Psychotherapist in central Bristol offering: Psychotherapy to Couples and Groups, along with Drama Based Work and Supervision .
Hello and welcome to these pages.
My name is Tone Horwood, I am a Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist and former Dramatherapist with over forty years experience of working therapeutically with people in a variety of settings both in the public sector - National Health Service and the Probation Service - and in private practice.
MY SABBATICAL IS NOW OVER
I have taken over the room in Clifton Village and am available Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
I AM NOW FOCUSSING ON WORKING WITH COUPLES AND GROUPS.
I WILL BE OFFERING TWO GROUPS - A psychotherapy group for women and men and a group specifically for couples..
I AM ALSO SEEING SUPERVISEES BUT WILL NOT BE TAKING ON ANY MORE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY CLIENTS.
***
During my sabbatical from clinical work I focused on campaigning against the ongoing fragmentation and privatisation of our National Health Service alongside colleagues from Protect our NHS, PoNHS, a Bristol group, and Keep our NHS Public, KONP, a nationwide grouping with over seventy local groups of which PoNHS is one.
The blog reflecting on the ongoing campaign will end with the current post at the bottom of this page and on the Blog Pages
***
As a matter of judgement and personal preference I will not be taking on any more clients for on-line work unless there is a further need for a lock down. Should such a move become necessary; I will return to my earlier practice of asking potential clients to meet me for a socially distanced walk in a local park as part of the mutual decision making process about working together.
I also offer supervision to Psychotherapists, Counsellors, Arts Therapists and to workers in allied client facing occupations such as Social Work, Medicine the Law or Education, for example, who feel that they may benefit from time to reflect on their practice in a confidential space and with input from a psychotherapeutic perspective.
People come into psychotherapy for all kinds of reasons and I trust that I will be able to meet you and get alongside you wherever you are in your life's journey.
Whatever it is that you may bring, my offer as a Psychotherapist is to work with you as a whole person, not just as the bearer of your symptom(s) or distress. I work with people not symptoms or disorders.
"Only you can do it, but you don't have to do it alone." John Rowan.
My intention is to be alongside you, whilst keeping out of your way, as we explore whatever it is that you may bring.
Psychotherapy with adults can be in couples or, when we are able to restart - hopefully in Summer '24, in an ongoing weekly evening group.
Supervision can be undertaken one to one or in a small group.
- I am currently exploring the possibility of offering groupwork to couples in partnership with a co-worker. More on this on the Work with Couples page.
- Another new venture, at an early stage of exploration/development, involves working with an established therapist who uses equine assisted psychotherapy on the possibility of combining that work with a drama based approach for use with younger clients. More on this under the Drama based heading as the exploration continues.
I am available Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday face to face.
Alongside the work in central Bristol, where time and distance permit; I also enjoy, and have considerable experience in, making group based contributions to established trainings, staff groups or conferences in the UK or abroad.
See the following pages for more information on each of these areas of my work as a psychotherapist.
Should you wish to get in touch there is a link to an email form at the top of this page or you are welcome to call me on 0117 972 1077 where you will, in all probability, reach my answerphone and I will then get back to you as soon as I am able.
***
B. 6. 9/10/'23
Having begun with a bit of a whimper, may sabbatical has ended with a bit of a bang as it coincided with PONHS booking Banner Theatre to bring their show "Enough Is Enough" to Cotham Parish hall on the w/end of 7/10/'23. Banner are probably our last UK avowedly Socialist theatre group and the show focused on the depredation of our National Health Service and the working class in general. Not a massive audience but we probably broke even and see it, if there was a loss, as a very enjoyable and worthwhile campaigning expense.
One piece of feedback read; " The show reignited a flame that I have neglected to stoke for a while." Can't get better than that........
There are clips of the show on YouTube and, if you fancy a bit of agit-prop theatre, Banner can be contacted at: bannerauto2013@gmail.com. They will be back in Bristol early next year with a show for Bristol Trades Council.
PONHS continues it's post card campaign, we collected just short of 200 of them to 98 different MPs at the Forwards Festival on the Downs in Bristol.
Strangely enough, still nothing from Starmer or Smyth on meetings with either of them ( when I were a lad...looking someone in the eye and shaking hands on whatever was discussed meant something..........)
PONHS is continuing to work with the St Pauls Dentst Group following the withdrawal of BUPA from the dental service in Ashley Rd. at the end of June - presumably they weren't making enough money. We are keeping this on the agenda in our now, hopefully regular, meetings with the Integrated Care Service CEO.
We are also promoting our petition about the ill fitting IAPT mental Health Services locally. " One size does not fit all" This is being hosted by KONP and can be found on their www:
https://keepournhspublic.com/nhs-talking-therapies-petition/
I urge you to take a look ( and sign & share) if you have concerns about Mental Health services locally and, by implication, nationally
At KONP we are putting in appearances at the Covid Inquiry and promoting our own inquiry report " Malpractice in Public Office" which can be downloaded for free either full length or in digest form from the home page of:
https://keepournhspublic.com/
by following the link from " People's Covid Inquiry, Learn lessons and save lives."
It's a long, scary read - the product of ten two hour on-line sessions chaired by Micheal Mansfield KC and contributed to by both those affected and national and international experts.
You can go directly to the Covid Inquiry web presence here: https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/
KONP's vision for our National Health Service appears on a paper for the Labour Party's current conference and is also well worth a read:
https://labouroutlook.org/2023/10/05/delivering-a-vision-for-the-peoples-nhs-keep-our-nhs-public/
The Junior docs are still striking intermittently and the consultants have joined them. Bully-Boy Barclay, not my name for him but Roy Lilley's, is still refusing to speak to them - in public anyway and no one I know knows, or will say, different,
Roy Lilley has a much, much better informed blog than mine for these matters.
See: nhsmanagers.net
Both PONHS and KONP are politically non aligned and so, in my role as a psychotherapist, am I.
However, as we get to the end of this infrequent blog and approach the even more infrequent return of a General Election, allow me to leave you with the thought that when the National Health Service was being planned - in the midst of a long and destructive world war that would leave the country indebted for sixty years - the tories voted against it twenty-two times (not the forty-eight times I wrote earlier) however that's still twenty-two noes against what became the most equitable and universal health service the world has ever seen.
Go well,
Tone.
Bristol