Counselling Service podcasts

Part 1: Introduction: 2 mins 46 secs

This part sets the scene and manages expectations. It introduces attention to the mind and mindset. There’s a warning about multi-tasking and treadmills.

Part 2: How do we even define happiness? Stories of the mind and the secret director: 18 mins 10 secs

Tim tries to define happiness and fails badly doing so. Sometimes definitions are confusing and need to be treated flexibly. Happiness as a label might not be so useful and is very contextual.
The secret director is introduced, and the podcast explores social comparison and labels. This part begins to unpack primary and secondary pain.

Part 3: I’m a tourist in my own life: 15 mins 43 secs

We think about moving from spectator to actor in our own lives, away from autopilot using values and goals.
We then connect this with life-dilemmas which can bring challenges in the form of multiple choices, how do we know which way to go?

Part 4: The Matryoshka Doll - is it really happiness or something else?: 5 mins 45 secs

Tim tries to unpack the word happiness using the metaphor of the Matryoshka Doll, and wonders how it connects to the state of our world and the transience of experience.
The mind introduces things simply but when we stop and reflect, things soon get more complicated.

Part 5: Why be happy when you can be real?: 4 mins 8 secs

Here we pull everything together. Living fully and meaningfully is greater than happiness. At what cost do we chase and try to own happiness?

Part 1: Friends: 24 mins, 31 secs

In the first podcast, we’ll think about what we might mean by a friend, the different kinds of social circles to which you might belong, and some of the factors which might impact how many friends you have and of what kind.

Part 2: Finding your people: 16 mins, 31 secs

In the second podcast, we’ll consider how you might go about meeting people – both in terms of where you might look for potential friends and what you might say to them when you find them. We’ll then go on to reflect on how to make closer personal connections with people with whom you might already be on friendly terms.

Part 3: Doing the social rounds and reflecting on loneliness: 19 mins, 13 secs

In the third and final podcast, we’ll talk about how to circulate and network at social events, reflect on loneliness versus solitude, the pros and cons of being on your own, what makes us feel lonely, and how you might address these kinds of feelings if you experience them. We’ll also have a brief think about how to start addressing some of the trickier areas of friendship, and what you might do if, over a longer period of time, you begin to notice negative patterns in how you relate to others.

Part 1: Introduction: 19 mins, 32 secs

This first podcast defines stress and anxiety, explores common causes of stress and anxiety amongst the student community at the University of Oxford, and outlines key signs and symptoms to look out for.

Part 2: Stress: 17 mins, 14 secs

This podcast focuses on different kinds of stress: helpful and unhelpful stress, acute and chronic stress, and macro and micro-stress, and offers a practical way in which you can start to get some control back over any stress you might be experiencing.

Part 3: Anxiety: 20 mins, 38 secs

This podcast investigates anxiety from a medical and a psychodynamic perspective, including formal diagnoses and other ways of categorising anxiety, plus an exercise on identifying potential causes of underlying anxiety.

Part 4: How can understanding our early childhood development help when we are feeling anxious now? 21 mins, 15 secs

This podcast focuses on how an awareness of child development and our early childhood experiences can help us to explore and start to understand our current anxieties.

Part 5: How understanding what’s going on in our bodies, brains, and minds can help us to counteract stress and anxiety: 31 mins, 5 secs

This podcast considers how an awareness of what is going on in our bodies, brains, and minds from a physiological and neurological perspective can help us to counteract stress and anxiety, and includes ten practical strategies that can help.

Part 6: Taking the Long View: 23 mins, 25 secs

This podcast encourages you to think about the bigger picture to help you to get some perspective on any stress and anxiety you might currently be experiencing, and includes drawing up a plan for how to feel less stressed and anxious in the future.

Part 1: Doing more of what matters to you: 15 mins, 37 secs
This first episode on CBT looks at some of the ways in which low mood and depression can manifest in students, and introduces a central cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) strategy known as "behavioural activation".

Part 2: Six troublesome thoughts and how to respond: 19 mins 04 secs
This second CBT podcast focuses on the "C" of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), looking at ways in which low mood and depression can affect your thinking and introducing the key cognitive techniques of thought monitoring and thought challenging.

Part 3: Rules for living (and how to break them): 12 mins 33 secs
This third podcast focuses on the implicit “rules” affecting how you think and behave, helping you to spot when they’re serving you well and when they might be overly rigid or exacting.

Part 4: A tool for dealing with worry and rumination: 16 mins 15 secs
This fourth podcast focuses on two patterns of thinking that often come with low mood and depression: worry and rumination.

Part 5: Ten tips for coping in a crisis: 16 mins 18 secs
This fifth podcast focuses on those times when you’re feeling most desperate, hopeless or overwhelmed, offering some practical suggestions for how to cope and look after yourself during a mental health crisis.

Part 6: Self-criticism: 20 mins 40 secs
This sixth podcast focuses on self-criticism. It looks at why we can be so critical of ourselves and when this can become a problem, and introduces three tips and tools to help you deal with unhelpful self-criticism.

Part one: getting into the right mind set: 12 mins, 18 secs

Additional resources for examination preparation and revision (PDF)

For any student who is preparing to take examinations at any point in their course. The podcast aims to start to identify ways of achieving a balanced approach to thinking about examinations. It offers some practical tips for overcoming different obstacles to examination preparation and suggests how to move away from over-thinking into a phase of active planning.

Part two: planning and revision: 10 mins, 7 secs

Additional resources for examination preparation and revision (PDF)

Part 2 includes useful reminders of how to start planning for revision by taking stock of knowledge to date and starting to plan and timetable your revision. There are also some ideas to help you make the most of your revision time and to help make it effective and engaging.

Part three: before, during and after the examination: 8 mins, 5 secs

Additional resources for examination preparation and revision (PDF)

This podcast focuses on the examination itself – and just before it – and what might help you to feel prepared. There are also some ideas for how to cope both in the examination and after the examination. This section also includes two brief exercises: a breathing exercise and a centring technique.

Podcast: 14 mins, 6 secs

Offers a selection of the messages our counsellors offer to finalists who come to see us as they enter the home straight. Finalists are individuals, with different stories, academic ambition levels, and circumstances, and it is impossible to offer advice that is helpful to all. However, most listeners will find at least one thing on this list that feels relevant and helpful. We invite you to listen for that one thing and to commit yourself to making use of it.

Facing finals podcast transcript (PDF)

Part one: 12 min, 30 secs
For students who are finding it difficult to work. You might be lacking motivation, or finding it difficult to get beyond imagining criticism and judgements. You might be having trouble finishing off your work or handing it in. The podcast is divided into two parts, designed to be listened one after another. The first part will look at some of the underlying reasons why you might be struggling to work at the moment.

Part two: 14 mins, 48 secs
The second 'Can't work' podcast contains strategies that will help you to start working again.

Podcast: 14 mins, 15secs
Designed for any student who might be significantly older than their peers at the University and who might be dealing with particular issues as a result of this. Written in collaboration with several ‘mature students’.

Podcast: 9 mins, 30 secs
Freshers receive all sorts of advice about how to approach the experience of university. This podcast offers advice from the Oxford University Counselling Service, who see hundreds of Freshers every year, and so have a unique and privileged perspective on what can go wrong, and how to get it to go right. This podcast is designed to be relevant to all first year students as they enter into the Oxford experience - those who may be feeling daunted by the prospect of plunging into Oxford life, but also those who simply want to feel as prepared as possible to make the most of the experience.

Podcast: 16 mins, 43 secs

This podcast explores some of the emotional challenges faced by international students. It focuses on issues around coping with change, adapting to a new culture and language, and looks at some of the emotions that may emerge in the process of adjustment to a new environment.

Podcast: 14 mins, 12 secs
Exploring overwork at Oxford, this podcast is for students who struggle to balance their work with other life activities, and find the balance tipping heavily towards their work. We explore themes including perfectionism, sustainability, the costs and benefits of overwork, defining oneself with one’s work, and discuss ideas about how to work smarter and not harder. The podcast uses real student experiences voiced by members of the counselling team.

Podcast: 5 mins, 30secs
This is a short meditation, a breathing space, to help you to feel calm and focused in the midst of a busy day, or to use when feeling stressed or overwhelmed.  It is a way of anchoring yourself to the present moment, a pause in which to steady yourself whatever is going on around you. This mindful breathing space can be practised as little or as often as you wish but you will probably notice more benefit if you do it on a regular basis. If you would like to know more about mindfulness then visit the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation website.

Podcast: 11 mins, 12secs
Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for feeling well and for being able to function properly during the day. If you are having difficulty sleeping this podcast has some straightforward suggestions for improving your sleep. The Sleep Council website contains further useful information.

Podcast:  9 mins, 36 secs

This podcast acknowledges and addresses some of the worries and pre-conceptions that can get in the way of accessing counselling, even for those who are on some level aware that they could really benefit. We hope that listening to this podcast will give you some useful encouragement, and will help you across the threshold and into our service.

Why people who need counselling don’t come podcast transcript (PDF)

Podcast: 11 mins, 45 secs

This podcast considers how personal difficulties arise and manifest amongst otherwise successful students. It illustrates how increased self-understanding can help. Furthermore, it suggests that strategic personal development can help foster a more resourceful and secure adult identity, better equipped to manage life’s vagaries.

Podcast: 17 mins, 53 secs

A conversation between two members of the University Counselling Staff about common ways in which perfectionism impacts on the enjoyment of the student experience. Useful resources that accompany the podcast include:

• Overcoming Perfectionism, Shafran, R., Egan, S. & Wade, T. (2010)
• Perfectionism in Perspective, Fursland, A., Raykos, B. and Steele, A. (2009)
• Centre for Clinical Interventions
• Anxiety Canada: “How to overcome perfectionism”

Podcast: 17 mins

Some ideas to help students respond to anxiety about needing to be perfect. Useful resources that accompany the podcast include:

• Overcoming Perfectionism, Shafran, R., Egan, S. & Wade, T. (2010)
• Perfectionism in Perspective, Fursland, A., Raykos, B. and Steele, A. (2009)
• Centre for Clinical Interventions
• Anxiety Canada: “How to overcome perfectionism”

Part one: 5 mins, 29 secs

This introductory podcast explores the concept of developing your inner resource of self-compassion and the skills required to do this. Being a student at Oxford can trigger our inner critic and hence a more dis-compassionate approach to ourselves. This can negatively affect our motivation and performance in our academic and personal lives, so the need for a more compassionate approach to the challenges you encounter on your student journey.

Part two: 10 mins, 45 secs

Part two on this topic invites you to engage in two brief, meditative and compassionate exercises to further develop your inner resource of self-compassion. The final exercise provides some hints and tips on simple yet specific things you can try to build self-compassion into your daily routine.

Part 1 – Reflecting on Previous Experiences of Transition and Change: 12 mins, 34 secs