Addiction

What is Addiction?

Addiction is a complex condition that affects both the brain and behavior, making it difficult for individuals to control their actions despite harmful consequences. Substance abuse, gambling, and even behaviors like shopping can evolve into addiction.

The Role of Therapy in Addiction Recovery

Counselling plays a vital role in addiction recovery by helping individuals understand the root causes of their addictive behavior, as well as providing tools for managing cravings, avoiding triggers, and building a healthier lifestyle.

Identifying Underlying Issues

Many individuals struggling with addiction also face underlying issues such as trauma, anxiety, depression, or stress. Therapy allows individuals to explore these factors and learn how to manage them in healthier ways.

Types of Therapy for Addiction

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing, and group therapy are just a few of the approaches that can help individuals recover from addiction. Each method provides different tools and insights to aid in the recovery journey.

Creating a Relapse Prevention Plan

Counselling also focuses on relapse prevention by helping individuals create long-term strategies for maintaining sobriety, handling triggers, and building a supportive network of people who encourage positive behavior changes.

  • Understanding addiction triggers
  • Developing coping mechanisms
  • Building a support network
  • Maintaining long-term recovery
Find Addiction therapists in Brighton & Hove

Therapists who can help with addiction

All therapists listed are verified and based in Brighton & Hove.

Alan Sparkes Hove

Alan Sparkes

Psychotherapist & Counsellor

An integrative psychotherapist with 20 years’ experience, working with shame and relational trauma, and with people who’ve had therapy before but found it didn’t reach the root of things.I often work with men who've spent years holding it together, and with women living with the effects of early or relational trauma. What brings people is usually anxiety or depression, but underneath there's something that has been there a long time: a harsh inner voice, a sense of never being quite good enough, relationship patterns that keep repeating, or simply not knowing why you feel the way you do.I don't do psychic amputation. You can't cut off the parts of yourself you don't like, or that cause you pain, without running into more problems. Therapy can help those parts be understood and integrated, so you can live more fully.I'm not a therapist who just nods and asks how that makes you feel. I'll tell you what I notice, and when it helps, I'll gently challenge you, always with care. I also work with couples, helping each partner understand what keeps happening between them.I am a UKCP-registered psychotherapist. I built and ran a multi-room therapy practice in Hove, lead peer groups for practitioners, founded Brighton Counselling Directory, and also counsel with the Terrence Higgins Trust in Brighton. Qualified therapists are welcome as clients.

BACPRegisteredUKCPAccredited
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Sharon Twomey Brighton

Sharon Twomey

Psychotherapeutic counsellor

I’m Sharon, a qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor offering short and long term therapy across Brighton and Hove both in person and online. My work is trauma-informed and rooted in compassion, supporting adults facing challenges such as anxiety, depression, grief, addiction, stress, and relational difficulties.My approach is deeply empathic and nurturing, blending warmth with thoughtful challenge. I offer a confidential space where you can feel held with care as you reflect, engage with difficult emotions, and begin the journey toward meaningful and lasting change.

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Andy Wolage Brighton

Andy Wolage

Therapeutic Counsellor

Sometimes life is really hard. Everything feels like too much. We can get overwhelmed with guilt for not coping, shame for having failed in the past and sometimes we can end up not really liking ourselves very much. We might self medicate with substances or other behaviours which we know don't really help, but they seem better than nothing. But they just perpetuate the cycle. I can offer you a safe, non-judgemental and confidential space to organise and reframe those overwhelming feelings and see the wood for the trees. I can help you understand yourself better and to begin to look in the mirror and like what you see. 

BACPRegisteredNCPSAccredited
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Joanna Miller Brighton

Joanna Miller

Integrative Psychotherapist

I’m an accredited psychotherapist with 15 years experience.I believe that the counselling relationship should be a creative space for both parties. It should feel comfortable and open enough to be free from anxiety and pressure in which new perspectives can emerge. In my view most mental activity takes place below the level of conscious awareness and my role is to help people gain access to it and insights from it.As an accredited therapist I am affiliated with several private healthcare companies including BUPA and AXA. I have an up-to-date DBS certificate which is registered on the update service. As well as working with individual adults, including trainee therapists, I have many years' experience working with children, couples and families. I have been a university counsellor so have a lot of experience working with students and young people and have also worked in secondary schools.  

BACPAccredited
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Joana Miranda Brighton

Joana Miranda

Psychotherapeutic Counsellor

I am a qualified counsellor offering online and face to face sessions in Brighton (Kemptown), with an interest in supporting women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. My personal experiences of stress and anxiety have given me an understanding of how incapacitating it can be when life feels overwhelming, your mind won't shut up, and you find yourself putting pressure on yourself to stay afloat. Alongside my professional training, these experiences have shaped my warm and non-judgemental approach to counselling. I believe that having a space where you can be truly heard, without judgement or expectations, can make a difference. Whether you are struggling with anxiety or stress, feeling indecisive, lacking self confidence, navigating relationships or simply feeling that something fundamental needs to change, counselling can give you an opportunity to press pause and come home to yourself. I have a particular interest in mindfulness and meditation, and in how these practices can support greater awareness, calm and connection in everyday life. These interests naturally form part of my approach, alongside my counselling training and experience.

NCPSAccredited
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Discover valuable information on common mental health issues, and how counseling can help.

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