About counselling

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.

How we can help

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.

 
A counselling room
Oxford Brookes counselling room

“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