Hampstead · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Hampstead
Psychotherapy suits you if the same knot keeps tightening, in relationships, at work or inside your own head, and you want to understand it rather than just get through the next round. From Hampstead, the room in Hove is a 110-minute drive away, so this deeper, longer work happens on secure video, week after week with the same therapist.
The practical facts for Hampstead
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Hampstead by car
- About 110 minutes with clear roads (84.5 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Camden Talking Therapies, 020 3317 6670
- 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.
Looking inward in a place full of old stories
Hampstead has an unusual relationship with the inner life.
The Freud Museum stands on Maresfield Gardens, Keats House on Keats Grove, and the area's literary and artistic heritage means the idea of examining yourself is hardly foreign here. That can cut both ways. You may know the vocabulary of therapy well, have read about attachment or defences, and still find the same pattern repeating: the partner who feels distant, the career you never quite own, the old family role you slip back into every Christmas. The local population is also older than Camden's as a whole, and later life brings its own reckonings, with retirement, illness in the family or the loss of a partner stirring up things that have lain quiet for decades. Psychotherapy gives those questions the time they need, rather than a quick fix squeezed into a handful of sessions.
Following a thread over months, not weeks
Where short-term counselling usually aims at one present difficulty, psychotherapy follows a thread back to where it began and looks at how it still shapes your choices. We might spend months on why closeness feels risky, why success brings guilt, or why you keep caring for everyone except yourself. The pace is yours. Some weeks are quiet and reflective, others bring up anger or grief you didn't know you were holding, and part of the work is noticing what happens between the two of us as it unfolds. My registration is with the BACP, and with the UKCP I hold student membership. I work integratively, sometimes using Brainspotting, and you'll find the wider picture on my how I work page. There's no fixed length. From time to time we step back and check the work still earns its place in your week rather than drifting into routine. If you've had therapy before, perhaps elsewhere in London, you can bring what you learned and what was left unfinished.
Patterns that settle into Hampstead lives
Knowing the theory, still stuck
In an area with deep literary roots and the Freud Museum down the road, insight can come easily while lasting change lags behind; longer work helps close that gap.
Old family roles, new caring duties
With an older population than the rest of Camden, plenty of adults here are now looking after a parent, and childhood roles can resurface with surprising force.
Helping professions at the Royal Free
Staff at Hampstead's largest employer are trained to put others first; psychotherapy can explore what that habit costs you outside the hospital as well as within it.
Later life, unfinished business
Retirement, a partner's illness or a run of losses can reopen questions you set aside decades ago, and it is never too late to look at them properly.
Free and low-cost support for Hampstead
Longer-term private work can sit beside free Camden services. If anxiety or low mood is pressing right now, NHS Camden Talking Therapies accepts self-referrals. Mind in Camden provides community support, and couples who want to work on the relationship together can approach Tavistock Relationships, a couple and relationship therapy charity.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Camden Talking Therapies020 3317 6670Free 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 itCGL Camden Integrated Drug and Alcohol Service (Change Grow Live Camden)020 7485 2722Free and confidential.
- Local organisationReach Out Camden
- Local organisationCentral London Samaritans
- Local organisationDeath Café at Rosslyn Hill Chapel
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.
Locally, the Camden and Islington Crisis Single Point of Access is on 0800 917 3333. Local drop-in crisis support: Camden Crisis Sanctuary (Hestia) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Hampstead ask before starting
Is long-term psychotherapy possible over video from Hampstead?
Yes. Video lets the work continue through holidays, bad weather and busy weeks without the trip to Hove, which is about 110 minutes by road from NW3. What matters most is a private space and a regular time. The Hove room stays open for an occasional in-person hour, perhaps at the start or at a significant moment.
If I start psychotherapy from Hampstead, how many months might it take?
There's no set length. A focused piece might wrap up within a few months, while untangling something older can take a year or longer, so the length follows what you bring. At set intervals we look back over the work together, and the decision to take a break or finish is always yours. A brief opening conversation, free of charge, helps you judge whether to begin.
Before I begin psychotherapy from Hampstead, which professional bodies do you belong to?
I'm registered with the BACP, and I'm a student member of the UKCP while my psychotherapy training continues. Behind that sit more than 25 years of counselling practice and personal experience of recovery. My approach is integrative rather than tied to one school. Medication sits with your Hampstead GP, and that care can carry on in parallel with ours.
Is there free therapy on the NHS in Camden while I decide?
For anxiety and low mood you can refer yourself to NHS Camden Talking Therapies on 020 3317 6670, while your GP in NW3 can explain what else the NHS offers across the borough. If things become urgent, ring the Camden and Islington Crisis Single Point of Access, 0800 917 3333, any time of day. Either sits comfortably alongside private psychotherapy.
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.
Starting deeper work from home in NW3
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.