Richard Oster
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
I am a BACP registered therapist offering counselling and psychotherapy, face-to-face in Exeter or online wherever you are.
Life can be both beautiful and bleak, calm and stormy. Encountering pain and suffering is a human certainty. Experience has shown that when these challenges arrive it is not always possible to navigate them on your own. We are social beings and many of our problems are often created through unhealthy interactions with others. I believe, however, that with the right conditions, human connection can bring about restoration and growth.
I meet with clients wherever they are on their journey, offering a safe space to process, explore and recover. I offer warmth, kindness, insight and challenge.
My Approach
I am an integrative therapist, meaning I have been trained in a broad range of therapies. In particular, I draw upon Gestalt Therapy, Person-Centred Therapy and Internal Family Systems. I am influenced by Existentialism and informed by Attachment Theory and Neuroscience. This has then enabled me to develop my own philosophy of counselling; creating one cohesive approach, drawing on the richness of various modalities.
I have a three-phase framework that I use with all clients:
Connecting - creating the right conditions for the client to feel safe, developing trust and building a strong therapeutic relationship.
Exploring - together, examining all the parts that make up the whole of a person, including historical background and here-and-now experiences. Paying attention to reactions and being curious, with the aim of raising awareness.
Integrating - ongoing experimentation in the room and in the real world to test new approaches and develop skills. Moving to a place of acceptance and wholeness.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a qualified, integrative therapist. I trained at the Iron Mill College in Exeter which is “a well-established, leading provider of education and training in mental health and wellbeing”.
Formal Qualifications:
- Sports Science BSc Hons
- Advanced Diploma in Integrative Counselling (Accredited by the BACP)
- Certificate in Counselling (Accredited by the National Counselling Society, NCS)
- Counselling Young People Stage 1 (BACP Accredited)
My ongoing professional development and training include regular involvement in workshops, seminars and academic study.
Recent CPD has included:
- Working with Complex Trauma - Iron Mill College
- Youth Mental Health First Aid - MHFA England
- Understanding Domestic Violence and Abuse Levels 1 & 2 - AVA
- Moving Your Practice Online - Online Therapy Institute
- Existential Therapy Workshop - Mick Cooper
- Working with Shame - Iron Mill College
- Bereavement Training - CHUMS
- Working with Trauma - Carolyn Spring
Experience:
I am in my 40s with a wealth of life experience. I spent the first part of my working life in the charity sector. I have worked with a diverse range of people in a variety of contexts; including mentoring young people in schools, facilitating bereavement support groups and providing pastoral care to adults. This has exposed me to the challenges people face in their day-to-day lives: grief, abuse, loss, addiction, trauma, depression and anxiety, to name just a few. It has helped me develop the skill of connecting with people and focused my desire to work with people more directly.
As a therapist, I have worked with various clients from different backgrounds. Each client’s unique experience has given me deeper insight and understanding of a variety of presenting issues.
Alongside my private practice, I spent three years working for a trauma recovery charity based in Exeter offering individual therapy to survivors of domestic abuse.
Member organisations
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£60.00 per session
Free initial in-person or online session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
I offer counselling and psychotherapy on a long-term, open-ended and shorter, fixed-term basis to individual adults.
Sessions are 50 minutes long and normally held weekly.
My fee is £60 per session. I hold a fixed number of reduced-cost slots for those on low incomes.
When I work
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I work Monday to Friday between 8 am and 6 pm.
Further information
My therapy room is in central Exeter at 4 Barnfield Crescent. There are plenty of local car parks close by and it is a short walk from the train and bus stations.
I also offer online video sessions via zoom.
For more information visit my website at spacebetweentherapy.com or get in touch.
