Drugs and substances
Confidential support for any kind of substance use.
Online Substance Use Counselling · Inverness
Online substance use counselling for Inverness, by secure video. From a base in Hove I work with people across Inverness — from the centre and the castle to the streets around the river Ness — with the same BACP-registered, confidential support as an in-person session, and no journey.
In and around Inverness
Life in Inverness
Inverness is the capital of the Highlands, a small city serving a vast and sparsely populated region where the nearest specialist can be hundreds of miles away. That remoteness, the long dark winters and the isolation of rural Highland life all shape what people here carry.
Across the rural Highlands the nearest counsellor can be hours away and the winters long and dark; online sessions bring experienced support to you wherever you are.
Inverness is the capital of the Highlands, serving NHS Highland from Raigmore Hospital, and is a hub of the University of the Highlands and Islands across a vast rural region.
The local picture
These figures are local context from official sources — not a description of you — but they show the scale of what people in and around Inverness are living with, and why local support matters.
the age-standardised drug-misuse death rate in the Highland council area averaged 14.6 per 100,000 over 2020-2024, well below the Scotland average of 22.5 Source: National Records of Scotland, Drug-related deaths in Scotland 2024 (Table C4) (2020-2024).
Local data last reviewed June 2026. Each figure shows the year and links to the official source it was read on.
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 Inverness, 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 NHS 24 on 111 for urgent mental health support. Breathing Space is free on 0800 83 85 87, and the Samaritans are on 116 123.
Inverness questions
Yes. I work with people right across Inverness, from the centre and the castle outwards, and anywhere else in Scotland, 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 Scotland: Aberdeen, Perth. See all of Scotland.
Other online support from Inverness: Addiction, Drinking, Anxiety, Depression, Relationship, Trauma.