Recurring patterns
When the same difficulty keeps returning in different forms.
Psychotherapy · Portslade
Psychotherapy in Portslade
Psychotherapy for Portslade and the surrounding area, in person or online. Portslade, just west of Hove, blends the historic Old Village with Portslade-by-Sea and the harbour. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.
BACP registered member25+ years of experienceLived experience
ConfidentialA safe, private space
Person-centredThe therapy fits you
In and around Portslade
Psychotherapy for Portslade, at a glance
- Known for
- Portslade Old Village, the harbour and Victoria Recreation Ground
- Area
- Brighton & Hove, East/West Sussex
- Getting to the Hove room
- Portslade is a short hop east along New Church Road or the coast road, around ten minutes by car or bus, or two stops on the train to Hove.
- 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 Portslade
What brings people in Portslade to counselling?
Families have lived on these streets a long time. Grandparents worked the quayside, parents stayed within a mile of where they grew up, and the rhythms of the Old Village and Portslade-by-Sea have been handed down along with the houses. Continuity like that is a genuine gift and it can also mean nothing was ever set down. The way anger was dealt with in your father's house is the way it is dealt with in yours. The rule that you do not make a fuss has outlived everyone who made it. People come for longer work when they realise they are living out an arrangement nobody ever agreed to, and that willpower has not touched it.
Areas covered
Neighbourhoods in and around Portslade
Portslade Old VillagePortslade-by-SeaMile OakSouthern CrossBoundary RoadStation RoadAldringtonVictoria Recreation Ground area
Wherever you are in Portslade, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
The local picture in Portslade
Official figures for Portslade, for context rather than as a description of you.
recorded depression on GP registers stood at 14.1% of patients aged 18+ in 2024/25, below the England average of 14.3%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Depression: QOF prevalence (2024/25).
the rate of emergency hospital admissions for self-harm was 161.8 per 100,000 in 2023/24, above the England average of 117 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Emergency Hospital Admissions for Intentional Self-Harm (2023/24).
26.7% of adults reported a high anxiety score in 2022/23, above the England average of 23.8%. Source: OHID Fingertips – Self-reported wellbeing: high anxiety score (2022/23).
Reviewed June 2026.
What does psychotherapy involve?
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.
The method travels; only the geography changes. the main psychotherapy page explains it properly, how I work, sessions and fees answers the practical questions, and professional standards and registration shows how the practice is held to account.
How do sessions work, in person or online?
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.
A weekly hour held over months is what this work runs on, and being ten minutes from Hove makes that far easier to sustain. Most people keep the same slot, in person, and let the short trip back along the coast road serve as decompression. Secure video is used for the weeks when illness, a changed shift or half term would otherwise mean cancelling, so the sequence keeps going rather than restarting.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
What sort of things do people bring?
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 Portslade
Why people in Portslade come for psychotherapy
This is a longer and more searching piece of work than short-term counselling, and it suits people who have already done something briefer. If you have had six or twelve sessions before, felt better, and then watched the same thing reassemble a year later, that is the usual entry point. Instead of managing symptoms, the attention goes to how you came to expect what you expect: from partners, from employers, from yourself. Attachment, early relationships, shame and self-worth are the material, and they do not yield quickly. Expect months rather than weeks, sessions that end mid-thought, and stretches where nothing appears to be happening followed by something considerable. It is not for everyone and it is not the fastest route to relief. Emergency hospital admissions for self-harm reached 161.8 per 100,000 in 2023/24, against 117 across England. Where free NHS support is wanted alongside, the Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service takes self-referrals, and Mind in Brighton and Hove has peer support in the city.
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 callFinding support in Portslade
My counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Portslade, 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.
Portslade questions
Psychotherapy in Portslade: common questions
Where do Portslade sessions take place, and can I meet online instead?
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. Portslade is a short hop east along New Church Road or the coast road, around ten minutes by car or bus, or two stops on the train to Hove. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Portslade or blend the two.
How is this different from what you call counselling and therapy?
That work stays with the present and finishes in months. This goes back to where the pattern was formed and runs for a year or more. Neither is superior. They are aimed at different things, and starting with the shorter one is often the sensible order.
Everyone in my family is like this. Does that mean it cannot change?
Inherited patterns are learned, not fixed. Seeing clearly how something was passed down is the beginning of not passing it on further. It rarely changes fast, because it was built early, but it does move once you can recognise it while it is happening.
What happens to the fee over a long period?
It holds steady. Weekly hours are £80 / 60 min, and longer sessions at £100 / 90 min or £120 / 120 min are available when needed. Fees are reviewed openly rather than changed without notice, and you are never asked to pay for a block in advance.
Can the Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service do long-term therapy?
Generally not. Its courses are short and structured, built around anxiety and depression, and they help many people. Work that goes back into childhood and stays open-ended is outside what an NHS Talking Therapies service is set up to deliver, so it tends to happen privately.
I work down by Shoreham Harbour and finish late. Is an evening slot possible?
Late-afternoon and early-evening appointments exist and, given how short the trip into Hove is from that end of town, they are often the easiest to keep. If a job overruns, moving that week's session online means the work is not interrupted.
Portslade is close by, does that make regular psychotherapy easier?
It does. Deeper work benefits from a steady rhythm, and being only around ten minutes east of Hove, or a couple of train stops, makes weekly sessions simple to sustain. When travel does not suit on a given week, online video keeps the work moving.
How do I start regular psychotherapy, and how do I reach Hove from Portslade?
We begin with a free fifteen-minute call to see if deeper, ongoing work suits you, then set a weekly time. Being just west of Hove, Portslade makes this easy: a couple of stops by train or a ten-minute bus along New Church Road to Western Road.
What does ongoing psychotherapy cost, and would the NHS fund it in Portslade?
Each session is £80 for sixty minutes, with £100 and £120 options for longer work, after a free consultation. The NHS rarely funds open-ended depth work, favouring brief courses, so Portslade clients seeking sustained psychotherapy with a consistent therapist usually choose private sessions nearby.
For weekly psychotherapy, can I switch between in person and online from Portslade, and are evenings possible?
Yes. The short trip east means many Portslade clients keep a steady weekly slot in the Hove room, turning to secure video when work or family makes coming in hard, without losing the thread. Evening appointments help protect that continuity around a busy schedule.
Psychotherapy in Portslade, 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: Hove, Southwick, Hangleton. See all areas I cover.
People who come for psychotherapy in Portslade often also look at 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.