About us

The Oxford Centre for Spirituality and Wellbeing (OxCSWell) is based within Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT) and has strong links with Oxford Brookes University including the Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Research (OxINMAHR), whose purpose is to lead and participate in world-class research and evidence-based practice.

Informed research

​Our research underpins the development of training for staff so that they are  supported to provide spiritual care as a fundamental dimension of person-centred holistic care.

Our new research project in 2024 is an investigation into the impact of spirituality and religion on the experience of bereavement by suicide. This project is planned to conclude in 2026.

In 2019 we surveyed health care staff in the Thames Valley Region regarding their spiritual care training needs. The responses informed the inauguration of the first UK-wide university-accredited Post Graduate Certificate in Psychospiritual Care which began in May 2021.

Personal development

OxCSWell and the Department of Spiritual and Pastoral Care within OHFT work collaboratively to implement an annual programme of training and personal development events.

In its first three years OxCSWell:

• organised 14 workshops for health and social care staff
• ran a conference for 100 participants
• hosted three annual lectures by nationally known clinical academics working in the field of spiritual care
• presented a series of seminars for healthcare staff
• hosted a number of retreats for staff at OHFT, which were re-formed as Oxford Health’s Recovery and Renewal days run by the Trust’s Spiritual & Pastoral Care Team and are still held regularly.

Listen, Share, Hold, Respond

Our most recent major project, run by a project manager with the support of a post-doctoral researcher and administrator, is the LiSHoRE (Listen, Share, Hold, Respond) project which was funded by NHS England/Improvement and led by OHFT in partnership with Oxford Brookes University (OBU).

LiSHoRE seeks to understand and explore Black, Asian and ethnically-diverse NHS staff’s spiritual and religious experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This involved running a series of supportive Consultation Groups across 10 different NHS Trusts in Oxford, Manchester, Leicester, Worcester and Coventry.

The themes from these groups supported a series of webinars which were produced between Nov 2021 and March 2022. More details of these is available on the webinars page.