Anne Oyston

Hello. Thank you for taking time to read my profile. I hope you can find something here which helps you understand how I work and how I might possibly help you.

I can appreciate how difficult it is to take that first move into deciding to find a counsellor and then to making that first step to contact someone, someone who is, after all a relative stranger. Knowing that you want to take that first step, make that very first approach to possibly getting some support and help, wanting to make some changes is the biggest step you can take, but also the most important one on the road to feeling better.

When someone has taken that first step, and reaches out to someone like me, that in itself, shows how much you want things to change and is the best sign. I am trained to listen, to support you in however you need things to change, to offer you a therapeutic environment where you can explore any issues, emotions or thoughts that are troubling you. In my many years of counselling, I know that it is you, the client who knows what it is important, who wants to continue to grow but for one reason or another has been prevented from doing so. My role is to support you in this growth and together we can work out how you can resolve these difficult emotions.

A bit of background, I am a fully qualified, experienced counsellor working with children and adults in a humanistic, person centred way. I specialise in bereavement, grief and loss, anxiety and depression as well as relationship counselling and anger management. Having been a teacher for many years, I am also experienced in working with children and adolescents and currently offer therapeutic support to parents and children in local schools and the professionals who support those children. For the last six years, I have also been a tutor on successive Level 3 Counselling Studies courses as well as the Level 4 Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling courses.

With this in mind, I also offer reduced rates to counsellors in training as an added incentive for student counsellors who need to fulfil their course requirements. Please ask for details.

The fees are on a sliding scale, depending on different contributing factors, including means, travel etc

The usual cost is £50 per session of approximately one hour with a reduced rate of £45 for children (11 and under) for a session of 45 minutes. There will be a minimum charge of £60 for couples and family work.

I work mainly in Swindon and outlying areas. I do have some daytime and evening appointments, so please contact me if you feel I may be of help.

It  can be very daunting to consider coming to speak to a counsellor, but please be assured that my aim will be to put you at your ease and discover whether I can help you to find a way through your difficulties.

PLEASE NOTE: if you have recently contacted me via email, using the annoystoncounselling@live.co.uk I must apologise for the lack of a reply as I have been unable to access that account due to an error by the admin team. Please do contact me again using the new contact email anneoystoncounselling@gmail.com if you would still like to make an enquiry about counselling.

**In the time of the Coronavirus pandemic, I am very aware that there are a lot of people trying to manage their anxiety and perhaps grief with little or no support. Managing our emotions is not easy with social media, news bulletins and the awful statistics coming at us from all sides. It's particularly important that we all maintain our own mental and emotional wellbeing in order to cope ourselves with the stresses that are even more amplified right now. It may be that you feel you would benefit from speaking to someone who can help you manage your emotions right now. While we might not be able to meet face to face as I would normally recommend, I can and do offer online counselling using Zoom or even telephone counselling sessions in these extreme and unprecedented times. I also offer these sessions at a reduced rate. If this sounds like something you would welcome please contact me.