Psychotherapy · Kemp Town

Psychotherapy in Kemp Town

Psychotherapy for Kemp Town and the surrounding area, in person or online. Kemp Town, on Brighton's eastern side, runs from St James's Street down to the Marina, with its Regency crescents and village atmosphere. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In person in HoveOnline tooFree 15-min consultation
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
Bradley Riddell, BACP-registered counsellor near Kemp Town at his Hove room, introducing his approach to psychotherapy
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you

In and around Kemp Town

Psychotherapy for Kemp Town, at a glance

Known for
St James's Street, Brighton Marina and the Kemp Town Enclosures
Area
Brighton & Hove, East/West Sussex
Getting to the Hove room
From Kemp Town the room is about fifteen to twenty minutes away, heading west along the seafront through Brighton into Hove by bus, taxi or car.
Local NHS / support route
the Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service
Format
In person at my private Hove room, or by secure video UK-wide.

Life in Kemp Town

Why people in Kemp Town get in touch

The grand curve of Sussex Square and Lewes Crescent runs down towards the Enclosures and the sea, and behind those big windows people carry the same old material as everybody else. Something that surfaces every time you are asked to depend on another person. A conviction that you will eventually be too much. A version of yourself you assembled at school and have been maintaining ever since. Kemp Town has long been somewhere people come to be themselves, which is a real freedom and does not automatically settle the older question of whether you were ever acceptable in the first place. That question is not answered in six sessions.

Brighton Marinathe Kemp Town Enclosuresthe Royal Sussex County HospitalQueen's Park

Areas covered

Neighbourhoods in and around Kemp Town

St James's StreetSussex SquareLewes CrescentQueen's ParkSt George's RoadMarine ParadeUpper Rock GardensBristol Estate

Wherever you are in Kemp Town, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.

The local picture

The local picture in Kemp Town

Official figures for Kemp Town, for context rather than as a description of you.

Reviewed June 2026.

What actually happens in psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy here goes a little deeper and usually a little longer than counselling, into the patterns, beliefs and early relationships that shape how you feel now, so change is understood at the root and holds.

What actually happens in the room is the same everywhere, so it is written up once: see everything on psychotherapy for the methods, how I work, sessions and fees for fees and session lengths, and qualifications, registration and ethics if you want to check who you would be working with.

Where do we meet, and what happens?

Sessions take place in a private, comfortable room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove, held to the strict BACP confidentiality you would expect. We begin with a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, and the same sessions are available by secure video if travelling is difficult or you would simply prefer it.

Long work depends on rhythm, so most people take a fixed weekly hour in Hove and protect it. From Kemp Town that means a regular trip west along the seafront, fifteen to twenty minutes each way, which becomes a familiar routine rather than an effort. The journey back is often where the session settles. For weeks when shifts, illness or being away make it impossible, we keep the same hour by secure video so nothing is dropped.

Book a free 15-minute call

What I help with

What sort of things do people bring?

Recurring patterns

When the same difficulty keeps returning in different forms.

Attachment and relationships

How early bonds still shape the way you connect now.

Identity and self-worth

Working with a harsh inner voice and a shaky sense of self.

The past in the present

When something unresolved keeps replaying beneath the surface.

Beyond symptom relief

Understanding the root, not just quieting the symptom.

Lasting change

Insight that holds, so change does not slip back.

Psychotherapy in Kemp Town

Why people in Kemp Town come for psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the longer, deeper option, and the reason people choose it is that something keeps returning. Same feeling, different decade. We follow it back rather than managing this month's version: early attachment, what the people who raised you did with your feelings, how you learned to keep yourself safe in a family, and what you decided about your own worth before you had any means of arguing. Identity sits in this too, which matters where you have spent years being a role rather than a person, or where coming out, transition or a long period of hiding shaped how you learned to be close to anyone. It runs weekly, generally across a year or more, with proper reviews. In 2023/24 the local rate of emergency hospital admissions for self-harm was 161.8 per 100,000, set against 117 per 100,000 for England. For shorter structured therapy free of charge, the Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service accepts self-referrals.

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 call

Finding support in Kemp Town

My counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Kemp Town, you can refer yourself directly to the Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service for free NHS talking therapy, with no GP referral needed.

Seeing me privately usually means you can start sooner and stay with the same counsellor throughout, working at greater depth and pace; the two can run side by side, and I am glad to work alongside any NHS or GP support you already have.

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.

Kemp Town questions

Psychotherapy in Kemp Town: common questions

Where do Kemp Town sessions take place, and can I meet online instead?

In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. From Kemp Town the room is about fifteen to twenty minutes away, heading west along the seafront through Brighton into Hove by bus, taxi or car. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Kemp Town or blend the two.

How would I know that longer therapy is right rather than a short course?

Look at whether this is new or familiar. A hard patch with a clear cause usually responds to shorter work. A shape you recognise from your twenties and your thirties, or a difficulty that returned after previous counselling, points towards going deeper and taking longer over it.

What does this cost across a long stretch of work?

The rate holds steady throughout: £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety, £120 for two hours, paid as you go with nothing purchased in advance. People sometimes move to fortnightly for a period. The initial 15-minute consultation is free and commits you to nothing at all.

Can the NHS provide something this long locally?

The Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service offers free, time-limited, structured therapy that you can refer yourself to, and it is genuinely useful for many people. Extended depth work is not usually within what it provides, so it is worth being clear about which you are looking for.

Being openly myself here did not fix how I feel. Why not?

Because acceptance from a place does not automatically undo what you concluded about yourself much earlier, often before you had words for it. Living somewhere you can be visible is a real gain. The private belief underneath usually needs its own slow work rather than more evidence.

Will you keep the same appointment time for me over months?

Yes, that is the intention and it matters for this kind of work. The hour stays yours week to week. Where a rota makes one particular time impossible for a stretch, we look at moving it rather than dropping sessions and losing continuity.

Is psychotherapy worth the trip across town from Kemp Town?

Many clients find it is, and that the short journey west actually helps mark the session off from daily life. Deeper work benefits from a regular rhythm, which the fifteen to twenty minute trip supports. When travel is hard, online video sessions keep the work going.

How do I begin deeper psychotherapy, and how do I get to Hove from Kemp Town weekly?

We begin with a free fifteen-minute call to see whether ongoing work suits you, then agree a regular slot. From Kemp Town the seafront route west through Brighton to Hove takes fifteen to twenty minutes by bus, taxi or car, arriving at Western Road for your session.

What does ongoing psychotherapy cost, and would the NHS fund it near Kemp Town?

Each session is £80 for an hour, with £100 and £120 options for longer work, after a free consultation. The NHS rarely funds open-ended psychotherapy, favouring short courses, so Kemp Town clients wanting sustained, deeper work with one consistent therapist usually choose private sessions.

For weekly psychotherapy, is online workable from Kemp Town, and are evenings possible?

Yes. Depth work relies on continuity, so many Kemp Town clients keep a fixed weekly time, meeting in Hove or by secure video when the cross-city trip is too much. Evening appointments help protect that rhythm, and mixing in-person and online keeps the work steady week to week.

Psychotherapy in Kemp Town, 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 nearby: Brighton, Woodingdean, Rottingdean. See all areas I cover.

Close to this in Kemp Town, there is counselling and therapy, depression counselling and trauma counselling.

If you would like to read more first, I have written about dislocation and the modern world.

Prefer to meet remotely? The same psychotherapy is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.