Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Ballymena
Online substance use counselling for Ballymena, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Ballymena — from the town centre and the Braid to the streets around the town clock — with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.
In and around Ballymena
Life in Ballymena
Ballymena is a County Antrim market town that has felt the loss of major manufacturing employers keenly in recent years. Insecure work, money pressure and the distance from Belfast all shape what people here carry, often behind a quiet, get-on-with-it culture.
In a close-knit town where people tend to know one another, online keeps support entirely private, with nobody to pass in a waiting room.
Ballymena is the main town of the Mid and East Antrim borough and home to bus manufacturer Wrightbus; the town has felt the loss of major manufacturing employers including Michelin and JTI Gallaher. It is served by the Northern HSC Trust.
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.
The approach is the same wherever you live, so rather than repeat it on every page you can read it in full — the methods, what each session covers and fees — on the main substance use counselling page and on how I work.
Sessions run over a secure, encrypted video link held to the same strict BACP confidentiality as meeting in person. After a free fifteen-minute call to check we are a good fit, you join each session from any private space using a phone, tablet or laptop — no software to install, no waiting room and no journey at either end.
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.
My online counselling sits alongside the help available locally. In Ballymena, your GP can refer you to local NHS-funded drug and alcohol services, and you can find your nearest one via the NHS “find a service” directory.
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 Lifeline free on 0808 808 8000. Lifeline is free on 0808 808 8000, and the Samaritans are on 116 123.
Ballymena questions
Yes. I work with people right across Ballymena, from the town centre and the Braid outwards, and anywhere else in Northern Ireland, by secure video — no need to travel to Hove, and just as confidential as meeting in the room.
Yes. This is non-judgemental, one-to-one work that meets you where you are, and it can run alongside any medical or detox support you have.
It is individual and shaped entirely around you. Some people use it instead of groups, others alongside them.
No. What you share is confidential within the BACP framework; nothing goes to anyone else without your consent.
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 online across Northern Ireland: Newtownabbey, Belfast. See all of Northern Ireland.
Other online support from Ballymena: Addiction, Drinking, Anxiety, Depression, Relationship, Trauma.