Katy Oswald

Sessions are in person near Fiveways in Brighton, or online - UK and Worldwide

You may be experiencing anxiety, depression, loneliness, relationship challenges, low self-confidence, a loss in meaning, the impact of childhood experiences, difficult emotions that overwhelm you, feeling disconnected and lost. You may be wanting to make changes or going through a significant life event or transition. I have significant experience supporting people working through mid-life transitions.

I am a calm, grounded and considered counsellor. I can offer you a safe and honest space to understand what is underneath how are feeling, by holding up a mirror to you and getting curious about what we find, I can help you identify blind spots and connections you might not be aware of. When we understand our feelings better, we can feel more in control and less at their mercy. My aim is to help you be able to respond to life with resilience.

My Qualifications

I have a PGDip in Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counselling from the University of Brighton, and I am an accredited member of the Â鶹ԭ´´. I have a certificate in Creative Supervision.

I also have a BSocSci in Politics and Philosophy, and a MPhil in Development Studies.

My Approach

I am a humanistic counseller. My approach is based on the idea that we all make our own meaning in life, so your experiences, and the meanings you have given them, will be unique to you - there isn’t an off-the-shelf diagnosis that can solve all your problems. The goal of therapy is to make sense of you and your difficulties and find a way to respond that works for you.

It is also based on the idea that as it is often relationships that hurt us, it is also relationships that can heal us too. Counselling can offer a healing relationship with an honest, empathetic and accepting human.

I help with:

Relationship difficulties

Challenges in family and intimate relationships, attachment challenges and trauma, dating, relational co-dependency, boundaries, avoidance and fear of intimacy. Developing communication and relational skills for healthy relationships. Sexuality and intimacy.

Emotional regulation

Support to understand and regulate difficult emotions and feeling states including anxiety, fear, overwhelm, anger, stress, sadness. Support to identify how you feel and how to sit with feelings you might be avoiding.

Life transitions & changes (especially mid-life)

Bereavement, grief & loss. Career changes, divorce, children leaving home, mid-life transition, peri-menopause, menopause. Experiencing a loss of meaning and purpose. Aging and death anxiety.

Feelings of low self-worth

This may include anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, relationship difficulties, feelings of hopelessness or being lost. Disconnection from personal needs, feelings or desires. Difficulties with boundaries. Experiences of shame, grief and guilt. Self-sabotage or feeling that you can’t cope.

Living with chronic illness

Support to live with chronic pain, fatigue and the impairments chronic illness can bring. I have worked with clients living with fibromyalgia, long-covid, and chronic fatigue syndrome, helping to develop coping mechanisms.

My Experience

I have over a decade of experience as a counsellor, and trainer of counsellors. I work in private practice and previously worked for a low-cost counselling charity. I am an Associate Lecturer in counselling and mental health at the Open University, and I teach counselling at the University of Brighton. I am also a counselling supervisor.

Previous to training as a counsellor, I worked as a social science lecturer and researcher at the University of Sussex for 12 years.

I adopt a feminist approach to counselling and acknowledge the role power and patriarchy plays in the roles we play and how we feel about ourselves. 

Book a free 50-minute free initial consultation session.

Starting therapy is a significant decision; it involves a commitment and can feel daunting. You need to find a counsellor who you can trust and feel safe with. Therefore, I offer a free initial consultation so you can decide if I am the right counsellor for you

This is a chance for us to meet, for you to experience the way I work and ask any questions. It also helps me understand what has led you to seek out therapy.

Fees:

£65 per session.

Frequency of sessions:

I offer both short-term (8 sessions) and medium to long term counselling. Sessions are weekly. You can choose to finish at any time. 

Supervision is reflection-in-action, and it is where I feel most at home. Before I trained to be a counsellor, and then a supervisor, I taught reflective practice in the social sciences for over a decade. Standing back and finding a different perspective on ourselves, others and the world at large is what I do naturally most of the time, and I bring that reflective way of being to my supervision practice.

I use the seven-eyed model of supervision. This model focuses on seven perspectives – with an eye on the client; the interventions; the client-therapist relationship; the therapist; the therapist-supervisor relationship; the supervisor; and the wider context. What I love about this model, is how is views the client-therapist-supervisor triad as a relationship, which we can understand from many perspectives, and the parallel processes that exist between us all can ultimately help the clients we work with. 

I have a Certificate in Creative Supervisio. I am Â鶹ԭ´´ Accredited, and have a decade of experience in counselling. I have a PGDip in Humanistic Psychotherapeutic Counselling from the University of Brighton, and I draw on theory from Person-Centred, Gestalt, Existential and Transactional Analysis therapies. I am process-focused, and work relationally with clients and supervisees. My supervision training had a strong focus on creativity, and I use creative methods with clients and supervisees to support their reflection.

As well as being a counsellor and supervisor, I teach on the ‘Introduction to the therapeutic relationship and counselling skills’ module at the University of Brighton, and I am an Associate Lecture in counselling and mental health at the Open University. 

Please get in touch with me if you would like to have an introductory session with me. I offer this for £35, which is half the cost of a normal 50-minute session.

Fees are: £65 for a 50-minute session (twice a month) or £100 for a 120-minute session (once a month)

We can meet online, via Zoom, or in-person in my room near Fiveways in Brighton.