Sandra Oakley-Goodall

My name is Sandra Oakley-Goodall, and I am in Private practice with my daughter Jade Oakley-Goodall, the practice is called O-G PSYCHOTHERAPY LTD, and the company has been registered with company house as a limited company. We are integrative and relational psychotherapists meaning that our modes of therapy used for our clients are Cognitive Behavioural therapy, CBT, Compassion Focused Therapy CFT, Mindfulness, and interpersonal Psychotherapy. We work in line with the ethical codes of conduct from BACP and UKCP.

The practice involves collaborating with clients to build a trusting relationship, which will provide the conditions for them to explore and grow in the direction they requested. As an integrative psychotherapist we can use different models, styles, and creativity with clients. For some clients therapy may be an opportunity for them to gain an awareness / curiosity of what is happening to them and why they experience an overwhelmingness that they are unable to understand.

Integrative Psychotherapy is often described as taking disowned unaware, or unresolved aspect of self and making them part of a cohesive personality, reducing the use of defence mechanism that inhibit spontaneity and limit flexibility in problem solving, health maintenance, and relating to people and reengaging the world with full contact. This is where my practice aligns to.

The focus of our practice is bringing together effective, cognitive, behavioural and physiological dimensions of human functioning, with a relational system. We aimed to consider the views of human functioning such as psychodynamic, client-centred, object relations and relations theories. We wholeheartedly work within the guidelines of the ethical codes, ensuring that Client Autonomy is the core of our involvement.

My interest in this area was through the families I had worked with and staff I had supervised in my previous role as a social worker and a team manager. I believe that therapy has the potential to change everyone’s lives for the better. There was a part of me that also felt that therapy should be accessible to all cultures and I wanted to explore this throughout my training. Therapy helped us both to make sense of what was happening to us. It helped us to function better and live better, it gave us insights, learning and experience. It was important for us that we did not view ourselves as having to prove anything, what therapy gave us, was the ability to learn the joy of acceptance. We wanted to offer these insights to our clients.

We are person-centred Therapists who have always worked in the supporting field thus my social and nursery nursing qualifications and it was while working as a social worker that I became aware of trauma and the symptoms it had left behind for a lot of my client. A sense that if they were able to make sense and speak about their trauma and made sense of what was happening for them then they would be able to feel safe and avoid the symptoms left behind by trauma. I saw the distress that clients felt and what they would often expose themselves to avoid those exile parts that were wounded in terms of relationship choices and risk factors. I wanted to offer therapeutic intervention so that clients would be able to sustain changes and live a life with understanding of why they feel the way they often do, I really wanted to make a difference and be present, visible and seen to my clients. I am drawn by this quote ‘’The new bud of the real self cannot exist for very long without the sustenance provided by a welcoming other” comes from the British paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald W. Winnicott. This quote is at the core of the therapeutic intervention with clients.

In our practice we want our clients to feel safe in a trusting environment where they can explore their real-life story, make sense of their story and how this affects their body in terms of what happens to them. To look at what they really want from their life. To see therapy as helping them to get what they want and the essential ingredients necessary for a more contented life. We see therapeutic intervention as the agent of change and focus is on the contact in relationships in terms of healing and growth. We have hope for our client that they will understand who they are and let go of the process that is not theirs and open the way to a sense of calm, control and clarity.

Our practice works ethically by ensuring that we have regular supervision, regular therapy session, regular reading of essential books two books per week, using our internal supervisor to bracket our process, regular training in person and online, attending seminar, accessing training also from Nottingham Counselling service, from peer supervision and online training.