Salisbury · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Salisbury
Psychotherapy suits you if the same difficulty keeps returning however hard you try, whether it is a kind of relationship, a way of shutting down when people get close, or a feeling you have carried since childhood. This is longer, deeper work. Because my room is in Hove, about 111 minutes from Salisbury, our weekly hour takes place over secure video, with one therapist throughout, from your own home.
The practical facts for Salisbury
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Salisbury by car
- About 111 minutes with clear roads (84.6 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Wiltshire Talking Therapies, 01380 715150
- 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.
Old stone, long memories and a small city
Salisbury began up on the hill at Old Sarum, and much of the city still carries a sense of continuity: the Cathedral Close, the charter market on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the same faces at the Playhouse.
With a population of 41,820, it is big enough to feel anonymous on a busy day and small enough that you may meet your GP, your manager or an ex near the Poultry Cross. That can make it hard to talk openly to anyone local. Some of the city's largest employers, Salisbury District Hospital and Dstl at Porton Down among them, sit alongside the military communities near Salisbury Plain, and work built around serving others can teach you to put your own needs last for years. Patterns learned early, such as staying strong, keeping quiet or looking after everyone else, tend to outlast the situations that created them. Psychotherapy is a place to look at them slowly.
Months of attention to one stubborn knot
Psychotherapy with me is open-ended rather than fixed at a set number of sessions. In the early weeks we trace where a recurring pattern shows up, at work, with partners or with your family, and what it may have protected you from. Over the following months we keep returning to it as it appears in your life, and sometimes as it appears between the two of us on screen. That can stir grief, anger or shame that has been held down for a long time, so we move at a pace you choose and pause to steady things whenever you need. I am a BACP-registered counsellor and psychotherapist and a student member of UKCP, and I draw on several approaches, including Internal Family Systems, which the how I work page describes. Longer work can run for some months or beyond a year. We review it together at regular points, and you decide when you have what you came for.
Patterns that can take root in Salisbury lives
Always the one who copes
Years spent caring for others on a ward at Salisbury District Hospital, or for an ageing parent, can leave you attuned to everyone's needs except your own.
Service and silence
Growing up in a military family near Salisbury Plain, or serving yourself, can teach you to keep feelings private long after that stops being useful.
Known by everyone
In a city of 41,820 where faces recur, video lets you do deep work with someone well outside your circle, from a private room at home.
A Sarum College or Cathedral Close tie
If faith or the life of the Close has shaped you, deeper work can make room for what belief means to you, including doubts you have never voiced.
Public health figures for the area
These are local authority figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. The figures describe a whole population over a period, not any one person.
Free and low-cost support for Salisbury
Longer private work can sit alongside free help in Salisbury. Anyone feeling anxious or low can contact NHS Wiltshire Talking Therapies directly, without going through a GP. Elizabeth House Social Centre on Nelson Road offers creative day activities for people recovering from mental illness, Wiltshire Mind supports adults across the county, and Riverside Sanctuary, run by ALABARÉ on Watt Road, is a free walk-in space every evening.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Wiltshire Talking Therapies01380 715150Free 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 itConnect Wiltshire0300 555 0157Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSamaritans of Salisbury and District
- Local organisationSalisbury Hospice bereavement support service
- Local organisationSalisbury District Hospital Bereavement Team
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.
Local drop-in crisis support: Riverside Sanctuary, Place of Calm (ALABARÉ) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Salisbury ask before starting
How long does psychotherapy last if I'm in Salisbury and meeting by video?
Psychotherapy with me has no set course length or cap on sessions. Longer work might run for several months or for more than a year, at the same time each week on secure video. We review how things are going every so often, and you decide when to finish. Ending is planned together, so it can feel like a considered close rather than a sudden stop.
Is there NHS therapy in Wiltshire I could use as well?
For worry or low mood, NHS Wiltshire Talking Therapies is free, and its self-referral line is 01380 715150. Questions about wider NHS mental health care, or medication, are for your GP, whose care can continue while we meet. Private psychotherapy with me can begin soon after a first call and continue for as long as it is useful, alongside NHS help if you have it.
Can I have psychotherapy face to face near Salisbury?
My only room is in Hove, close to two hours by car from Salisbury and with no direct train, so face-to-face work means a long trip. For longer psychotherapy, weekly sessions by secure video are the sustainable choice from Salisbury. Now and again, a session in person at Intergen House can be arranged ahead of time.
What do BACP and UKCP student membership mean for psychotherapy with you?
My registration is with BACP; with UKCP I hold student membership, a separate status from appearing on its register. Behind that stand more than 25 years of practising, and recovery I have been through personally. Should a fully UKCP-registered psychotherapist be what you're after, it's better to know that now, and the free 15-minute call is a good moment to raise it.
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 longer work from Salisbury
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.