Communication and conflict
Breaking the cycle of the same argument.
Relationship Counselling · Saltdean
Relationship Counselling for Saltdean and the surrounding area, in person or online. Saltdean, known for its restored Art Deco Lido and clifftop coast, sits east along the seafront. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In and around Saltdean
Life in Saltdean
Saltdean climbs away from the sea in valleys, with avenues like Longridge and Chichester Drive rising from the coast road towards the top of the hill. It is a settled, unshowy place, and the restored Lido is proof that people here will put years into repairing something they refuse to give up on. Couples arrive with the opposite experience. Something happened, or a great many small things did, and every attempt to talk about it collapses into the same argument within four minutes. Trust has gone thin. Neither of you knows how to start a repair that does not immediately become a rerun of the last one. Recorded depression among adults on GP registers stood at 14.1% in 2024/25, a little under the England average of 14.3%.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Saltdean, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Saltdean, for context rather than as a description of you.
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).
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).
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.
Relationship counselling here, for couples or individuals, slows down the pattern you are caught in and builds healthier ways of hearing and being heard.
What actually happens in the room is the same everywhere, so it is written up once: see the full relationship counselling page for the methods, session lengths and fees for fees and session lengths, and professional standards and registration if you want to check who you would be working with.
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.
The room is in Hove, twenty to twenty-five minutes west along the coast road through the cliff villages and Brighton. You can attend together or separately, and there is no requirement to bring a partner at all. A late-afternoon slot avoids the worst of the summer traffic along the seafront. Where one of you is away, unwell or simply not ready to travel, that week's session can run online by secure video instead.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
Breaking the cycle of the same argument.
Rebuilding safety after betrayal or addiction.
Finding your way back to closeness.
Sessions you can join from different places.
Working with people-pleasing and the need for control.
You do not need to come as a couple to change the dynamic.
Relationship Counselling in Saltdean
Repair is the honest word for most of this work. Not going back to how it was, which is rarely possible, but building something that can hold what happened. Sessions look closely at how the two of you handle rupture: who raises it, who deflects, what each of you does with the fear underneath the anger, and how an apology gets refused without either of you meaning to refuse it. Where trust has been broken, the pace matters enormously and cannot be rushed to suit the person who wants it over with. You are welcome to come as a couple, and you are equally welcome to come by yourself when your partner will not, or when you need to work out what you can live with. If drinking or a stubborn low mood is tangled into it, that belongs in the room too. The Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service takes free self-referrals for individual support.
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 callMy counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Saltdean, 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:
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.
Saltdean questions
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. From Saltdean the coast road brings you west through Rottingdean and Brighton to the Hove office in around twenty to twenty-five minutes. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Saltdean or blend the two.
Sometimes, and not always. Honest work promises no particular outcome, and part of it is finding out what is actually possible for the two of you. What can usually be built is clarity: what happened, what it means, and whether both of you want the same thing next.
A great deal. You can examine your own responses, what you tolerate, what you need and how you ask for it. Relationships shift when one person stops running their half of the pattern. Whether your partner ever attends is not the deciding factor.
Twenty to twenty-five minutes along the coast in normal conditions, longer on a hot weekend when the seafront is busy. There is parking near the room in Hove. Booking outside the middle of the day usually makes the drive west considerably easier.
Most choose the ninety, at £100 / 90 min, because an hour rarely gives two people enough room. The shorter option is £80 / 60 min and the longest is £120 / 120 min. Ask whatever you need to in the free 15-minute consultation first.
The Brighton and Hove Wellbeing Service accepts self-referrals without a GP and charges nothing, though it is oriented to individual anxiety and depression rather than couples. Many people find it useful for their own state of mind while the relationship work is done separately.
The coast road west through Rottingdean and Brighton to Hove takes around twenty to twenty-five minutes by car, and the 12 bus along the seafront runs towards Brighton with a change for Hove. Given the distance, some Saltdean couples prefer online video sessions from home.
Start with a free fifteen-minute call, then come over for your session. From Saltdean the coast road runs west through Rottingdean and Brighton to Hove, around twenty to twenty-five minutes by car, with the 12 bus along the seafront towards Brighton and a change for Hove.
Sessions are £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours, after a free fifteen-minute consultation. The NHS rarely funds couples work, so most Saltdean clients choose private sessions, and given the distance many find meeting online the simpler option.
Yes. Couples can come to the Hove room or share a secure video call from the clifftop at home, which many Saltdean clients prefer given the coast-road journey. Individuals are welcome alone. Evening slots are available, and you can mix the drive in with online sessions week to week.
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: Rottingdean, Peacehaven, Woodingdean. See all areas I cover.
Also available in Saltdean: counselling and therapy, trauma counselling and addiction counselling.
There is more on this in my writing: the Imago dialogue for couples.
Prefer to meet remotely? The same relationship counselling is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.