Oliver Bettany
Registered Member MBACP
Contact information
- Phone number
- 07846692251
Features
- Flexible hours available
- Concessionary rates
About me and my therapy practice
We all have thoughts and feelings that we fear to share with our loved ones. Until we're ready to create a society that has non judgment, care and understanding built right into its fabric, counselling provides an important and life-enhancing experience of support during the more challenging chapters of our journey through life.
For many of us, by the time we reach adulthood, our relationship with our inner child - the part of us that still feels and acts like a child - is very complicated. Counselling can help us get back in touch with the deeper needs of this part, the aspect of ourselves that we often need to listen to in order to in order to bring about balance and meaningful change in our lives.
Why? Our modern lives are busy, often overwhelmingly so, and we are often compelled to grow up too fast and so discount our inner child's basic needs for nurturing, safety, creativity and fun. How frequently do we get an opportunity to take some time out to properly check in with ourselves, explore what's really going on for us, deep down? And yet this kind of simple self-care is so important for our wellbeing.
Most of us maintain dozens of relationships - with parents, children, brothers, sisters, friends, lovers, colleagues... hundreds of busy interactions with other people every single day of our lives. But how many of these moments nurture our deeper selves and feed our fundamental need for security, belonging and connection with other human beings?
Practice description
Counselling
Central to my approach to counselling is my belief that every one of us has the basic and inborn capacity to grow fully into ourselves, to become the person we were meant to be in this life, and that this is a life-long process. What this translates to in relation to the counselling I offer is that I know that deep down you are an expert in you. You hold the key which will unlock the door to reveal the best way forward for you.
So what am I good for?! Well, it can take a lot of time and space to begin to connect with this inner expert, in our journey through life we learn to throw up an awful lot of barriers to this kind of inner connection. I will work with you to create the conditions necessary for you to navigate these barriers and tap into the deep expertise you possess: together we will create a safe place from which you can begin to make contact with what is underlying the challenges you're experiencing right now. I can help you find the key.
Ecotherapy
This offering takes as its starting point an appreciation of the web of relationships that exist between the personal, social and ecological spheres of our lives. It offers practices and processes that enable us to explore the ways in which our individual identities are deeply rooted not only in human world but also in the more than human world of nature. When we see ourselves as individuals who are separate from everyone and everything else in the world then we are missing a fundamental part of the larger story of human being.
Working with men
Developing a healthy relationship with our masculinity is a potent force for positive transformation. Men's Work aims to help men to reclaim this positive force for change in their lives.
I've been actively involved in Men's Work since co-founding the Sussex-based men's group The Silvatici (“The Men of the Woods”) in 2012. Over the years I have also supported many men through the most difficult chapters in their lives in my one-to-one counselling practice.
My first session
I offer a free introductory session over the phone, or sometimes face-to-face, depending on circumstances. This session will last around half an hour and will give us the chance to get a feel for one another. You will have some time to tell me a little about why you’ve decided to seek a counsellor and I will ask some straightforward questions which will help me to assess whether I’m the right counsellor for you.
After you’ve had a chance to reflect on this first meeting you may feel I’m not the right person to accompany you on this important journey you’ve chosen to take. This might take the form of a gut feeling. Trust it! I’m not right for everyone. It’s also possible I may feel that another counsellor is better suited to be your companion on this journey. This might be because I feel you would benefit from working with someone who specialises in a particular area, such as trauma.
This is really important because it is the quality of the relationship we will build together which will be the key factor in enabling you to begin growing in the direction you want to. We both need to be able to put our trust and faith in the relationship in order to create the right conditions for this to happen.
What I can help with
Abuse, Addictions, Anxiety, Bereavement, Cultural issues, Depression, Health related issues, Identity issues, Loss, Men's issues, Relationships, Self esteem, Spirituality, Stress, Substance Dependency
Types of therapy
Existential, Humanistic, Integrative, Jungian, Person centred, Phenomenological, Relational, Systemic, Transactional analysis, Transpersonal
Clients I work with
Adults, Couples, Groups, Older adults, Organisations, Trainees, Young people
How I deliver therapy
Long term sessions, Long-term face-to-face work, Online therapy, Outdoor therapy, Short term sessions, Short-term face-to-face work
Languages spoken
English