Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Huddersfield
Online Substance Use Counselling in Huddersfield
Online substance use counselling for Huddersfield, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Huddersfield, from the town centre and the station to the streets around the mills, 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 Huddersfield
Substance Use Counselling for Huddersfield, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Huddersfield: from the town centre and the station to Marsh, Almondbury and Lindley
- Known for
- The grand railway station, the mills and the surrounding hills
- Region
- Yorkshire & North East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Kirklees Council's alcohol, drugs and gambling support
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Huddersfield
Why people in Huddersfield get in touch
Drug use in Huddersfield spreads across a wider range of lives than the stereotype allows. There are students near the University of Huddersfield whose weekends stopped staying in the weekend, and there are people in Fartown, Dalton and Paddock who work full weeks, run households and use in the only hours that belong to them. The valleys make everything more private, for better and worse. You can carry something for years up there without anybody asking, which sounds peaceful and is mostly just lonely. Most people who get in touch have been managing it competently and silently for a very long time.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Huddersfield
MarshAlmondburyLindleyPaddockNewsomeMilnsbridgeGolcarBerry BrowDaltonFartown
Wherever you are in Huddersfield, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Huddersfield
Official figures for Huddersfield, for context rather than as a description of you.
5.6 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, above 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 6.3 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 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 approach does not change with the postcode, so rather than repeat it on every page you can read it in full, the methods and what each session covers, on substance use counselling in detail, alongside how I work and my BACP registration.
How do online sessions actually work?
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 by secure video, delivered from Hove, so there is no journey down the valley and no local staff who might know your face. Appointments can sit early, late or between lectures, and the weather that closes the hill roads in winter never costs you a week. If you have used on the day we speak, say so and we work with it. Nothing about that ends the conversation.
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 Huddersfield
Why people in Huddersfield come for substance use counselling
This is drug-focused counselling that starts from where you actually are, not from where a programme would prefer you to be. Engagement with formal services locally runs above the national picture, at 5.6 adults per 1,000 in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21 against an England average of 4.5 per 1,000, and deaths from drug misuse stood at 6.3 per 100,000 over 2022 - 24 compared with 5.8 nationally. Prescribing, testing and structured programmes come from CHART Kirklees at its Huddersfield hub, reached through Kirklees Council's alcohol, drugs and gambling support, and having them alongside this is usually sensible. The hour with me is for the part that gets skipped: what the substance solves at the moment you take it, when it stopped being optional, and what would have to be true for it to matter less.
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 Huddersfield
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Huddersfield, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Kirklees Council's alcohol, drugs and gambling 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.
Huddersfield questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Huddersfield: common questions
Will you make me set a quit date?
No. Dates handed to people from outside tend to be met with silence rather than change. We look at what is happening and what it costs, and any decision about stopping or cutting down emerges from that, at a pace you can actually sustain.
Can I have sessions from a village up the valley with poor transport?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons people out there choose this. Nothing depends on buses, parking or the state of the roads in winter. A decent connection and somewhere you can speak privately is the whole requirement.
What does it cost, and can I stop after one?
You can stop whenever you like, including after the first. Fees are £80 / 60 min, £100 / 90 min and £120 / 120 min, paid session by session, and the 15-minute consultation at the start is free so you can judge the fit without paying.
Does anything go on my record at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary or my GP surgery?
Nothing. This is private counselling and there is no note to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, your surgery or anyone else without your explicit agreement. The only circumstance that overrides that is an immediate and serious danger to someone's life, and I would raise that with you first wherever it is possible to do so.
I am prescribed something and also using on top. Can you help?
Yes, and that combination is common. I would never advise you to change a prescription, since that belongs with the doctor who wrote it, but we can look closely at what the extra use is doing and what is missing that makes it feel necessary.
I'm a student at the University of Huddersfield - can you help?
Yes. Online sessions carry on through term, placements and trips home, so moving between Huddersfield and elsewhere doesn't interrupt things. I'm a private counsellor, separate from the university's own wellbeing service, which you're also welcome to use alongside our work together.
Is there substance use counselling available in Huddersfield, and how quickly?
There is no consulting room in Huddersfield, but I work right across the area by secure video from Hove. Whether you are near Marsh or Lindley, we can arrange a free 15-minute call first and then a weekly time for substance use counselling, often within days of you getting in touch.
Is substance use counselling for Huddersfield done online or face to face?
I do not offer face-to-face sessions in Huddersfield; everything is by confidential video call. For substance use, that often helps, as you can speak openly from a private space rather than a waiting room. I keep a few evening slots alongside daytime ones, so working around the university and engineering sector is manageable.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Huddersfield, 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 Yorkshire & North East: Halifax, Bradford, Wakefield. See all of Yorkshire & North East.
Related work in Huddersfield: addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
There is more on this in my writing: once an addict, always an addict? and three ways to handle a craving.
For anyone near the coast, the same substance use counselling runs in person in Hove, where the room is. Every area covered is listed separately.