Oliver Reeson

Clare Longley, Love knots, 2022

My practice draws from a number of approaches (including ACT, Focusing Practice, and Humanistic Person-Centred work) but I hold a particular interest in Lacanian psychoanalysis and existential approaches.I believe that living is a process. When things are difficult, when we experience emotional suffering or distress that time alone cannot quell, it is often because something is stuck in the process of our experiencing. There can be the sense that something is weighing on us; that patterns are repeating inexplicably; that we don’t feel fully present in the story of our own lives. We make sense of our experiences and our relationships through language. Patterns repeat because we haven’t found the right words to articulate a deep feeling that needs expression. We tell a story that sounds right, looks good, but doesn’t actually fit with the singularity of our experience. If we can’t express ourselves, truly and precisely, we are destined to keep journeying down the same unsatisfying path. By providing a non-judgemental, open and patient space, my aim is to help you find your own words, to listen and hear you in your experience but also to give you the chance to hear yourself in a new way, uncovering new insight, new meaning, and new ways of experiencing yourself and the world around you.
Without ever losing sight of the real suffering that brings people to therapy, I also believe psychotherapy can be a deeply creative process. My hope is to collaborate with you in the project of reorienting to the desire that propels your life, and to the lack that doesn't get in the way nearly as much as you might think it does.Get in touch to make an appointment, or to arrange a free 15-minute phone consultation if you'd like to learn a bit more about me and how I work.