Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · London
Online Substance Use Counselling in London
Online substance use counselling for London, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across London, from the inner boroughs to the streets around the City, 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 London
Substance Use Counselling for London, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of London: from the inner boroughs to the outer suburbs, Zone 1 out to the edges of the M25
- Known for
- The City, the West End, the river and the great parks
- Region
- London & South East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- NHS drug & alcohol service finder (see below)
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in London
Why do people in London reach out?
Drug use in London rarely resembles the version people picture. It sits in ordinary flats in Camden and in Wandsworth, in the gap between a late shift and sleep, in the cab home from the West End. Some of it belongs to work: something to keep going through a week that will not end, something to come down again afterwards. Some of it is older than the job and has simply travelled along with it. The city absorbs all of this without comment, and that is part of the difficulty. When nobody remarks on anything, nothing forces the question, and years can pass in which you have never once said aloud what you use, how often, or what it is for.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around London
IslingtonCamdenHackneyShoreditchBrixtonCroydonEalingGreenwichCanary WharfWandsworthWalthamstow
Wherever you are in London, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in London
Official figures for London, for context rather than as a description of you.
Across the London region as a whole (all 32 boroughs), 4.1 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).
Across the London region as a whole (all 32 boroughs), the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 4.5 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.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on the main substance use counselling page, with how I work, sessions and fees for the practical questions and my credentials and registration for registration and ethics.
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.
Bradley is in Hove and sees people across London online, by secure video. For substance work there is a practical gain in that: you carry nothing into a building, and nobody on your street sees where you went on a Tuesday evening. You arrive as you are, from your own space, at the same time each week. If it is easier to begin with your camera off, that is fine, and telephone is there for the weeks when video will not behave.
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 London
Why people in London come for substance use counselling
You do not need to have stopped, or even to be sure you want to, before booking. That is worth saying plainly, because drug services get imagined as places you only qualify for once things have got bad enough, and people wait years for a threshold that never quite arrives. We begin from where you actually are. What a substance does for you gets the same attention as what it does to you: what it settles, what it blanks out, what it stepped in to replace when something else went missing. Then the cost, described in your own words rather than anyone else's. None of this is medical work. Prescribing, and anything at all to do with withdrawal, belongs with your GP or with the borough service that the NHS find a service directory lists for your postcode, since each of the 32 boroughs commissions its own provision separately.
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 London
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. You can find your nearest free NHS-funded drug and alcohol service via the NHS “find a service” directory (search “London”).
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.
London questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in London: common questions
Do I have to want to quit before I book a first session?
No. Being unsure is the ordinary starting point rather than a disqualification, and a good deal of the useful work happens in exactly that uncertain space. We look at what using is worth to you as well as what it takes from you. Any decision comes out of that, later, and at your pace.
What are the fees for this work?
An hour is £80. Ninety minutes comes to £100 and a two-hour session to £120, which some people want early on when there is a lot of history to lay out. Before any of that there is a free 15-minute consultation, so you are not paying in order to make the decision.
Which drug service covers the part of London I live in?
That depends on your borough, because each one commissions separately. The NHS find a service directory lists services by postcode, so it will name the right one whether you are in Islington, Brixton or Greenwich. Counselling with Bradley runs alongside any of them rather than in competition with them.
Will what I say about drugs end up on a record or reach my employer?
Sessions are confidential and Bradley works to the BACP Ethical Framework. The limits are narrow, and they are explained at the start: a serious risk to your life or someone else's, or a legal requirement. Ordinary detail about what you use is not reported to your GP or to anybody at work.
I only use at weekends and function fine all week. Is that worth bringing?
Yes, if it is on your mind. Functioning is not the same as being unbothered, and London makes it very easy to keep both a demanding job and a private habit running at once. The question worth asking is what the weekend is doing for you, not whether it has cost you enough yet.
I share a flat. Can I really keep substance-use sessions private?
Usually, yes. We find a time when you have the place to yourself, and a quiet corner with headphones is normally enough. Many Londoners in shared housing find an online session easier to keep private than sitting in a local waiting room where they might be seen.
Can I start online substance use counselling quickly from London?
Yes. We begin with a free 15-minute consultation, then settle on a regular time, often within a week or so. There is no referral to wait for and no clinic to travel to across the capital, so you can get going from home or a quiet room at work.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in London?
The counselling here is private: £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free 15-minute consultation. For free NHS support, your GP can refer you, your borough's drug and alcohol service takes self-referrals, and FRANK offers confidential national advice online or by phone.
Is online substance use counselling private if I share a flat in London?
It usually is. We find a time when you have the place to yourself, and a quiet corner with headphones is normally enough, which many in London's shared housing find easier to keep private than a local waiting room. Evening and remote-working slots work well; in-person is possible in Hove.
Online Substance Use Counselling in London, 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: Watford, Slough, Reading, Guildford. See all of London & South East.
Also available in London: addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
You may also find it useful to read about 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.