For our current events:
All our events at the Oxford & Witney centres are listed on the main OTS website. The following links will open in a new browser window, and this window will remain open, so that you can come back to the OTS-Oxford Site.
Click here to see our current events for practitioners
With over 1400 different modalities of counselling psychotherapy, Bothe public and professionals are entitled to ask - 'Have they not just found one type of therapy which just works?' The evidence suggests that they all work to some extent, so how do you choose which one is right to study, or for clients to receive/experience?
There is growing research to suggest that the particularly modality is not what make the essential difference. Key differences are detected when we look at the quality of relationship which is generated by the client and the therapist, by the intersubjective soup, which is created between them, and how the soup of this relationship is paid attention to.
All relationships from the mother-baby dyad onwards experience ruptures - breakdowns in the harmony or easiness of the relationship. How well these ruptures in infancy and childhood are paid attention to, and repaired, have a direct influence on how well future relationships with their inevitable ruptures can be repaired. This is true for all relationships - friendship, marriage and therapy to name a few important ones.
Evidence from the divorce courts alone, suggest we aren't that great at it, and evidence from our conducting thousands of assessment interviews with perspective clients who we then refer suggest similar poor abilities to repair relationships. Many clients who we assess have told us of breakdowns in previous relationships with therapists. These breakdowns are often not talked about by the client with their previous therapists, and not seen by the therapists before the client stops their sessions.
So, the vast majority of the work we do in OTS is based on exploring and understanding intersubjective relationships, and learning what goes wrong ( in ruptures, how to see ruptures happening, and how to respond to them. Coming to one of our free introductory talks will help practitioners understand more about what we do in this crucial area of practitioner development.
Click here to see our current talks & workshops for the public
We have had these free talks advertised for a number of years, and get around one application per year in total. We don't know why! When we advertised on Facebook, we had our advert for one such talk seen by 62000 people, and applied for by 2. Maybe there is truth in the idea that you can't give these things away.
If there is a talk you are interested in, do let us know, and we can try and respond to your need in whatever way we can,
