For refugees and asylum seekers

We offer counselling and psychotherapy free to those aged 12 or more who are adjusting to life in the UK and who are experiencing mental or emotional distress. We work with individuals, couples and families from Oxfordshire. Children under 12 can be seen with a parent or other family member.

We offer appointments with fully qualified and experienced counsellors. Appointments are usually one hour a week. We provide interpreters if needed.

We are happy to talk with you about what counselling is.

You can refer to our service by using our referral form, sending it by email or post, or talk it through on the phone. If you need help to complete the form please come into our office and we will help you to fill it in. 

The counselling service is not for clients who only want practical help or advocacy, however we also have an advocacy and advice service at Refugee Resource.

In 2006, Refugee Resource was awarded the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s national Award for Excellence in Counselling and Psychotherapy Practice.

We run weekly women’s therapeutic group sessions.

What is counseling?

Counselling is:

• talking to someone who is very good at listening and who cares

• talking about important things about the past or from now

• help with things that make you feel upset

• help with making your own decisions

• help with understanding your life.

A counsellor will:

• be interested in everything that you say

• not tell people what you say unless you are in very bad danger

• get an interpreter if you need one

• meet with you regularly, until your agreed end date.

A counsellor:

• is not a doctor, or the police, or a social worker or the Home Office

• will not give you money

• does not usually help a lot with practical things like benefits or housing.

Seeing a counsellor at Refugee Resource is:

• free

• helpful

• your decision – you do not have to come for counselling

• with a man or a woman, you can choose which if you want

• with someone who knows the problems of refugees and asylum seekers.

To find out more or to arrange to meet a counsellor contact us

or ask someone else like a friend, a doctor, or a social worker to do this for you.

An example of counselling work

Wilhelma (not her real name) is an 18 year old woman from an African country. At 13 she was kidnapped by soldiers who held her in custody for a long time during which time she was raped and tortured. She escaped to a refugee camp in another African country where she saw several of her relatives killed. She arrived in this country aged 16 and applied for refugee status.

When she started counselling she was haunted by grief, insomnia, flashbacks and panic attacks – the latter triggered by situations involving authority figures. The counselling helped her to begin to address these symptoms and her profound feelings of being alone and unsafe.

Gradually, as trust developed in the counsellor, Wilhelma was enabled for instance to relate more effectively with authority figures and to interact with them in the knowledge that she had done nothing wrong and that she had rights. As her confidence improved she was also helped to make her own choices – she declined a marriage proposal and, even though she was pregnant, was later glad of her decision when the man became violent (she was also helped to find a safe place in relation to this).

The counselling has helped Wilhelma prepare for the child and supported her through college. Her application for asylum in this country has been given weight by a report written by the counsellor which was able to relate material (with her consent) that she had been too frightened and ashamed to disclose at the time of her interview by the Home Office, and may have a significant bearing on the outcome of her case.