Counselling for Addiction Recovery
What addiction was doing for you
Addiction rarely comes out of nowhere, and a lot of people who come to see me about it are already carrying more shame than is doing them any good. We park that shame and search for adaptive reasons for their addiction with kindness.
For most people it started as a way of coping: regulating a nervous system that had been overwhelmed for a long time, numbing pain that had no other outlet, or managing feelings that felt too big to sit with alone.
Recovery tends to begin when we stop waging war against your addiction and start paying attention to what it was actually doing for you.
Why stopping isn't the same as recovering
Abstinence can bring an enormous sense of achievement, but it can also uncover things that addiction used to keep at a distance. As the initial chaos settles, you may find yourself facing anxiety, low mood, grief, shame, difficult relationships, or a question of who you are without the substance or behaviour.
That gap, between putting something down and actually feeling different, is where a lot of my work with addiction recovery happens.
Addiction recovery counselling offers a private space to make sense of what's coming up and work towards a life that feels more stable, connected and genuinely yours.
How I work with addiction recovery
If drinking, drugs or other habits have been doing the job of blocking things out, that's worth exploring without judgement.
I'm a Practitioner Member of Addiction Professionals as well as the BACP, and most of my addiction work sits in the rebuilding phase, relapse prevention and stabilising a recovery that still feels shaky.
My approach is relational rather than programme-based: person-centred and psychodynamic work as a base, alongside elements of DBT, ACT or Internal Family Systems as they fit.
Read more about my approach to therapy: About my practice
In-person and online therapy sessions
I see adults recovering from various types of addiction individually, in person in Brighton and Hove, or online anywhere in the UK and beyond.
I offer a free 15-minute consultation, so we can talk through what's brought you here and how I could help before you commit to anything.
Common questions about Addiction Recovery Counselling
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Your initial session is a calm space focused entirely on understanding your current situation and what you hope to achieve.
We will explore your current relationship with the substance or behaviour, discuss any safety considerations, and talk through how therapy works.
You don’t need to have everything figured out before attending, nor will you be pressured into making immediate, overwhelming life changes.
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Generally, yes. My focus is the rebuilding phase after someone has stopped, including relapse prevention and stabilising early recovery. If you're still in the stopping phase or need medical detox, I can help you find someone better placed to support that first, and this work can start once you're ready for it.
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Not quite. Recovery coaching tends to focus on practical goals, accountability and maintaining day-to-day sobriety. Counselling makes more room for the emotions, relationships, past experiences and deeper patterns that affect how you feel and cope.
Some people find the two useful alongside each other rather than as alternatives.
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Relapse prevention therapy looks at the specific situations, feelings, and thought patterns that put your recovery at risk, and builds a plan for handling them before they turn into a lapse. It also addresses the underlying reasons the addiction developed, since sobriety tends to hold better once those are worked through rather than just managed day to day.
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Group support and individual therapy tend to work well alongside each other rather than in competition. A group gives you community, structure, and shared experience. Individual counselling gives you private space to work through deeper psychological and relational patterns behind your addiction, at whatever pace suits you.
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Yes, provided it's approached carefully and at a pace that actually fits you. Trauma-informed work starts with safety, trust and enough emotional stability to make it safe to look at anything difficult. You won't be asked to revisit painful experiences before you're ready. Sometimes the first stage is just learning to notice overwhelm and feel more grounded in the present, and the rest follows from there.
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Yes. Sessions run online as well as in person in Brighton and Hove, and many clients find online sessions easier to fit around work, caring responsibilities, or simply not wanting to travel while things still feel fragile.
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Yes. Confidentiality is a cornerstone of professional therapy, and what you share in session stays private, protected by the BACP's ethical framework. There are a small number of legal or safety exceptions, such as an immediate risk of serious harm to yourself or someone else, and these are always explained clearly in our first meeting.
