Reduced cost counselling in Oxfordshire or online - for children and adults
www.riversidecounsellingservice.co.uk is a charity based in Henley-on-Thames, RG9. They provide counselling and psychotherapy at rates which they describe as ‘affordable’ to adults and children from age 12 who live in Henley-on-Thames, Wallingford, Berinsfield, Didcot and the surrounding areas. I couldn’t find any indicative fee levels on the website however. The counsellors are all qualified psychotherapists.
www.thehelphub.co.uk is based in Woodstock and offers low-cost face-to-face and online counselling for adult residents who live close to Woodstock. Their website currently (Feb 2025) states that the fee is £40 for a 50-minute face-to-face session. Some of the sessions are with trainee therapists, but the initial appointment would be with a qualified therapist.
Your employer may offer an Employee Assistance Programme. I’ve read hundreds of psychotherapists’ profiles to find resources to include on this website and have noticed that many qualified and experienced therapists and counsellors with years of varied experience state that they work or have worked for these programmes. These would provide support to the parent rather than the child.
(last updated 14 January 2026)
Reduced cost counselling available online
(last updated 14 January 2026)
National Low Cost Counselling is a not-for-profit initiative - https://www.lowcost-counselling.com/ - based in Leamington Spa and available online. The fee level is indicated as £15 - £25 for a 50 minutes session. Counsellors are close to completing their professional training, or have qualified but are not yet accredited. Each therapist is supported in their work by an experienced qualified supervisor.
Low cost online resources for mental health support
(last updated 14 January 2026)
https://solihullapproachparenting.com is an NHS service which was established in 1996 and parents anywhere can access it online. The organisation was first developed by health visitors and is now also staffed by clinical psychologists and other professionals. They provide information for parents with children of all ages up to 18. They provide online resource packs, accessible through their parent portal https://inourplace.co.uk/. The following courses have been developed by teams of clinical psychologists: for adults: Understanding your relationships (11 modules of 20 minutes each for £24) and Understanding your own trauma (11 modules of 20 minutes each for £25). They offer a course for parents called Understanding your teenager’s brain (9 modules of 20 minutes each for £9) and a course for teenagers called Understanding your brain (9 modules of 20 minutes each for £9) and another called Understanding your feelings (8 modules of 20 minutes each for £8.50) and others.
KindleKids is a company founded by a London-based Chartered Clinical Child Psychologist who has put together several pre-paid online courses for parents of children between ages 4-16, available for a fraction of the cost of the equivalent time in one-to-one meetings. She is offering an 8-week programme of access to video recordings and worksheets, designed to equip parents with skills and confidence to support their children when they are experiencing difficulties, for £180. The programme is called the Psychology Of Wellbeing & Emotional Resilience (P.O.W.E.R.) and includes modules on (1) Essentials of Emotional Wellbeing, (2) Thinking about Thinking, (3) Overcoming Anxiety, (4) More on Anxiety, (5) Unravelling and Understanding Anger, (6) Building Confidence and Resilience. (7) Social Skills and (8) Parenting and Understanding Behaviour. There is an option to purchase this course and also to book a 30-minute 1:1 Q&A session with the Psychologist, for an additional £90 (so, £270 for the 8-week course plus one individual session). Still with KindleKids, there is also a similar course tailored for parents of a child on the autism spectrum: an 8-week online course, plus 2 live workshops, for £199 and also, separately, a one hour-long recorded video and worksheets to download, on the subject of Understanding and Managing Overwhelm, which costs £29.50.
The University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education offers some online and in-person courses in Psychology and other subjects aimed at increasing Wellbeing, which are open to anyone aged over 18. A summary of the courses can be found at https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/search#/courses?s=psychology&sort=relevance. Courses including Psychology: An Introduction are available starting in January 2026. The formats range from online flexible (subscribe and complete in your own time), online live (at fixed times), one-day in-person workshops or weekly in-person 2-hour sessions in Summertown, OX2 (behind the former Co-Op which is now Oliver Bonas).
https://www.aspergerexperts.com/ is a website, as mentioned on the 'free resources' page here, whose founders are young adults all on the spectrum themselves, and some have studied psychology. They emphasize learning how to feel better or help someone else feel calmer, rather than trying to teach ‘coping skills’. They offer courses for parents and young adults, starting from US$147, which includes a recording based around approximately 6 hours of PowerPoint-type presentations and a transcript. You also get access (included in the cost) to twice-weekly live call-ins with a psychologist for the duration of the course (5 weeks) and if you can’t access all or any of the calls (they’re on the US west coast), they will email you a recording.