Psychotherapy, Counselling & Supervision in Oxford (& online) with Sandra Gauld
The experience of being human has many challenges and transitions: starting a new family; relationships ending and new ones beginning; unexpected or chronic health or mental health difficulties; finding satisfying work; connecting with our unique creativity; finding or rekindling sexual energy; finding a deeper connection to nature & spirituality; finding new meaning in middle and later life, and; how to reconcile who we are with who we aspire to be. Finding acceptance of ourselves in our difficulties is hard to do alone. Psychotherapy or counselling can help enormously with that. It's not just about talking. It's not just a cognitive experience. It offers you a unique consistent space and time to talk, reflect, feel, breathe, move, practice, dream in order to find a way through these difficulties - a way that enlivens you, and enables you to feel more whole & live a fuller life.
I am a UKCP registered psychotherapist practising in East Oxford. I offer psychotherapy and counselling with warmth, presence, grounded acceptance, and I bring insight from my intellectual and experiential understanding of relationships, human development, and the therapeutic process.
I am experienced and interested in helping people who have difficulties with :
- Stress
- Relationships
- Managing their feelings, or lack of feeling
- Anxiety
- Bereavement
- Depression
- Childhood trauma
- Sexuality & intimacy
- Sports performance
- Neurodivergence
- Embodiment and body image
- Self-esteem
- Spiritual or religious concerns, experiences
- Psychedelic integration
An integrated approach
I am an integrative psychotherapist, bringing together contemporary body psychotherapy, psychodynamic, and gestalt approaches. As well, in recent years I have also integrated a version of 'parts work' (a bit like Internal Family Systems work), the use of art to help unfold what isnt easily put into words, and can offer outdoor sessions for those who need and want the calming and grounding connection to nature.
While the psychotherapy sessions involve talking, I:
- pay particular attention to the interplay between our body and minds, as often our intellects do not have all the answers. Attention may be drawn to physically felt sensations in the body, the breath, gestures, and impulses to move in a particular way, which may help identify the underlying conflicts causing stress, depression and anxiety, which are not fully conscious.
- work with the here-and-now experience with you. There is no need to talk extensively about your childhood (unless you want or need to). I can help you notice patterns of relating in your current life (that reflect how you were brought up) and how they contribute to the issues you bring to therapy.
- have an in-depth experiential understanding of the structure and operation of the psyche; it’s core conflicts (eg, the desire for connection and the fear of the pain involved) and the ways we defend against feeling how we really feel, and noticing those sneaky ways in which we can sabotage the very things that we want.
- will actively work with you to alleviate your symptoms and the underlying dynamics to bring about the changes you want (while also understanding the paradox of change, ie, self-hatred can sometimes lurk underneath this desire to change).
Supervision
I have trained in supervision with the Centre for Supervision & Team Development (CSTD) - London and have been supervising groups and individuals since 2019. I offer integrative supervision (using the 7-eyed model) to psychotherapists, counsellors & other helping / healing practitioners in east Oxford. The 7-eyed model includes a number of ways of reflecting on and exploring the client-therapist experience, including the psychodynamic, systemic, and the use of parallel process and embodiment.
** NEW SUPERVISION GROUP ** - places still available !
I am offering a new supervision group, hopefully with a February 2025 start, using a unique approach to supervision using what I call embodied parts work. Please get in touch if you are interested.
Easy to access location
My room is in East Oxford, approx. 15 minutes from the city centre by bike, car, bus (depending on traffic). There is free on-street parking available for 2 hours. Buses on Iffley Rd & Oxford Rd are 10 mins walk away.
'There is a river that runs through our lives. An underground stream that carried our essential beings. I have learned that once we enter that stream, life is no longer lived in the ordinary sense. It becomes a journey, an adventure into unknown water. My purpose is not to promote a path or a way, but to stir within you the excitement and uniqueness of your own evolutionary process. May you discover your own river and may your life become a meaningful voyage.' (Hal and Sidra Stone)
'In the long run, change is as much devotional as it is psychological. It is out of love that we ultimately reshape our lives' (Francis Weller)
