Hastings · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Hastings
Psychotherapy is for the pattern in your Hastings life that keeps returning, whether it shows up in your relationships or in the way you speak to yourself. I'm registered with BACP for counselling, and I'm a student member of UKCP while I complete psychotherapy training, which means I'm not yet on the UKCP register. My only room is in Hove, which means our weekly work from Hastings would mostly be by secure video.
The practical facts for Hastings
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Hastings by car
- About 67 minutes with clear roads (40.1 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- Direct trains from Hastings to Brighton; change there for Hove, one stop.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- Health in Mind, 0300 0030 130
- 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 keeps its history close
Hastings gave its name to the battle of 1066, and its castle still sits on the West Hill.
As a historic Cinque Port and a working fishing port, the town has long lived with the sea in view and the past in plain sight. A family's history can be just as present. If yours has lived in the Old Town or Ore for generations, you may have been handed a role along with the surname, perhaps the one who copes or the one who keeps the peace, and still be playing it long after it stopped fitting. Or you may have moved to St Leonards for a fresh start, a flat in Marine Court or a quieter life near Hastings Contemporary, and found a year or two later that the pattern you meant to leave behind had come too. Psychotherapy is for difficulties of this kind, the ones that have outlasted a change of address and plenty of sensible resolutions.
What longer work looks like from an hour away
Shorter counselling usually starts with what hurts now. Psychotherapy keeps that in view and also goes further back, to when the pattern began and what it once protected you from. We meet weekly with no fixed number of sessions, and every so often we stop and ask honestly whether the work is still earning its place in your week. Often one part of you wants change while another part digs its heels in. We take the reluctant side seriously and get to know what it is guarding, which takes patience. I've practised for more than 25 years, and my own recovery taught me how slowly old patterns loosen. Long-term work also depends on a time you can keep for months, and from Hastings a 67-minute drive each way, every week, is hard to sustain. So the weekly hour happens on secure video, ideally somewhere at home with the door shut, and the room in Hove stays available for the occasions when a piece of work needs more time and a different setting.
Patterns a longer piece of work can hold
After a course with Health in Mind
A spell of NHS therapy through Health in Mind eased the anxiety or low mood on the surface, and now you want time for what sits underneath it.
Creative work, old critic
You make art or perform in a town with Hastings Contemporary and the White Rock Theatre, while a critic from long ago still decides what counts as good enough.
A 120-minute session now and then
Once in a while a long piece of work benefits from two hours in the Hove room, planned for a day when the drive or the train won't feel rushed.
When the work stirs things up
Deeper work can unsettle you for a while. On a hard evening, Staying Well Hastings at Carisbrooke House is an out-of-hours walk-in, open from 5pm on weekdays.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. "Similar to England" means the difference is not statistically significant. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free and low-cost support for Hastings
If weekly private work is out of reach, Counselling Plus Community at 66 London Road in St Leonards offers affordable counselling to Hastings and Rother residents aged 16 and over, beginning with a free assessment. Mind in Brighton and Hove runs services across East Sussex, and the county council's East Sussex mental health directory lists other options. Psychotherapy with me can follow any of these, or run beside them.
- Free NHS talking therapyHealth in Mind0300 0030 130Free 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 itSTAR Drug and Alcohol Service (East Sussex STAR)0300 303 8160Run by Change Grow Live. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSeaview Project Wellbeing CentreOpen-access drop-in, no appointment needed.
- Local organisationHastings and Rother SamaritansLocal Samaritans branch.
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.
In this area you can also text SUSSEX to 85258.
What people in Hastings ask before starting
I'm in Hastings and looking for a psychotherapist. What should I check before choosing?
Check that the person belongs to a professional body and ask what they trained in. My counselling registration is with BACP. With UKCP I'm a student member, which means I'm training as a psychotherapist and am not yet UKCP-registered. Ask about distance too: from Hastings, weekly work with me would be by video. The free call is your chance to ask anything at all.
How long does psychotherapy last if I start from Hastings?
No number of sessions is fixed in advance. It might be a few months or more than a year, and we review it together as we go, so you're never committed beyond the next session. Starting is simple: a free 15-minute call, then a weekly video slot we both protect, with the odd longer session in Hove if you'd like one.
Can I get long-term therapy free in Hastings or St Leonards?
NHS therapy for anxiety and low mood is free in East Sussex through Health in Mind, which takes self-referrals on 0300 0030 130. For lower-cost counselling, Counselling Plus Community in St Leonards serves Hastings and Rother on 01424 428300, starting with a free assessment. Ask either one how long their work usually runs before you decide.
Will deep work stir things up when Hove is so far from Hastings?
It can for a while, which is why we pace it, and why weekly sessions from Hastings happen on video so you are already home when we finish. Tell me at the next session if a week felt heavy, and we'll adjust. If it feels like too much in between, text SUSSEX to 85258 at any hour, or call Samaritans free on 116 123.
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 whether longer work fits
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.