Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Crewe
Online Substance Use Counselling in Crewe
Online substance use counselling for Crewe, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Crewe, from the town centre and the station to the streets around the railway heritage, 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 Crewe
Substance Use Counselling for Crewe, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Crewe: from the town centre and the station to Nantwich Road, Wistaston and Coppenhall
- Known for
- The railway heritage, the works and the surrounding Cheshire plain
- Region
- North West (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Cheshire East Council's all-age drug and alcohol service
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Crewe
Why people in Crewe get in touch
Drug use around Crewe is mostly private and mostly functional. Something to get through a night shift. Something to come down afterwards. Cocaine at the weekend in the town centre and on Nantwich Road, cannabis at home in Willaston or Haslington that started as sleep and became routine. Fewer people here reach a specialist service than the national picture would suggest, which says more about visibility than about need. In a town where a lot of people work the same places and drink in the same pubs, walking into a local service is a public act, and that alone keeps a good deal of use entirely out of sight.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Crewe
the town centre and station areaNantwich RoadWistastonCoppenhallHaslingtonShavingtonWillastonLeighton
Wherever you are in Crewe, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Crewe
Official figures for Crewe, for context rather than as a description of you.
3.4 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 5.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
What does substance use counselling involve?
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.
What actually happens in the room is the same everywhere, so it is written up once: see the main substance use counselling page for the methods, session lengths and fees for fees and session lengths, and how to check my registration if you want to check who you would be working with.
How does meeting by video work in practice?
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 is in Hove, so there is no room in Crewe and nothing local to walk into. Sessions run by secure video at a time that fits the rota, which for anyone working shifts at the works or the hospital is the difference between possible and not. You need an hour, a signal and somewhere you will not be overheard. A car in a quiet corner does the job as well as a bedroom does.
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 Crewe
Why people in Crewe come for substance use counselling
This is drug-focused counselling and it does not begin by asking you to stop. Cheshire East's rate of deaths from drug misuse was 5.9 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, just above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000, while only 3.4 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. That combination is worth sitting with: harm at the national level, engagement below it. Something is keeping people away, and in Crewe it is usually visibility rather than willingness. The counselling gives you somewhere to be accurate without consequence, and looks at what the substance is doing rather than what it says about you. Cheshire East Council's drug and substance misuse support and Change Grow Live are there when structured treatment is the right next step.
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 Crewe
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Crewe, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Cheshire East Council's all-age drug and alcohol service.
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.
Crewe questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Crewe: common questions
Will you ask me to stop using as a condition?
No condition of that kind exists here. You can be using regularly and still start, and you will not be asked to name a quit date to prove you are serious. What is asked is accuracy, because a session built on a tidied-up version of the week has nothing useful to work with.
Is Change Grow Live in Crewe the same as the council service?
They are linked. Cheshire East Council's drug and substance misuse support is the information route, and Change Grow Live runs the drug and alcohol service locally. That is where assessment, prescribing and structured programmes happen. Counselling is separate and private, and using one does not commit you to the other.
What are the costs?
A free 15-minute consultation, then £80 / 60 min, £100 / 90 min or £120 / 120 min. There is no charge for the initial conversation and no requirement to continue after it. Paying per session keeps the decision to carry on with you rather than with a contract.
I work nights and use to sleep in the day. Where would counselling even fit?
Usually in the hour before you go to bed or the hour after you wake, whichever is steadier. Night work and daytime sleep is one of the hardest combinations there is, and it is worth naming as a problem in its own right rather than treating the substance as the whole story.
Does my employer ever find out?
Not through this. There is no report to an employer, no occupational health involvement unless you arrange it yourself, and nothing that appears in a personnel file. Sessions are private and paid for privately. What you choose to tell work is entirely your decision and can be thought through here first.
I use things partly to cope with nights and broken sleep. Does that count?
Yes, and it's a common pattern with shift work. Using substances to wind down, stay alert or force sleep can quietly become its own problem. We'd look honestly at that cycle and at what might help, without judgement, at whatever pace suits you in Crewe.
How quickly can substance use counselling begin online in Crewe?
Usually within a week of a free 15-minute consultation, once we have checked we are a good fit. Everything runs online from my Hove base, so whether you are in Haslington, Shavington, Willaston or Leighton, there is nothing to travel to first.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Crewe, or do you charge?
Crewe has free NHS drug and alcohol services, which can carry a wait. I am independent, with clear fees: a free 15-minute consultation, then £80 for an hour, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for two hours.
Can substance use sessions fit around railway or factory shift work, online in the evening?
Yes. Shift patterns make fixed appointments hard, so working online we can use quieter daytime slots or evenings depending on your rota, with no journey on top. My room is in Hove; sessions are by video or phone, adjusted around changing shifts.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Crewe, 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 North West: Chester, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington. See all of North West.
Related work in Crewe: addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
Some further reading, if that helps before getting in touch: once an addict, always an addict? and three ways to handle a craving.
Closer to the Sussex coast? The same substance use counselling is available in person, in Brighton, or see every area I cover.