Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Hastings
Online Substance Use Counselling in Hastings
Online substance use counselling for Hastings, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Hastings, from the Old Town and the Stade to the streets around the fishing beach, 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 Hastings
Substance Use Counselling for Hastings, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Hastings: from the Old Town and the Stade to St Leonards, Ore and Silverhill
- Known for
- The Old Town, the fishing beach and the cliffs
- Region
- London & South East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support (STAR, Change Grow Live)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Hastings
Why do people in Hastings reach out?
Drug use in Hastings covers a wider spread of people than the town's reputation suggests. There is long-standing use in Ore and in parts of Central St Leonards, where work has been scarce for a very long time. There is the creative and arts community, where an evening habit can pass for temperament. There is seasonal hospitality, where late finishes and stimulants have always kept company. And there is quiet prescription use in Silverhill or Clive Vale among people nobody would think to ask. What they share is a coastal town's closeness: the same faces, the same streets, very little privacy for anybody trying to change something.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Hastings
Old TownSt LeonardsOreSilverhillHollingtonBohemiaWest HillClive ValeCentral St Leonards
Wherever you are in Hastings, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Hastings
Official figures for Hastings, for context rather than as a description of you.
3.6 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 4.9 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 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.
The method travels; only the geography changes. substance use counselling in detail explains it properly, how I work, sessions and fees answers the practical questions, and professional standards and registration shows how the practice is held to account.
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.
There is no Hastings venue, because Bradley works from Hove and everything runs by secure video. That closeness is exactly why online helps: nobody sees you going anywhere and nobody has to be told. In a town where support can be hard to reach at all, an appointment needing no bus and no train removes the practical barrier as well as the social one. Headphones, a phone and a shut door will do it.
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 Hastings
Why people in Hastings come for substance use counselling
There is no requirement to have stopped and none to be planning it. Asking for that first only produces a tidier account and a wasted hour. The work asks what the drug reliably does, which part of the day or the week depends on it, what it has already taken, and what would have to exist before less of it felt possible. Cocaine, cannabis, ketamine, opiates and prescription tablets are all approached without judgement, and none of this is medical. East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support handles prescribing, testing and harm reduction, delivered by Change Grow Live through the STAR service at Thrift House. Deaths from drug misuse in this area ran at 4.9 per 100,000 across 2022 - 24 against 5.8 for England, and behind a rate like that are people who never got as far as any service.
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 Hastings
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Hastings, free local drug and alcohol support is available through East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support (STAR, Change Grow Live).
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.
Hastings questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Hastings: common questions
Will anything I say be passed on?
No, within the usual legal limits, which Bradley sets out at the start. Nothing goes to a GP unless you ask for it, nothing reaches an NHS record, and no letter arrives at your address. The free 15-minute call carries the same confidentiality as everything after it.
Is private counselling realistic on a low income?
It is £80 an hour, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for two, and those figures do not move. If weekly is unaffordable, fortnightly or monthly still does real work. The free consultation is the place to be straight about money rather than quietly writing the idea off.
Should I go to Change Grow Live instead?
Possibly as well as this. It delivers East Sussex County Council's drug and alcohol support here through the STAR service at Thrift House, free, and it holds prescribing, supervised treatment, testing and harm reduction. Counselling does none of that, and the two are frequently used side by side.
Can I use my phone rather than a laptop?
A phone is completely fine and it is what a lot of people use. Data or wi-fi both work, and if the picture struggles the session carries on as audio. Headphones are the one thing genuinely worth having, since they keep your half of the conversation private.
Everyone I know uses. How would I even start changing that?
Slowly, and not by moving town. What usually shifts first is not the circle but your own relationship to the thing: what you want from it, what it is costing, what else might do the job. In a place this small that groundwork matters more than willpower.
Support round here feels stretched. How quickly can I actually talk to someone?
Because sessions are online, there is no local waiting list or travel to slow things down; we can arrange a time that suits you directly. For many in Hastings, that ease of access is what makes it possible to start when support otherwise feels hard to reach.
Can I get online substance use counselling quickly in Hastings?
Generally yes. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, then a regular time, often within a week. There is no long journey to a clinic and no referral queue, so you can join securely from home wherever you are in the town, close and dependable.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Hastings?
There are free routes: your GP can refer you, East Sussex'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.
With support stretched locally, is a dependable online space realistic here?
Yes. A confidential space can be hard to come by in Hastings, and online it becomes dependable, reaching you at home with no long journey and a regular time held for you. Evenings work well. In-person meetings are possible in Hove, further west along the same coast, if you prefer.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Hastings, 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: Eastbourne. See all of London & South East.
Related work in Hastings: addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
You may also find it useful to read about three ways to handle a craving and calming a craving as it rises.
If you can reach the south coast, this work is also done face to face in Brighton — all in-person areas are listed here.