Psychotherapy & Counselling in Oxford (& online) with Sandra Gauld
The journey 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 compassion for ourselves through our difficulties is hard to do alone. Psychotherapy offers you time to talk, reflect, breathe, move, 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 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
- Chronic physical pain that maybe emotionally or psychologically related
- Embodiment and body image
- Self-esteem
- Spiritual connection & emergence
- Psychedelic integration
An integrated approach
I am an integrative psychotherapist, bringing together contemporary body psychotherapy, psychodynamic, and gestalt approaches.
This means that, while the psychotherapy sessions mostly involve talking, I:
- pay particular attention to the interplay between the body and mind, as often the intellect does 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 of the client. There is no need to talk extensively about your childhood (unless you want or need to). An experienced psychotherapist will help you see the patterns of relating that are re-created in your present life and how they contribute to the issues you bring to therapy.
- have an in-depth 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.
- will actively work with you in focussed sessions to alleviate your symptoms and the underlying dynamics to bring about the changes you want.
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 to psychotherapists, counsellors & other helping / healing practitioners in east Oxford.
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.
