Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Southampton
Online Substance Use Counselling in Southampton
Online substance use counselling for Southampton, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Southampton, from the city centre and Ocean Village to the streets around the waterfront, 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 Southampton
Substance Use Counselling for Southampton, at a glance
- Areas covered online
- All of Southampton: from the city centre and Ocean Village to Portswood, Shirley and Bitterne
- Known for
- The waterfront, the docks and the Common
- Region
- London & South East (England)
- Local NHS / support route
- Southampton City Council's drug and alcohol support
- Format
- Secure video, UK-wide. In-person also available on the Sussex coast.
Life in Southampton
Why people in Southampton get in touch
Drug use in Southampton has several separate lives. There is the student version around Highfield and Portswood, which looks entirely social until the third year and then stops looking that way. There is the shift version: something to stay awake through a night on the docks or at the hospital, something else to switch off afterwards. And there is the older, quieter version in Bitterne and Woolston that nobody would guess at. Deaths from drug misuse here ran at 5.2 per 100,000 across 2022 to 2024, just under the England average of 5.8 per 100,000, while 5.3 adults per 1,000 were in specialist treatment in 2020/21 against 4.5 nationally. A city that turns over this fast rarely notices what any one person is carrying.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Southampton
PortswoodShirleyBitterneWoolstonSt DenysBevois ValleyHighfieldMillbrookFreemantle
Wherever you are in Southampton, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Southampton
Official figures for Southampton, for context rather than as a description of you.
5.3 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 5.2 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 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.
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 everything on substance use counselling, alongside how I work and qualifications, registration and ethics.
What do I need for 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.
All Southampton appointments run online by secure video, because there is no room here and Bradley works from Hove. For drug work that removes the exposed part of it: nothing is carried into a building, and nobody sees you keeping a weekly appointment. The hour is taken from your own space, or from a car if the house is shared and the walls are thin. Camera off is allowed, and telephone covers the weeks when video fails.
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 Southampton
Why people in Southampton come for substance use counselling
You do not have to have stopped, and you are not asked to promise anything. That is deliberate, because the widespread picture of drug services as somewhere you go once things have collapsed keeps people waiting for a threshold that never quite announces itself. Treatment here is reasonably well used, with 5.3 adults per 1,000 in specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21 against an England average of 4.5 per 1,000, and plenty of people still sit outside it entirely. We begin with the actual detail: what you use, how often, and what it does for you. That last question usually goes unasked and it is the one that explains the pattern. Then the cost, in your terms. Prescribing and anything to do with withdrawal belongs with your GP, with Southampton City Council's drug and alcohol support, or with Change Grow Live.
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 Southampton
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Southampton, free local drug and alcohol support is available through Southampton City 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.
Southampton questions
Online Substance Use Counselling in Southampton: common questions
Do I need to want to stop first?
No, and being unsure is not a reason to wait. A decision arrived at under pressure tends not to survive the week anyway. The early sessions are for understanding the use rather than ending it, and what you choose after that belongs to you and to your own timing.
What do sessions cost here?
£80 buys an hour, £100 buys ninety minutes and £120 buys two hours, paid appointment by appointment. A free 15-minute consultation comes first. Statutory drug services in the city cost nothing at the point of use, so there is a free route as well as this one.
Which drug service covers Southampton?
Change Grow Live delivers the drug and alcohol service for Southampton, and the city council's drug and alcohol support explains how to reach it. Structured treatment, prescribing and harm reduction happen there. Solent Mind is available for the mental health side running underneath all of it.
Would my university or my employer ever find out?
No. Nothing is disclosed to a university, a hospital or an employer as a matter of course. The work is confidential under the BACP Ethical Framework, with narrow exceptions set out before the first appointment, and no letter goes to your GP unless you specifically ask for one.
I started at university and it has simply carried on since. Is that worth looking at?
Yes, and it is very common in a city this transient. Use that began socially can outlive the social part entirely and become something you do alone without ever deciding to. Noticing that it changed function is usually the useful beginning, rather than counting how much.
I'm a student here and feel homesick and out of place. Could that be feeding it?
Very possibly. Feeling adrift even while surrounded by other students is common in Southampton, and substances can become a way to numb that. Online sessions let you talk it through privately from your room, looking at both the habit and the loneliness underneath it.
Can I get online substance use counselling quickly in Southampton?
Generally yes. We start with a free 15-minute consultation, then set a regular time, often within a week. There is no referral to wait for and no clinic to reach across the city, so you can join securely from Portswood, Shirley, Bitterne or Ocean Village.
Is substance use counselling free on the NHS in Southampton?
There are free routes: your GP can refer you, Southampton's drug and alcohol service takes self-referrals, and FRANK gives confidential national advice. Students can use university welfare too. This counselling is private, at £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 and £120 for 120, with a free consultation.
Being far from home as a student here, is online easier?
For many it is. In a city of constant arrival and departure, an online session reaches you wherever you are, so there is no working out an unfamiliar city to find help. Sessions flex around the term and antisocial hours. In-person is possible in Hove, a short train along the coast.
Online Substance Use Counselling in Southampton, 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: Portsmouth, Basingstoke. See all of London & South East.
People who come for substance use counselling in Southampton often also look at addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling.
There is more on this in my writing: 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.