Kensington · online by video, with the Hove room for occasional sessions
Couples therapy and relationship counselling for Kensington
When one row keeps resurfacing in your Kensington flat, or the two of you now talk only about logistics, couples counselling sets aside an hour each week to look at it side by side. Hove is 95 minutes away by road, so from Kensington we would meet by secure video, on one sofa or from two rooms, plus an occasional Hove session if wanted. Starting solo, while your partner decides, is fine too.
The practical facts for Kensington
- Where sessions happen
- A private room at Intergen House, 65-67 Western Road, Hove BN3 2JQ, or secure video.
- From Kensington by car
- About 95 minutes with clear roads (53.4 miles); longer at busy times.
- Free NHS talking therapy (for one of you)
- Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies, 020 3317 4200
- 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.
Long hours, small flats and family far away
In Kensington, a couple can share a small flat and still hardly see each other.
One of you may be on a newsroom rota at Northcliffe House while the other lectures or researches at Imperial College, so the hours you are both awake and at home can shrink to a late supper. Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, exhibitions at Olympia and a steady stream of visitors fill evenings and weekends with other people's plans. If your families live elsewhere, there may be nobody close by to take the heat out of things when they get tense. And in a borough where nearly a third of people over 65 live alone, one partner may become the person an older parent relies on, a duty that can quietly take over the relationship. None of this means something is wrong with you as a couple. It does mean the conversations you most need are easy to postpone, and a regular hour set aside for them can help.
Seeing the pattern rather than picking a side
In our sessions neither of you is the patient and neither is on trial. I listen to both accounts with the same care and help you notice the loop you keep falling into, which matters more than who started it. It might be one partner who presses for a conversation while the other goes quiet, a recurring fight about whose career comes first, or resentment about who carries the caring and the household. Sometimes drinking, gambling or drug use sits at the centre. Kensington and Chelsea recorded 793.0 alcohol-specific hospital admissions per 100,000 people in 2023/24, a rate above England's 611.7 per 100,000. That is a borough figure and says nothing about your home. If a partner's habit is the worry, free local services support the person affected, and our couples work can continue alongside them. Where just one partner wants to begin, solo sessions can explore your half of the dynamic. Joint work depends on both people feeling safe; if your partner frightens you, go to the safety section on this page before anything else.
What Kensington couples tend to bring
Opposite rotas, one flat
A newsroom shift off Kensington High Street against a lab or lecture timetable in South Kensington can leave you sharing a home but rarely an evening.
An ageing parent nearby
When one partner becomes the main support for a parent living alone in the borough, Carers Network can help the carer while we look at the strain it puts on the two of you.
When the worry is drink
Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea supports families and friends of someone drinking or using drugs, alongside any couples sessions you have with me.
Gambling or chemsex in the picture
Earl's Court is home to the NHS National Gambling Clinic, which has a Family and Friends service, and the Club Drug Clinic helps adults who want to change chemsex or club drug use.
If you are afraid of your partner
Couples counselling is not safe or suitable where one partner is afraid of the other. You can book the free call on your own. What you tell me on your own is not passed to your partner without your agreement, except where someone's safety is at serious risk; I explain those limits on the free call. In your message, tell me the safest way and time to contact you. Video sessions from a shared home are not private if you could be overheard or your devices are checked. If you are in immediate danger, call 999.
If there is violence, threats or controlling behaviour, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free, day or night, on 0808 2000 247. The Men's Advice Line is on 0808 801 0327. If you are worried about your own behaviour towards a partner, the Respect Phoneline is on 0808 802 4040 (Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm).
Free and low-cost support for Kensington
Each partner can also draw on free Kensington and Chelsea services while our couples work continues. Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies welcomes a self-referral from either of you when worry or a low mood is building. Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea and the CGL alcohol service both support families affected by drink or drugs, and the National Gambling Clinic offers a Family and Friends service for anyone affected by a partner's gambling.
- Free NHS talking therapy (for one of you)Kensington and Chelsea Talking Therapies020 3317 4200Free 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 itTurning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (Drug and Alcohol Wellbeing Service)0330 303 8080Free and confidential.
- Local organisationWest London Mind: Mind Within counselling (low-cost)Mental health charity.
- Local organisationCarers Network
- Local organisationCentral London Samaritans
- Local organisationImperial College London Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service
Private counselling with me can run alongside any of these; you do not have to choose one or the other.
If you need urgent help now
If you need help right now, please don't wait for a session.
Locally, the CNWL Mental Health Single Point of Access crisis line, London boroughs) is on 0800 0234 650.
If you, or someone you live with, drink heavily every day, or take drugs such as benzodiazepines or GHB daily, do not stop suddenly without medical advice. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Your GP or the local drug and alcohol service can arrange medically assisted withdrawal. Call 999 or go to A&E if someone in withdrawal is shaking visibly, unusually restless or agitated, confused, seeing or hearing things that are not there, or has a fit. For milder symptoms, such as a slight tremor or sweating, contact your GP or NHS 111 the same day (NHS guidance). Counselling works alongside medical support, not instead of it.
What people in Kensington ask before starting
Could the two of us see you face to face rather than on a screen?
You can, though only in Hove: about 95 minutes from Kensington by car, or a Circle line trip to Victoria and then a Southern train. Making that run together every week rarely fits two London diaries, so the regular sessions happen on secure video, with a longer Hove meeting booked now and then if you both value it.
Can we still have a joint session when one of us is away or on a late shift?
Yes. Each of you logs in from somewhere private, perhaps one at home in Kensington and one in a hotel or office, and we share a single call. Headphones and a reliable signal make a difference. When a newsroom rota or a term timetable keeps shifting, we pick a fixed time that survives both schedules.
Is there free help in Kensington if my partner's drinking or gambling is affecting us?
Yes. Turning Point Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea has support for families and friends, on 0330 303 8080, and the National Gambling Clinic, at 69 Warwick Road in Earl's Court, runs a Family and Friends service for people affected by someone else's gambling. Those services support you directly, and couples counselling can continue alongside them as long as both of you feel safe.
My partner won't come. Is it worth coming to relationship counselling without them?
Often, yes, and the start is identical: a short free consultation, then a weekly slot I really have available. On your own we examine how you react as tension builds, what never gets said, and the kind of partnership you're hoping for. Change on one side frequently alters the whole pattern, and a partner may join later. Fear of your partner changes the advice: let the safety guidance on this page come first.
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.
One call, whether you come as two or as one
When you feel ready, a short conversation is the easiest way to see whether we are a good fit. There is no obligation.