Announcement Our offices will close at 4.30pm on Friday 20 December and all staff will be on leave from Tuesday 24 December. We will reopen on Thursday 2 January 2025.
Counselling aims to help you explore and clarify problems and issues that matter to you. It may help you develop resources and skills to cope with difficulties. It may help you get through a distressing time in your life. Counselling is not only about problems. It also offers opportunities to get to know yourself better and to develop your potential as a person.
The Counselling Service is open to enrolled Oxford Brookes students - of whatever age, gender, religion and beliefs, nationality, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation.
We, the counsellors, try to listen to what you are really saying, to accept you and respect your feelings. We will not tell you what to do, but we can help you make your own decisions. Our aim is to provide you with the support that we think best suits your needs and is most readily available. To help us do this, we ask students to register for support by completing an online registration form. This is the first step in the system and allows us to begin to assess your needs. The information you give us helps us identify which sort of help will be most suitable for you.
Individual, one-to-one counselling is just one of the support options available through the Counselling Service. It’s often what people expect when they think of counselling, but other options may be more suitable to your needs. We also offer:
- workshops
- psycho-education talks
- counselling groups
- a comprehensive library of online self-help materials
- links to external organisations and resources.
There is usually a waiting time for individual, one-to-one counselling and you may be able to access a different option more quickly.
The Counselling Service is able to offer a maximum of 6 individual counselling sessions per academic year. We offer these on campus, online, or by telephone. If short-term counselling is not suited to your needs, we will explore other options with you. If you have received 6 sessions of counselling during the current academic year and wish to have further individual counselling, we will signpost you to these external counselling services.
Do I have to pay?
No. Our services are free for all students currently enrolled at Oxford Brookes University.
If we feel that counselling support outside the University would be more beneficial, you may be charged a fee for this by the service or individual you see.
How do I register with the Counselling Service?
See Register for support for information about how to register with the Counselling Service.
When is the Counselling Service open?
See our Contact us page.
Who are the counsellors?
The Counselling team are richly experienced and well qualified team, accredited with the major professional bodies. We all work in a similar way, offering a counselling approach that draws on students’ existing competences and orient towards students’ preferred futures, with great respect for students’ own strengths and strategies.
We collectively have experience working with bereavement, domestic violence, adoption, coaching, personal development, supporting young people and their families and disordered eating.
We also offer placements providing supervision to experienced and outstanding trainee therapists.
The Counselling Service works in accordance with the:
- British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
- Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy
- BACP Ethical Guidelines for Researching Counselling and Psychotherapy
- subject to the Professional Conduct Procedure.
Copies of these documents are available on request from the Counselling Service.
How does the Counselling Service evaluate its work?
We are committed to improving the service we offer students, and to do this we need your feedback.
You are asked to fill in three clinical (GAD-7, PHQ-9 and CORE-10) questionnaires when you start and when you end your counselling. Your responses help us learn about the effectiveness of counselling.
We also ask you to fill in an Evaluation Survey at the end of your counselling, which helps us to know about your experiences and improve the service we offer to students. You will normally be asked to fill in this survey in your last session. If you do not wish to be contacted after you finish your counselling, please let us know.
“My counsellor provided me with an insight into myself that I hadn't reflected on before. Her manner and professionalism were above my expectations.”
Student