Godalming · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Godalming
If you live in Godalming or Farncombe and the same difficulty keeps finding you, in relationships, at work or in the way you treat yourself, I offer open-ended psychotherapy by secure video, at one fixed time each week. It's slower, deeper work than a few sessions on the latest problem, and we go at a pace that suits you.
The practical facts for Godalming
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Godalming by car
- About 68 minutes with clear roads (43.5 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Godalming, change at Havant for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Mind Matters Surrey, 0300 330 5450
- Fees
- £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90, £120 for 120. The first 15-minute call is free.
- Registration
- BACP registered member, no. 109340 (check the register); UKCP student member in advanced psychotherapy training.
The pull of old roles in a familiar town
Godalming can be the town you come back to.
You may have grown up in Binscombe or Busbridge, left for university or London, and returned years later to raise children of your own or to look after a parent who never moved away. Coming home can be strangely unsettling. The streets are familiar, the old school is still there, whether that was Broadwater, St Hilary's or Charterhouse, and within weeks you may find yourself back in a role you thought you'd outgrown, the dutiful one or the child who mustn't make a fuss. Or you arrived from elsewhere and built a life here that looks settled from outside, while still carrying something much older, such as a habit of pleasing people or keeping everyone at arm's length. Psychotherapy is for that kind of repetition, where understanding where it comes from hasn't been enough to change it.
Months, not weeks: how the work unfolds
There's no agreed end point when we begin. We meet weekly, ideally at the same hour, and over months we trace how early experience shaped what you expect from other people and what you allow yourself. Sometimes the pattern turns up between the two of us, in how hard it is to ask for something or to disagree, and noticing it there, where it's safe, becomes part of the work. I draw on Internal Family Systems among other approaches, which can help you get to know the inner voices that push, shield or shame you. Every so often we review whether the work is still useful, and you can pause or finish whenever you choose. If a short course with Mind Matters Surrey eased the surface but left the older material untouched, longer work is a way to reach it. If the Waverley community mental health team at Berkeley House supports you, weekly psychotherapy can run beside their care, with your agreement about what is shared. My registration is with BACP, and I hold student membership of UKCP while I complete advanced psychotherapy training.
Patterns that can follow you home to Godalming
Slipping back into a family role
Moving back to look after a parent and finding the household's old rules waiting for you. Action for Carers Surrey can help with the caring while we look at what it stirs up.
Lessons learned at school
Whether you were taught at Charterhouse, Broadwater or somewhere far from Surrey, early lessons about coping alone or never failing can still be steering you decades later.
After a short NHS course
Sessions through Mind Matters Surrey took the edge off the anxiety or low mood, and now you want time for the older patterns a short course had no room for.
Alongside the Waverley team
If the community mental health team at Berkeley House is involved in your care, a steady weekly session can sit beside it, and we agree together how they're kept informed.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free and low-cost support for Godalming
Free and shorter help can come first or run in parallel. NHS talking therapy for anxiety or low mood in this part of Surrey comes through Mind Matters Surrey, which you can contact without going via a GP. When grief turns out to be woven into the pattern, Cruse has a South West Surrey service that supports people after a death.
- Free NHS talking therapyMind Matters Surrey0300 330 5450Free NHS talking therapy for anxiety, low mood and related difficulties. You can refer yourself, with no GP referral needed.
- If drinking or drug use is part of iti-access0300 222 5932Free and confidential.
- Local organisationCatalyst Counselling: families, friends and carers (Catalyst Support)
For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
Private counselling with me can run alongside any of these; you do not have to choose one or the other.
If someone at home is hurting, threatening or controlling you, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Locally, the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS FT Mental Health Crisis Helpline is on 0800 915 4644.
What people in Godalming ask before starting
Can I have long-term psychotherapy from Godalming without travelling every week?
Yes. From Godalming the work would be almost entirely on secure video, in one fixed weekly slot, from a quiet room where you won't be overheard. The 68-minute drive to Hove isn't something to repeat weekly for months, but an occasional session in person is possible if you'd like one. What matters most is a time that will hold.
How is psychotherapy different from the NHS help I can get in Godalming?
Mind Matters Surrey provides NHS Talking Therapies across the county, with shorter, focused help for anxiety or low mood, on 0300 330 5450. Psychotherapy with me is open-ended and looks at long-standing patterns across your life, not one recent difficulty. The two aren't rivals, and some people use the NHS service first and come to longer work afterwards.
I've moved back to Godalming and old feelings keep resurfacing. Is that a reason for psychotherapy?
It can be a very good one. Returning to the place you grew up often brings back old roles and feelings, sometimes with surprising force. Psychotherapy gives you a regular space to understand what is being stirred, why it still has such a hold, and what you'd like to do differently now that you're an adult in the same streets.
How long does psychotherapy take, and what if it stirs things up?
There's no fixed length. It might be several months of weekly sessions or a good deal longer, and you can stop at any point. Deeper work can feel rawer for a while, so we pace it and check in each week. If things become urgent between sessions, Surrey and Borders Partnership answers its 24/7 mental health crisis helpline on 0800 915 4644.
How much do sessions cost, and is the first call free?
Sessions are £80 for 60 minutes, £100 for 90 minutes and £120 for 120 minutes, the same in person in Hove or by video. The first 15-minute call is free, with no obligation to book. There is no NHS referral needed to see me privately.
Talk about what keeps coming back
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.