Greenwich · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Greenwich
If you're in Greenwich and notice the same knot coming back, in relationships, at work or in how you treat yourself, psychotherapy is slower work on where it comes from. From Greenwich we'd meet weekly by secure video, carrying on while the work still feels useful to you, and stopping when it doesn't.
The practical facts for Greenwich
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Greenwich by car
- About 87 minutes with clear roads (67.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Greenwich, change at London Bridge for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Greenwich Time to Talk, 020 3260 1100
- 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.
A town that takes restoration seriously
Greenwich knows that old structures need patient care.
The Cutty Sark, a 19th-century tea clipper, still stands by the river beside the university campus. The Old Royal Naval College is looked after at the heart of a World Heritage Site, and the Royal Observatory has been temporarily closed for a major restoration project. Nobody expects that kind of work to be quick, or to be done by painting over the cracks. People tend to be treated less patiently, by others and by themselves. A pattern laid down early, such as always being the capable one, going cold when someone gets close or bracing for criticism, can carry on for decades while life looks fine from outside. Short-term help sometimes eases the surface without reaching the structure underneath. Psychotherapy works more like the restorers do, slowly, looking at what was built long ago and which parts of it still bear weight.
What open-ended work involves, and where my training stands
Counselling often stays with the difficulty in front of you. Psychotherapy with me runs longer and reaches further back: what your family taught you about need, anger and achievement, the roles you took on to keep the peace, and why certain reactions arrive at full force before you've had time to think. Sometimes the pattern turns up between us, as a worry that you're taking up too much of my time or an urge to give only the tidy version, and then we can look at it as it happens. I work integratively, and Internal Family Systems is one way I help people get to know the driven, critical or protective parts of themselves. The number of sessions isn't fixed in advance. We meet at the same hour each week and look back together every few months at what has shifted. Ending is always your decision. On credentials, to be exact: I'm on the BACP register and have practised for over 25 years, but my UKCP membership is as a student. I'm still partway through my psychotherapy training, and I am not UKCP-registered.
Patterns that might bring someone in Greenwich to longer work
The critic from the practice room
Years of training at Trinity Laban, or anywhere that judges you on performance, can leave a voice that is never satisfied. We can look at where it began and what it has been protecting.
Help that held, for a while
A few sessions somewhere eased things, and then the same difficulty came back wearing different clothes. Open-ended work has room to reach what a short course couldn't.
A loss that reshaped the family
A death long ago that changed who did what at home. Cruse Bereavement Support - Greenwich helps with grief itself, and psychotherapy can explore what that loss set in motion.
When a session stirs things up
Deeper work can leave feelings moving between weekly hours. The Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark Samaritans, with a branch at New Cross, answer on 116 123 if the evening gets heavy.
Free and low-cost support for Greenwich
Private psychotherapy can sit alongside free support. Greenwich Time to Talk, run by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, is the NHS self-referral route for anxiety and depression. South East London Mind's Monday Social Group at The Forum on Trafalgar Road offers peer support among people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, which can be a useful counterweight to one-to-one work.
- Free NHS talking therapyGreenwich Time to Talk020 3260 1100Free 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 itVia Greenwich0300 303 4552Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSouth East London Mind Greenwich - Monday Social Group (peer support)
- Local organisationWoman's TrustFree counselling charity for women affected by domestic.
- Local organisationCruse Bereavement Support - GreenwichBereavement support.
For gambling, the National Gambling Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 8020 133 (NHS gambling support).
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.
The South London NHS Mental Health Crisis WhatsApp Service is another option: WhatsApp 0303 330 1511.
What people in Greenwich ask before starting
Should I be looking for a psychotherapist or a counsellor in Greenwich?
It depends what you're hoping for. If one current difficulty needs attention, a shorter piece of counselling may be enough. If you can trace the same pattern back through years and different settings, psychotherapy gives it more time. I work as both, so we can talk it through on the free call and change course later without starting again with someone new.
Do you offer psychotherapy in person anywhere near Greenwich?
No. My only room is in Hove, about 87 minutes' drive away, and the rail route means switching trains at London Bridge, so psychotherapy from Greenwich runs by secure video. Depth grows from trust and regularity, and both can build on screen. If you'd value one face-to-face meeting, a longer session in Hove can sit within the online work.
Can I get longer-term therapy free through a Greenwich service?
I can't name a free open-ended service in the borough. South East London Mind offers free counselling from Ormiston Road in Westcombe Park, and the Quaggy Community Counselling Service at Orchard Hill is low-cost for adults living in Greenwich or Lewisham. Ask either how long their work usually runs. If you want weekly sessions with no fixed end, private psychotherapy is the other route.
How long does psychotherapy from Greenwich last, and how would it begin?
There's no fixed length. It might be several months or considerably longer, and we review regularly whether it's still helping. Begin by booking the free 15-minute call, where a sentence or two about the pattern that keeps coming round is plenty. I'll be straight about whether I have a regular weekly slot now or when one is likely, and the first session follows from there.
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 for fifteen minutes about what keeps repeating
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.