Southampton · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Psychotherapy for Southampton
If the same difficulties keep returning in your life in Southampton, whether in love, with colleagues or in your own self-worth, psychotherapy offers longer, deeper work on where they come from. I practise from one room in Hove, 86 minutes away by car, so from Southampton a longer piece of work would mostly happen over secure video.
The practical facts for Southampton
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Southampton by car
- About 86 minutes with clear roads (61.2 miles); longer at busy times.
- By train
- Direct trains from Southampton Central to Hove.
- Free NHS talking therapy
- NHS Talking Therapies Southampton, 0800 612 7000
- 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.
Patterns that outlast a move or a new contract
Southampton is a city people arrive in. Around 40,000 students come to its two universities, and the port, the hospital trust, Ordnance Survey and Carnival UK all draw people from elsewhere for work. A move can feel like a fresh start, and for a while it is. Then, a year or two into a new job or a new relationship in Shirley or Woolston, something familiar comes back: the same sense of not being good enough, the same pull towards people who let you down, the same flatness when things ought to feel fine. In a busy city of 248,922 people it's easy to keep moving and never stop to look at that. Psychotherapy is a chance to stop. The aim is to understand a pattern that has followed you here, and probably into the last place too, rather than to patch up one crisis.
Slow, steady depth work with a Southampton postcode
Psychotherapy usually runs over months rather than weeks, with sessions at the same time each week so there's a steady thread to pick up. We look at how you learned to cope, often early in life, and how those ways of coping still shape what happens now, in arguments, at work, in the moments you go quiet or lash out. The integrative approach I use draws on Internal Family Systems among other methods, which can help with the parts of you that seem to pull in opposite directions. Progress is rarely a straight line. Some weeks bring insight, others feel stuck, and both belong to the work. Over time you may notice the pattern sooner and find you have more choice about what to do next. My background is BACP registration as a counsellor, UKCP student membership while psychotherapy training continues, upwards of 25 years seeing people, and a personal history of recovery. Before you commit, I'll set out plainly what a longer stretch of work asks of you. If a shorter, focused piece of counselling would suit you better, I'll say so.
What longer work from Southampton can address
A fresh start that wasn't
You moved to Southampton for the port, the hospital or a university post, and the old feelings arrived with you a year or so later.
Caring roles that never switch off
If your work at Southampton General Hospital is about looking after others, you may find you do the same at home and keep nothing back for yourself.
Student patterns that persist
Something that began during your years at the University of Southampton or Solent University, perhaps a dread of being judged, may still be shaping your working life.
Support between sessions
Solent Mind and The Lighthouse drop-ins in Shirley and Bitterne offer free support in the city, which can steady you during a long piece of work.
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 Southampton
Longer psychotherapy with me can sit alongside free help in Southampton. NHS Talking Therapies Southampton gives briefer, structured help with anxiety or low mood, on 0800 612 7000 without a GP letter. Solent Mind works across the city, and The Lighthouse drop-ins on Shirley Road and Bitterne Road give adults out-of-hours support in the evenings.
- Free NHS talking therapyNHS Talking Therapies Southampton0800 612 7000Free 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 itSSJ&IRun by The Society of St James, in partnership with Inclusion. Free and confidential.
- Local organisationSamaritans Southampton and District
- Local organisationMountbatten Hampshire counselling and bereavement support
- Local organisationThe White Lily CentreBereavement support centre in Bitterne, low-cost or fee-paying.
- Local organisationCaraway
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: Safe Haven Southampton (No Limits, young people 11-25) (check opening times before you go).
What people in Southampton ask before starting
Can I have psychotherapy in Southampton face to face?
Intergen House in Hove holds my one counselling room, 86 minutes by car from Southampton or a direct Southern train via Worthing. For weekly work over many months that travel is hard to sustain, so sessions from Southampton are usually on secure video. Should you like to sit in the room for a first session, or when the work reaches a turning point, an occasional trip to Hove on that direct train can be arranged.
How long would psychotherapy take if I start from Southampton?
There's no fixed length. Longer work often runs for several months or more, and we review together how it's going at regular points, so you're never locked in. You can stop whenever you choose. If a few focused sessions would meet your needs better, I'll tell you so during our first call.
Can I get psychotherapy free through the NHS in Southampton?
Self-referral for anxiety or low mood goes to NHS Talking Therapies Southampton, once called Steps2Wellbeing, which sits within Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and usually offers shorter, structured courses of therapy. Private sessions with me are one way to do longer, deeper work, either alongside that NHS support or after it.
What does UKCP student membership mean for someone in Southampton?
I'm a UKCP student member, the membership for psychotherapists in training, and a counsellor registered with BACP, practising for 25 years and more. If registration matters to you, ask about it on our first call and I'll explain where I am in training and how that shapes longer work together from Southampton.
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.
Start with one unhurried call
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.