Our Mission
Making life-changing trauma therapy accessible in Oxfordshire
Our Vision
-To help people in Oxfordshire who are living with the effects of traumatic experiences by providing free or very low-cost trauma-focused therapy for those who cannot pay private fees or get the help they need through the NHS
-To offer two approaches to working with trauma, EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) and Energy Psychotherapies, delivered by experienced psychotherapists
-To encourage and facilitate the knowledge and development of these therapies across the country
About MEET in Oxford
MEET in Oxford was started in 2014 by three psychotherapists who met through the Oxford Quaker Meeting. Experienced in working with trauma using therapies that were relatively new at the time, they wanted to help people who could not afford private therapy fees and weren’t getting the help they needed from an increasingly over-stretched NHS. The Oxford Quaker Meeting provided support in the form of free counselling space and before long other therapists joined, all working unpaid and seeing one or more clients a week.
It became clear that the service was meeting a very real need and in 2020 the charity employed a part-time Coordinator. We now work with 14 experienced therapists who have additional trainings in EMDR or Energy Psychotherapies, and provide around 20 hours every week of free or very low-cost trauma-focused therapy.
Sharing and disseminating knowledge
One of the aims of the charity is to raise the profile of the therapies EMDR and Energy Psychotherapy in Oxfordshire. We provide experienced therapists who have added EMDR or Energy Psychotherapy to their therapeutic repertoire with the opportunity to practise these skills in working with trauma. Peer groups for our therapists provide opportunities for discussion and for sharing knowledge and experiences. We work with a range of referring organisations including complex needs, domestic abuse and NHS specialist services, as well as a number of Oxfordshire charities. This offers an opportunity to disseminate understanding of the approaches we use and, through our work with the individuals referred, to demonstrate their effectiveness in working with trauma.
Our latest Annual Report can be downloaded here
