The person you would be sitting with
About Carley Compaan
Addiction counsellor and ACT therapist, working from a private room in Borough Green.
How I work
I am Carley Compaan. I trained as an addiction counsellor and in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and those two things are not a coincidence — ACT was developed in large part on exactly the problem addiction presents: what do you do when the thing that makes you feel better in the next ten minutes is the thing wrecking the next ten years?
In practice I am fairly direct. I will not nod along while you talk yourself into something. I will ask what the drinking, the betting or the scrolling is actually doing for you, because it is doing something — nobody keeps up a habit that costs this much for no return at all. And I will ask what you want your life to look like, which is usually a harder question than it sounds.
What you will not get from me is judgement, or a lecture, or a script. You have almost certainly given yourself all of those already.
Training and accreditation
You are entitled to check any of this. ACCPH keeps a public register you can search by name — and you should feel free to, with me or with anyone else you are considering.
At a glance
- Addiction counsellor and ACT therapist
- ACCPH registered
- In person in Borough Green, or online
- Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, 9am to 5pm
- £70 per 50-minute session
What I do not do
Being clear about this saves everyone time.
- I do not prescribe or manage medication — that is your GP or a psychiatrist.
- I do not provide medically supervised detox. If you are physically dependent on alcohol or benzodiazepines, stopping suddenly can be dangerous; speak to your GP first and we will work alongside that.
- I do not work with under-18s.
- I do not provide emergency or crisis cover. If you are in crisis, the numbers at the bottom of every page on this site are the right place to start.
- I do not write court reports or take court-mandated referrals.
Common questions
Will you tell my GP?
Not without your agreement. Some people want their GP kept in the loop, particularly where medication is involved, and that can be arranged. It is your call.
Do you work with people who are still drinking or using?
Yes. Waiting until you have already stopped before starting therapy is backwards for most people — the therapy is often what makes stopping possible. The exception is physical dependence on alcohol or benzodiazepines, where medical advice comes first.
What if I have had therapy before and it did not help?
Very common, and worth talking about early. Often the previous work was a reasonable approach applied to the wrong target, or it stopped just as it got useful. Tell me what happened and we will do something different rather than repeating it.
Talk it through first
The first step is a short phone call. No commitment, no pressure — just a conversation about what is going on and whether I am the right person to help.
Free 15-minute call · Confidential · Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, 9am to 5pm