Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Substance Use Counselling · Preston Park
Substance Use Counselling for Preston Park and the surrounding area, in person or online. Preston Park, named after the city's largest park, is a leafy and well-connected district north of central Brighton. From my room in nearby Hove I offer a calm, confidential space to do this work.

In and around Preston Park
Life in Preston Park
Cocaine has a settled place in professional life around here, and it is mostly invisible. A dinner in town, a Friday that runs on, a habit that belongs to a social circle rather than to a person, so nobody in it feels responsible for noticing. Elsewhere in Stanford and Withdean the picture is different: cannabis every night to switch a working brain off, or prescription tablets that were meant to be short-term and were never reviewed. The park below is full of runners at seven in the morning, and some of them were up at three. Nothing about the outward life gives it away, which is why it can run for years unexamined.
Areas covered
Wherever you are in Preston Park, the work is the same, a calm, confidential space shaped around you.
The local picture
Official figures for Preston Park, for context rather than as a description of you.
7.6 adults per 1,000 were in treatment at specialist drug-misuse services in 2020/21, above the England average of 4.5 per 1,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Adults in treatment at specialist drug misuse services (2020/21).
the rate of deaths from drug misuse was 11.1 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, above the England average of 5.8 per 100,000. Source: OHID Fingertips – Deaths from drug misuse (2022 - 24).
Reviewed June 2026.
Substance use counselling here is non-judgemental and one-to-one, working with the pain, fear or loneliness the substance has been managing, at a pace that protects your sense of safety.
Because the work itself is the same wherever you live, the detail sits in one place rather than all of them: the full substance use counselling page sets out the methods, session lengths and fees covers the practicalities, and qualifications, registration and ethics covers accountability.
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.
It is a ten-minute journey down to the Hove room, or a couple of stops on the train, which keeps a weekly appointment from becoming a logistical exercise. In-person suits people who want the hour clearly separated from the house they live in. Where privacy at home is good and time is short, secure video does the same job, and moving between the two is straightforward.
Book a free 15-minute callWhat I help with
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Letting go of the protective self that no longer serves you.
One-to-one sessions shaped entirely around you.
Rediscovering the authentic self beneath the coping.
Treating what the substance has been masking.
Growing into recovery rather than forcing it.
Substance Use Counselling in Preston Park
There is no requirement to have stopped, be stopping, or want to stop by a particular date. Ambivalence is normal and it is workable material, not a disqualification. What tends to be most useful is separating the drug from the story around it, because in a social circle where use is ordinary it can be hard to see your own pattern at all. So we look at yours specifically: frequency, spend, sleep, mood the following days, and what the substance is actually being asked to solve. Some people find it is managing pressure, some find it is managing loneliness inside a very full life. Advice on reducing or coming off is not part of this and belongs with medical services. Drug misuse deaths in the city ran at 11.1 per 100,000 in 2022 - 24, well above the England rate of 5.8. The NHS find a service directory is the way to find them, and the Sussex Mental Healthline is available at any hour.
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. You can find your nearest free NHS-funded drug and alcohol service via the NHS “find a service” directory (search “Preston Park”).
For confidential information and advice, FRANK (on 0300 123 6600) and Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 are free, and Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery run peer-support meetings you can find online.
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.
If you drink heavily or use drugs daily, do not stop suddenly on your own. Withdrawal can cause seizures and can be dangerous. Speak to your GP or a local drug and alcohol service first, and they can arrange a safe, medically supported withdrawal. Counselling works alongside that, not instead of it.
Preston Park questions
In a private room at Intergen House on Western Road in central Hove. Preston Park is around ten minutes from the office by car or a short train ride to Hove, with Preston Park Station close by. Every service is also available by secure video across the UK, so you can meet from any private space in Preston Park or blend the two.
By looking at your own week rather than at the group. The questions that matter are how often it happens now compared with a year ago, what it costs you across the following days, and whether you have tried to change it without saying so to anyone.
Sessions are paid individually. An hour is £80, 90 minutes is £100, and two hours is £120 where a longer stretch would help. The initial 15-minute consultation is free, and it is used to work out whether this is the right kind of help for you.
No. This is private work, held outside the NHS, and there is no note on your medical record and nothing reported to anyone you work for. The only limit is the standard BACP one around serious risk to life, which would be discussed with you.
You can, and people do it from a home office or a booked meeting room. It needs a door that closes and headphones. If neither is reliable where you are, the short trip to Hove buys an hour where nobody can walk in on the conversation.
Social use is still worth understanding, particularly when it is proving hard to change despite you wanting to. What often emerges is that the drug is carrying something in those settings, and once that is visible, the choices in them stop feeling automatic.
Functioning well and struggling privately often go together. If the substance has become something you rely on to keep going, it is worth talking through, confidentially and without judgement, at your pace.
Yes, it is one of the easiest routes. Regular trains reach Hove in a few minutes, leaving a short walk or bus to Western Road, and buses down Ditchling Road and London Road work too. Start with a free fifteen-minute call on 07914 681995 or online.
Both. Pavilions offers free NHS-commissioned substance support across Brighton and Hove with self-referral. Privately, fees are £80 for sixty minutes, £100 for ninety and £120 for two hours after a free call, and the two approaches can run side by side.
Yes. With a quick train to Hove, coming in is simple, and evening appointments ease the fit around a busy life. Secure video is equally available if you prefer home, and you can move between in-person and online 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: Brighton, Patcham, Hove. See all areas I cover.
If substance use counselling is not quite what you are looking for, addiction counselling, counselling for drinking problems and anxiety counselling may fit better in Preston Park.
You may also find it useful to read about calming a craving as it rises and once an addict, always an addict?.
Prefer to meet remotely? The same substance use counselling is available online by secure video across the UK, or see online counselling by region.