Christopher Osborne
Body-oriented Psychotherapy in South East London

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are you?
My practice is based on Westow Hill in Crystal Palace.


What does it cost?
My fees are £65 per one hour session. I do offer some concessionary rates.


Do you work with psychotherapy trainees?
Yes. I am fully qualified to work with psychotherapists in training according to UKCP and BACP criterea.


What is the difference between counselling and psychotherapy?
The two words are often used to mean the same thing, but in this context counselling refers to more short-term work around specific issues, and psychotherapy refers to longer term, more open-ended work dealing with the more deep rooted issues


What is Body-oriented Psychotherapy?
Our bodies are a great resource to us. It can be thought of as the place that our unconscious mind resides. We are rooted in our bodies, and so are the hurts and the joys that we have experienced. In one sense it is our personal history, written in our posture, our tissues and our nervous system. Therapy is a way of more fully owning oneself and taking charge of our potential, and taking ownership of our bodies, with all the pains and triumphs to be found there, is a crucial part of that.

Working with the body in psychotherapy can take a wide variety of forms, from simply noticing feelings and sensations in the body to using massage or movement as ways of more fully inhabiting ourselves. What is appropriate is something that we will negotiate together.


Will psychotherapy or counselling be frightening or unpleasant for me?
My clients find therapy to be a fasinating, enjoyable and liberating process most of the time, but some difficulty and discomfort is inevitable. It is my job to help you to address difficult issues.


What is the theoretical basis of your work?
My way of working is relational, body-oriented and experiential. This means that the meeting between the client and the therapist serves as a laboratory where habituated and unconscious ways of relating (to oneself and to another) can be noticed and revealed, and new ways of relating experimented with. To this end I will offer my observations, not only as a detatched expert, but also as an involved participant. In this way the underlying issues can be experienced and engaged with in a full way that allows for resolution. It also means that the work is not only about gaining new insights and understandings on an intellectual level, but about feeling them in the heart and the gut.

I would also describe my work as eclectic, which means I draw upon a number of different approaches and traditions. The most significant of these are Object Relations, Reichian body work and Gestalt.


What if it isn't right for me?
Our working relationship will be entered into in stages. First you will decide wheather you feel sufficiently comfortable with me and I will make an initial assesment as to whether this will be a helpful way of working for you. We will then agree to meet for a period of time, and review if we still think it is helpful at the end of that period. If at any point you or I decide that this isnt the best way to proceed, I will help to point you in a useful direction. In order to do this carefully and well, I ask that we have a period of three sessions between deciding to leave and the final meeting.