Workshops & Groups
Open agenda group sessions and workshops and groups on specific topics can be an effective form of help for a range of problems, providing an opportunity to explore how you relate to others and benefit from their experiences and support.
Workshops
A range of workshops and groups are available for students currently enrolled on most Oxford University courses. The workshops aim to help you build skills to respond to the demands of life at university. The topics change per term, so keep checking this page for updates.
Current workshops
The workshops are generally short-term, structured psycho-educational and agenda led. Most come from a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) perspective. The workshops are open to between four and 20 participants at a time.
Workshops can be interactive, so please be prepared to participate (asking questions, doing the exercises, making sense of how the information might apply to you), however, they are not therapeutic groups, and you will not be expected to share anything too personal with others in the workshops. Workshops range from a single session to a workshop series, attending all sessions in a series is advisable as they relate to one another.
Self referral workshops:
Group Counselling
These groups are a more effective form of help than individual counselling for many people. Our undergraduate and postgraduate groups can provide an opportunity to explore how you relate to others, to see yourself through their eyes, and to benefit from their experiences and support while offering them your own. Other groups focus on specific themes and may involve learning new ideas or experimenting with therapeutic exercises within a safe and supportive group environment. Please see below for further information about the different groups on offer in the service.
What should I expect?
All group members commit to keeping personal knowledge about each other confidential within the group and the Counselling Service aims to set up groups so that you are unlikely to encounter anyone you already know. It is also suggested that group members do not socialise outside the group while it is running. This creates a group which feels safe and can attend to each member equally.
You are free to choose how much or little to say. Groups are most helpful when members are willing to talk openly and make use of the opportunity to share together, by giving and receiving support, feedback and insight. At times this can feel like taking a risk, but you are always in control of how much you want to challenge yourself in this way.
You are asked to commit to regular attendance, but if it turns out that the experience becomes counterproductive for you, speak to the group facilitator so that you can decide together how best to respond.
Can I join the group after it has started?
Groups normally consist of the same members throughout their lifecycle, enabling a secure and cohesive group to develop. If you become interested in a group after it has already started, let your counsellor know so that you can be considered for the next intake.
What time commitment do I need to make?
Please see below for information about group timings, session length and frequency. In order for the group to work well and feel secure, groups work best when members are in a position to commit to regular attendance, and to prioritise this commitment over other things which may crop up in their lives. This does vary between different groups though, so talk with your referring counsellor or the group facilitator about how this applies to the particular group you are joining.
Groups by counsellor referral:
All information submitted by you to access any workshop or self-referral group (i.e. any electronic forms you complete), a minimal record of your engagement with the workshop/group, and any student evaluation completed relating to the workshop/group within the Counselling Service, will be kept confidentially and securely on our database at the University Counselling service for six years in line with legal requirements and then destroyed.