Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Peterborough
Online Substance Use Counselling in Peterborough
Online substance use counselling for Peterborough, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Peterborough, from the cathedral and the centre to the streets around the river Nene, 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 Peterborough
Substance Use Counselling for Peterborough, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Peterborough: from the cathedral and the centre to Bretton, Orton and Werrington
- Known for
- The cathedral, the river Nene and the fenland beyond
- Region
- East of England (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Peterborough City Council's drug and alcohol misuse support
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Peterborough
Why do people in Peterborough reach out?
Drug use in Peterborough often has a job to do with staying awake or coming down. Stimulants to get through a twelve-hour distribution shift, something at the end of it to stop the mind racing, cannabis to sleep in daylight. The rate of deaths from drug misuse here was 6.7 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000, and high anxiety is common too, with 26.6% of adults reporting a high anxiety score in 2022/23 against an England average of 23.8%. A great deal of use in Stanground, Millfield or Fletton is aimed squarely at that anxiety rather than at pleasure.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Peterborough
BrettonOrtonWerringtonStangroundDogsthorpePastonMillfieldHamptonWaltonFletton
Wherever you are in Peterborough, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Peterborough
Official figures for Peterborough, for context rather than as a description of you.
7.5 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 6.7 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 would we do together 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.
Rather than say the same thing on every page, the substance lives on the substance use counselling page, with how I work for the practical questions and professional standards 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.
All of it is by secure video from Hove, with no premises in the city. That removes the fear of being recognised outside a service by someone from your shift or your street. Times can be arranged around nights, agency work and childcare, and using between sessions does not put your place at risk. Several people take the hour from a car before going home, because it is the only reliably private space they have.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
Which difficulties does substance use counselling address?
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 Peterborough
Why people in Peterborough come for substance use counselling
This work makes no assumption that you intend to quit. You might be using daily, or only on days off, or already cutting back and finding that everything you were avoiding has come into view. What matters is what the substance provides: alertness a body cannot manufacture at four in the morning, sleep when the shift pattern has destroyed it, quiet from a mind that will not settle. That question can only be asked honestly where nobody is disapproving, so nobody does. Prescribing, testing and harm reduction sit with the free Aspire recovery service, which Change Grow Live runs here and which Peterborough City Council's drug and alcohol misuse support will point you to. CPSL Mind takes on the wider mental health picture. None of those free services rules out having a private hour of your own each week, and for people working nights the two often fit together more easily than expected.
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 Peterborough
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Peterborough, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Peterborough City Council's drug and alcohol misuse 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.
Peterborough questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Peterborough: common questions
Must I stop using first?
No. Plenty of people start while still using regularly and work out what they want as they go. The only practical limit is being under the influence in the session itself, because very little of the hour will stay with you afterwards.
Does any of this reach my employer or an agency?
None of it. No report goes to an employer, an agency, your GP or the council, and no NHS record exists. Confidentiality only gives way where there is an immediate threat to life, and I would talk that through with you wherever there is time to.
What does it cost?
Sixty minutes is £80, ninety is £100 and two hours is £120, with a free 15-minute call before anything is agreed. Shift wages are unpredictable, so it is fine to move between weekly and fortnightly sessions depending on what a particular month looks like.
Would Aspire be a better place to start?
It may well be, and it is free. Aspire covers assessment, substitute prescribing and group work in Peterborough. What it rarely has is unhurried time. Using their practical support and this space for the reasons behind the use is a sensible combination.
My use is entirely about staying awake for nights. Is that still substance use counselling?
It is exactly that. Use built around a shift pattern is doing a specific job, and the job will not disappear because someone tells you to stop. Looking at sleep, recovery and what the work is costing you is where this actually begins.
Would I have to visit somewhere in Peterborough?
No. I work entirely online from Hove, by secure video or phone. That means no travel across the city after a shift; you take part from home or another private space, at a time that fits around your rota and family.
Is online substance use counselling available in Peterborough, and when can I begin?
Yes. I see people across Peterborough and the surrounding Fens online, with no local waiting list, so most start within days. After a free 15-minute consultation we arrange a first session, working around shift work at the logistics parks or the East Coast Main Line commute.
How much is substance use counselling privately compared with the NHS in Peterborough?
My sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, and the first 15-minute consultation is free. NHS substance support in Peterborough costs nothing but may take time to access, while private online work with me can start promptly and flexibly.
Would substance use counselling be online or local, and are evenings possible in Peterborough?
It is online only, by secure video or phone from Hove, not from a clinic in the city. Because it is not tied to clinic hours, we can meet in the evening or early around a train, and you take part from home in Werrington, Stanground or beyond.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Peterborough, 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 East of England: Cambridge, Kettering, Lincoln. See all of East of England.
Close to this in Peterborough, there is addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
If you would like to read more first, I have written about calming a craving as it rises and once an addict, always an addict?.
For anyone near the coast, the same substance use counselling runs in person in Brighton. Every area covered is listed separately.