Counselling and Psychotherapy in Oxford & Oxfordshire, UK

If you are looking for counselling or psychotherapy in the Oxford area, you have come to the right place: I can help you access a uniquely wide range of therapeutic possibilities and help you choose between them.

Counselling & Psychotherapy:
a wide range of treatment choices

When considering any kind of therapy, there are many factors we want to take into account to make sure you get the kind of treatment you want.
The ‘psychological therapies’, as they are now called, offer a confusing multitude of approaches. Ideally, the treatment is tailored to you, rather than you having to fit in with a therapist’s particular approach. But how do you go about finding that kind of therapy or therapist?

The difficulties of finding the ‘right’ counsellor or therapist

You can always pick a therapist out of Yellow Pages or do your research on the internet. But unless you understand what all these different therapeutic approaches are and how they work, how can you decide? Short-term or long-term? CBT, psychodynamic, person-centred, hypntherapy, NLP (and many others …)?
Male or female therapist, old or young, challenging or reassuring, strategic-focussed or non-directive? – a bewildering range of choices …

This way of going about it is bound to be hit-and-miss. You could easily waste a year, trying out 4 or 5 practitioners, and – having spent a lot of time and money – come out none the wiser.
As your point of entry, you want somebody who does not from the outset restrict your options. You want an impartial assessment and recommendation by an experienced and integrative practitioner, by somebody who has a comprehensive overview over what’s available and who knows the field; somebody who has no investment or bias, other than trying to help you make the best decision.

About Michael Soth:
offering an integrative approach to counselling & psychotherapy

I am a UKCP registered therapist with more than 24 years’ experience of counselling and psychotherapy. During this time I have worked with many people, from all kinds of backgrounds, and helped them deal with a wide variety of emotional and mental problems. As an experienced and senior practitioner, with responsibility for training and supervising other therapists, I have an understanding from both sides – from the client’s and from the therapist’s perspective – what it takes to make therapy work.

If you want to work with me personally, I have limited availability, and have to maintain a waiting list. For the last 15 years I have, therefore, been running an Assessment & Referral Service, to help you find the ‘right’ therapist for you – quickly and efficiently.

Looking for counselling or psychotherapy, for yourself or someone else ?
Here is a unique Assessment & Referral Service, helping you find the ‘right’ approach and therapist for you …

Over the years that I have been in Oxford (since 1991), I have built up an extensive network of colleagues and associates in the region, and I have some knowledge of most local services as well as practitioners and their work. I am usually able to recommend and match you to a practitioner within a few days of an Assessment & Referral session, certainly in Oxford, usually throughout Oxfordshire, and often nationwide.

This site is currently under construction – contact Michael for details.

The professions of counselling and psychotherapy are a minefield and utterly confusing to the lay-person (and often the professionals themselves!).

How to find and choose a therapist ?

I am offering an Assessment & Referral Service, to help you find the ‘right’ therapist for you. Over the years that I have been in Oxford (since 1991), I have built up an extensive network of colleagues and associates in the region, and I have some knowledge of most local services as well as practitioners and their work. Through professional associations and networks, conferences and other connections, I am able in some situations to make recommendations in London, in the UK and sometimes internationally.

This site is currently under construction – contact Michael for details.

I am a UKCP registered therapist with more than 20 years’ experience of counselling and psychotherapy. During this time I have worked with many people, from all kinds of backgrounds, and helped them deal with a wide variety of emotional and mental problems.

For most people, the ‘solution’ to both temporary crises and long-standing psychological problems comes about through engaging with a process and staying with it: even the best therapist cannot just ‘make’ you happy or ‘make’ you change, just like that. Some kind of sustained engagement is required.

For some, this may be as simple as just turning up for your session. Or for others, it may involve intense work on yourself, by yourself. As a result, some people feel they are able to cope with their problems, maybe for the first time in their life. Others go through more profound transformations, where the problems themselves take on a different shape, or sometimes disappear altogether. Many people find an increased sense of vitality and joy, a deeper and more fulfilling engagement in life.

Having been involved in the training of counsellors and psychotherapists since 1988, I have experienced the whole range of therapeutic approaches available today, and developed a profound understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of these professions. As a senior practitioner, with responsibility for teaching and supervising other practitioners, I understand both the good as well as the harm that can be done, even by well-meaning therapists. Rather than offering you one particular therapeutic approach, I am therefore in a position to select an approach that will suit you and be ‘right’ for you.

Counselling & Psychotherapy in Oxford, UK

Assessment & Referral Service

I am offering an assessment & referral service, to help you find the ‘right’ therapist for you, from amongst my extensive network of colleagues and associates, both in Oxfordshire as well as to some extent nationwide.

This site is currently under construction – contact Michael for details.