Nicola Edmonds COACHING & Therapy
COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY - OXFORD, LONDON & GLOBALLY ONLINE
Counselling and Therapy
for Individuals and Couples
My name is Nicola Edmonds and I am a Therapist providing both medium and long-term therapy to adult individuals in Oxford and London. I also offer therapy online.
With our world turned upside over the last 18 months by Covid, all of us have been facing unexpected and challenging things. Some people do not wish to return to the world outside their home, many feel isolated and depressed, some face an existential crisis as to what was their life even about, and doubt as to what the future holds. Relationships have either been strengthened, challenged or broken. Jobs have been lost or re-located, the community of work we used to belong to, scattered.
How do we make meaning out of a post-Covid world?
Through my work, I am also finding hope through peoples' resilience and creativity; through small communities standing by and supporting their elderly and homebound; through a collective voice via the internet, voices coming together and becoming louder, showing their muscle and asking for change; a demand to be seen, to be equal, to have some importance. People’s determination to find a way forward is constantly inspiring.
I work with people from all walks of life and backgrounds, coming to me with a diverse range of problems.
As a fully-qualified therapist I am a member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, and abide by their code of ethics. Registered Member:00960001
Come and find your potential and strengths, come and find the will and courage to ask for more from your life and others. “Remind yourself that you cannot fail at being yourself.” [Wayne Dyer]
The quality of all of our relationships is a direct function of our relationship with ourselves.
Counselling and Psychotherapy provides a confidential and supportive environment in which together we will explore your anxieties and issues. Science shows that simply talking to someone who genuinely listens is in itself deeply therapeutic.
This is an opportunity to talk and offload about yourself, your relationships, thoughts and feelings in order to gain understanding about your current behaviour. Through talking about what is going on for you internally, in a space that holds no judgement, this can encourage greater personal awareness and insight, allowing you to make life changes that support you living a more fulfilling life. It can also help you strengthen your sense of self, leading to better connections with others.
I believe the key element in effective therapy is the quality of the relationship built between therapist and client(s). For me therapeutic work is a journey we walk together, where no 'one size fits all'. I work with genuine respect for you and your personal values, whilst offering alternative ways of making sense of yourself and your life and so facilitating personal and spiritual growth, to find the will and courage to ask for more from your life and others.
Reflecting ...
Giving space and time to reflection is a gift to yourself. By allowing the more hidden, possibly denied parts of yourself to come forward, be discovered and accepted, makes it possible for you to forge new paths and allow change.
Elements of healthy self-reflection that can support you in therapy:
- To develop and value your self-awareness: It’s supportive to know why you are doing things, to recognise what your triggers are, to find clarity about what is going on in your head, heart and soul.
- This increased self-awareness brings choice; choice to make better decisions for yourself, the choice not to react in a way you later regret, to deal better with challenging situations.
- Your willingness to believe you are already enough, then you can make long lasting positive changes from a place within you of compassion and acceptance rather than shame.
Happiness is found when you stop comparing yourself to others [Buddha]
I will work with you as a unique individual with an emphasis on the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client. I take an open-minded approach with my clients, using whichever methodology that seems to be the most appropriate. As a Humanistic trained therapist, I work integratively utilising a breadth of Psychotherapy modes. These include:
- Person-centred Therapy
- Transactional Analysis
- Gestalt Therapy
- Object Relations
- Psychoanalytic Therapy
- Meditation and Mindfulness
TRAUMA
“It takes courage to show up and become who you really are. Make the changes when you can choose to rather than being forced to.”
When we use the word "trauma" we tend to think of catastrophic events like soldiers in combat or people living in a war zone. However, trauma can arise from any event or ongoing life experience that causes our mind and bodies to freeze due to the degree of emotional and physical threat that was experienced. In my eyes, your experience is as valid as the nest person’s. Symptoms of trauma may be if you are:
* feeling overwhelmed
* finding yourself over-reacting
* feeling isolated, angry, anxious, depressed
* self-medicating or trying to manage your pressures with drugs, alcohol or food
* dissociating (cutting off from your immediate experiences, disconnecting from your overwhelming
feelings).
Sometimes you will not recognise that you are suffering from trauma symptoms either because you do not remember events from the past or, if you do, may feel these experiences do not have any impact now. However, if you have suffered a developmental or relational trauma you will often experience similar symptoms to those who have been through what is called a "single incident trauma" (like a car crash or a mugging).
In working with you, my hope is to support you interrupt the 'frozen' response so that your mind and body ultimately stop responding as if the past threat is still there, help you melt and soften your response to the world around you.
All enquires are usually answered within 24 hours, and all contact is strictly confidential and uses secure phone and email services. Find out more by reading my Privacy Policy.
Get in touch
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment. Please contact me by filling out the form. You can also call me on 07974721758 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first.
I work from private offices located in Oxfordshire and London. I will provide location details when we arrange our first session.