Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Margate
Online Substance Use Counselling in Margate
Online substance use counselling for Margate, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Margate, from the Old Town and the seafront to the streets around the sands, 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 Margate
Substance Use Counselling for Margate, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Margate: from the Old Town and the seafront to Cliftonville, Westbrook and nearby Ramsgate
- Known for
- The sands, the Turner Contemporary and Dreamland
- 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 Margate
What is going on for people in Margate?
Drug use in Margate is mostly indoors and mostly unremarked. It sits in flats in Cliftonville and Westbrook, in the end of a hospitality shift that finished at one in the morning, in the long gap between seasons when there is little to give a week its shape. Some of it is old and local. Some of it arrived with people who moved down for cheaper rent and brought their habits along. Across Kent only 2.6 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, against an England average of 4.5 per 1,000, and at the coastal edge of the county the distance between what exists and who reaches it feels wider still.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Margate
CliftonvilleWestbrookOld TownGarlingePalm BayNorthdownDane ValleyWestgate-on-Sea
Wherever you are in Margate, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Margate
Official figures for Margate, 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 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 how to check my registration.
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.
Every Margate appointment is online by secure video, because the counselling room is in Hove. For substance work that has a practical value beyond convenience: you are not watched walking into a building, and there is no explaining where you went on a Wednesday evening. Sessions run from your own space at a fixed weekly time. Beginning with your camera off is allowed, and telephone covers the weeks when video will not hold.
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 Margate
Why people in Margate come for substance use counselling
Nothing here requires you to have stopped, and nothing requires you to say that you will. Drug services get pictured as places that accept you only once things have gone badly wrong, so people hold off, sometimes for years, waiting to be bad enough. That threshold does not exist in this work. We start with ordinary details: what you use, how often, what it does for you, and what it is standing in for. Kent recorded 4.8 deaths per 100,000 from drug misuse across 2022 to 2024, below the England average of 5.8 per 100,000, though a county figure says very little about one street in Thanet. This is talking work and only that. Prescribing, needle exchange and anything at all connected with withdrawal belongs with your GP or with Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support.
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 Margate
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Margate, 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.
Margate questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Margate: common questions
Do I have to be ready to stop before I book?
No. Most people arrive unsure, and unsure is a perfectly good place to begin from. Being pressed for a decision early tends to close the conversation down rather than move it forward. We look first at what the drug is doing for you. Anything you decide after that is yours.
What do sessions cost?
A free 15-minute consultation comes first, with nothing to pay and nothing to commit to. After that it is £80 for an hour, £100 for ninety minutes and £120 for two hours, settled session by session. Statutory drug services are free at the point of use if cost is the deciding factor.
Which service covers drug support in Thanet?
Kent County Council's drug and alcohol support is the county-wide route and will point you to whatever covers Thanet. Structured treatment and prescribing happen there. East Kent Mind, covering Margate and Canterbury, is available for the mental health side of it alongside.
Can I keep this private in a shared house?
Usually. Headphones deal with most of it, and some people book a time when the house is empty or sit in a car for the hour instead. Contact from Bradley is made in whatever way you say is safe, and nothing ever arrives announcing what it is about.
I only really use when the season ends and there is nothing on. Does that count?
Yes, if it is on your mind. Use that follows the calendar is still use that is doing a job, and an empty winter in a seaside town is a very particular kind of pressure. What is worth asking is what those months are like without it, not whether the amount qualifies.
It feels a long way to anywhere from here. How do I actually access support?
Because sessions are online, the distance out on Thanet makes no difference; there is no journey up the line and no local waiting list to sit through. We arrange a time directly, and you join from home, which for many in Margate is what finally makes support reachable.
Can I get online substance use counselling quickly in Margate?
Generally yes. A free 15-minute consultation comes first, then a regular time, often within a week. There is no trip off Thanet to a clinic and no referral queue, so you can join securely from home near the Main Sands, in Cliftonville or Westbrook, right where you are.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Margate?
There are free routes: your GP can refer you, Kent'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.
Being out at the tip of Thanet, is online more realistic in Margate?
Often, yes. When Margate feels cut off at the tip of Thanet, an online session removes the distance entirely, reaching you at home with no travel and a regular time held for you. Evenings work well. In-person is possible in Hove, along the same southern coast, if you would ever prefer.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Margate, 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: Canterbury, Ashford. See all of London & South East.
People who come for substance use counselling in Margate often also look at 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.
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.