Petersfield · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Petersfield
If you're in Petersfield and the same difficulty keeps coming back, in relationships or in the way you speak to yourself, you may want more than a few sessions on the latest crisis. From my room in Hove I work with people over secure video in open-ended psychotherapy, at a steady weekly time.
The practical facts for Petersfield
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Petersfield by car
- About 71 minutes with clear roads (43.7 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- From Petersfield, change at Havant for trains towards Brighton and Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, 023 8038 3920
- 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.
When a steady life makes the pattern easier to see
Life in Petersfield can stay much the same for years.
You might live on Herne Farm or near the Heath, walk to the station at the same time each morning and see familiar faces around the town centre. With fewer upheavals to blame, a repeating pattern becomes easier to spot: the third relationship that has ended in the same way, or the job where you once again end up doing everything and resenting it. You may already understand where some of it comes from and still find yourself doing it. In a town of about 15,000 you can also get fixed in a role, the reliable one or the one who copes, and find it hard to be anything else in front of people who have known you for years. Or you may be doing well by every outside measure, commuting to London or Portsmouth and raising a family, while privately feeling ashamed or empty in ways you've never said aloud. Psychotherapy gives that kind of difficulty time and attention, week after week.
What open-ended work looks like from 71 minutes away
Psychotherapy with me has no fixed end date. We usually meet weekly, and over months we look at how earlier experiences shaped what you expect from other people and from yourself, sometimes noticing those expectations as they show up between the two of us. I draw on several approaches, Internal Family Systems among them, which gives us a way to understand the inner voices that criticise you, shield you or keep you constantly busy. From Petersfield, the practical question is continuity. Work like this depends on the same hour each week, held through school holidays and busy spells at work, and video makes that realistic in a way a 71-minute drive does not. If you've already had counselling at Petersfield Counselling Service, or worked with NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire, you can bring what you learned into longer work. BACP lists me as a registered member, while with UKCP I hold student membership only and do not have UKCP registration. Every so often we stop and review whether the work is still useful, and the decision to pause or finish is always yours.
Patterns a settled Petersfield life can hide
After counselling in town
If sessions at Petersfield Counselling Service, the town's low-cost charity, helped with something pressing and you now want time for what lies further back, longer work can pick up from there.
Beside a community mental health team
If a community mental health team at Petersfield Hospital supports you, weekly psychotherapy can add a steady space for older patterns, with your agreement on what is shared.
Protecting an hour from the commute
If your week runs on the Portsmouth Direct line, we look for a video slot that can survive late trains and busy months, because regularity is what carries this work.
Stuck in a small-town role
In a town of about 15,000, people may have known you as the capable one for decades. Longer work can look at where that role began and what it costs you to keep playing it.
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 Petersfield
Shorter or free help can come first or run alongside. Petersfield Counselling Service is the town's low-cost counselling charity for adults, NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire offers therapy for anxiety and low mood, and Havant and East Hants Mind runs local mental health support. Havant Adults' Safe Haven is somewhere to turn if things become too much to hold alone.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Talking Therapies Hampshire023 8038 3920Free 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 itInclusion Recovery Hampshire0300 124 0103Free and confidential.
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.
In this area you can also text HANTS to 85258. Local drop-in crisis support: Havant Adults' Safe Haven (Havant & East Hants Mind) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Petersfield ask before starting
Is psychotherapy different from the counselling available in Petersfield?
The words overlap, so it's worth asking anyone about their training. Petersfield Counselling Service offers low-cost general counselling, and NHS Talking Therapies Hampshire offers therapy for anxiety or low mood. When I call work psychotherapy, I mean open-ended sessions that look at lifelong patterns, as opposed to a focus on one recent problem. My own registrations are BACP (registered member) and UKCP (student member).
Can I keep psychotherapy going by video from Petersfield for months?
Yes, and from Petersfield video is what makes it sustainable. The Hove room is roughly 71 minutes by car, or a train trip with a change at Havant, which is hard to keep up weekly for a long piece of work. Most of our sessions would happen on screen from somewhere private, with a longer session in Hove now and then if you want one.
How do I start psychotherapy from Petersfield, and do I need a referral?
You don't need a GP referral. Arrange the free 15-minute call yourself and describe a little of what keeps recurring. If we both think longer work makes sense, we look for a weekly video slot that will hold up around your Petersfield week. Finding a time that lasts matters more than starting quickly, so we take care over it.
What if psychotherapy stirs up more than I expected?
Deeper work can make things feel rawer for a while, so we keep to a pace you can manage and check at the start of each session how the week has been. If things become urgent between sessions in Petersfield, you can text HANTS to 85258 at any hour, contact NHS 111 for urgent mental health advice, or call 999 if anyone is in danger.
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 the pattern that keeps returning
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.