Counselling and Psychotherapy in Oxford
Why do people come?
People want to find a counsellor or psychotherapist for many different reasons. Some want help with specific emotional problems such as depression, loneliness or anxiety or they may wish to generally feel more alive. Some may have difficulty coming to terms with a traumatic or painful personal history. Others may feel stuck in recurring patterns that prevent them from feeling fulfilled, from making rewarding relationships with others, or from finding meaning in their lives.
Sometimes people wish to find a counsellor or therapist for help during crisis, such as end of a relationship, bereavement, divorce, redundancy resulting in loss of direction.
What can you get?
- Talk things over in a safe and private environment
- Improve your personal and professional relationships
- Find release form emotional and painful symptoms
- Have more control and choice in your life
- Change old ways of coping that haven’t worked
- Gain deeper understanding of behaviours and feelings
- End self-destructive patterns of behaviour
- Resolve symptoms of trauma
- Feel more pleasure and vitality
My approach includes sensitive listening, open exploration, interactive engagement, respectful challenge and mutual participation in the process.
An example of counselling
Sometimes someone comes to see me who wants help with a specific problem. They have the chance to talk about it in detail, notice how they feel and think about it, receive support as through discussion and supportive listening they change their understanding and ideas about what has happened and leave with a new perspective, understanding and plans for the way forward. In many situations this has been very helpful and is enough.
An example of psychotherapy
Sometimes though, when the problem that started the desire to find someone to talk to is solved, this leads to a recognition of another problem or an understanding that there is a pattern going on in their life which influences many levels of decision making, approach and sense of life. Through the confidential and professional, yet supportive and human relationship which has developed, they may wish to continue to explore and develop, focusing on the deeper patterns with in us all that need longer and different attention to shift and change.
