Whitefield Therapy
Oliver Whitefield
Integrative therapist, clinical supervisor, counselling tutor and registered member of the BACP
I was born and grew up in Hertfordshire, and my own experiences growing up played an important part in what eventually drew me towards counselling and psychotherapy. Some parts of my childhood were challenging, but working through those experiences also gave me an early understanding of how differently people can experience the world around them, and how important it can be to feel genuinely heard and understood.
My work in mental health began in 2014, when I started facilitating support groups with Herts MIND Network. Over the years I have worked with people from many different backgrounds and with a wide range of experiences and mental health difficulties, both in person and, during lockdown, online. I still lead a weekly group with Herts MIND today.
Group work has been a particularly important part of my development. It has given me the opportunity to meet people from very different walks of life and has reinforced how important equality, diversity and inclusion are to the way I work. It has also taught me that there is rarely one single way of understanding somebody’s experience.
Training and teaching
I later trained as a psychotherapeutic counsellor at Langley Training, completing the CPCAB Level 6 Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling. The course curriculum was equivalent to that of the newer Level 7 diploma. My training at Langley gave me the confidence and knowledge to move into independent practice, and I was impressed enough by the quality and depth of the training that I eventually joined the teaching team myself.
Today, alongside my work as a therapist, I tutor CPCAB Level 3 Counselling Studies and co-tutor Level 4 at Langley Training. I am also a registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP).
Community and charity work
I continue to work within the charity sector as a therapist with StrongMen, where I provide counselling to people affected by bereavement. This is an area of work that can involve loss in many different forms, and I value being able to offer people a space in which those experiences can be explored without pressure or expectation.
Clinical supervision
Alongside my client work and teaching, I work as a clinical supervisor for other therapists and facilitate group supervision. One of the things I have always valued about counselling is that becoming a therapist is not really a process that ends when the qualification is completed. We continue learning from our clients, from our colleagues and from one another.
That is also one of the reasons I enjoy teaching and supervision. Being able to support other counsellors as they develop their own way of working feels like a natural continuation of the same process that helped me develop as a therapist.