical side answers the practical questions, and professional standards and registration shows how the practice is held to account.
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.
There is nowhere in Canterbury to attend, because Bradley works from Hove and everything here goes by secure video. For drug work in a compact city that removes the exact obstacle people get stuck on, which is being seen walking through a named door by somebody from your course or your ward. A laptop, headphones and a room with a lock will do. The hour can sit before a shift, after one, or in a quiet afternoon.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What does substance use counselling 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 Canterbury
Why people in Canterbury come for substance use counselling
Nothing here depends on you wanting to stop. That is a deliberate starting point rather than indifference: if abstinence is the price of admission, most people describe a tidier week and leave it there. So the conversation begins somewhere more useful. What does the drug reliably do? Which part of the day would be hardest without it? What has it cost so far, and what would have to be in place before less of it felt manageable. Ketamine, cocaine, cannabis and prescription tablets are all approached the same way, without a lecture attached. This is not a medical service. Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support handles prescribing, testing and harm reduction, and Change Grow Live runs the Kent Recovery Houses in the area. The rate of deaths from drug misuse locally was 4.8 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, below the England average of 5.8, which is no comfort at all when the risk in question is yours.
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 Canterbury
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Canterbury, 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.
Canterbury questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Canterbury: common questions
Do I need to be clean before the first session?
No. You can come having used that morning, and people do. The free 15-minute call is not an assessment and there is nothing to pass or fail. If you decide to continue afterwards, a weekly slot is usually available within a fortnight of that first conversation.
Can I afford this on a student budget or part-time wages?
Fees are fixed at £80 for an hour, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for two hours, and there is no cheaper tier. What can change is frequency, and fortnightly suits some people better than giving up. Say so in the free consultation rather than deciding privately that it is out of reach.
What do Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support offer that counselling does not?
Everything medical. Prescribing, supervised treatment, testing and harm-reduction supplies sit with them, and it costs nothing. Change Grow Live delivers the Kent Recovery Houses side of it. Bradley is a counsellor, so for any of that you need the statutory route, and the two run together easily.
Can I fit a session between shifts at Kent and Canterbury Hospital?
Yes. Because no journey is attached, an hour is genuinely an hour, which is what makes it workable around a rota. Early and late appointments exist. Some people take the call from a car in a hospital car park rather than waiting until they get home.
It is only ketamine at weekends with friends. Should I bother?
That is a fair thing to think about out loud rather than settle alone. Weekend use is still use, and in a small city where the same circle keeps meeting it can be very hard to change on your own. Nothing obliges you to act after the conversation.
If I get substance-use support, will my university find out?
No. This is private, independent counselling with nothing shared with your university or written into any record. You join securely from your own room, and everything stays confidential. Many students in Canterbury value knowing they can be honest without it touching their studies.
Can I get online substance use counselling quickly in Canterbury?
Generally yes. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, then a regular time, often within a week. There is no clinic to reach across Kent and no referral queue, so you can join securely from your room or home, around lectures, shifts or the working week.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Canterbury?
There are free routes: your GP can refer you, Kent's drug and alcohol service takes self-referrals, and FRANK gives confidential national advice. Students can use university welfare too. This counselling is private, at £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free consultation.
Feeling unmoored among people my own age. Is online easier to fit around student life?
Often, yes. When being surrounded by peers does little to ease a deeper sense of feeling adrift, an online session reaches you between seminars with no journey, at a regular time held for you. Evenings work well. In-person is possible in Hove, a train down to the Sussex coast, if you prefer.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Canterbury, 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: Ashford, Margate, Maidstone. See all of London & South East.
Close to this in Canterbury, there is addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
There is more on this in my writing: three ways to handle a craving and calming a craving as it rises.
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.