Dr James Costello

Qualifications:

BSc(Hons), PGDip Counselling, MSc (Psychotherapy), PhD, CChem, Registered Member MBACP (Accredited), BACP Senior Accredited Supervisor (Groups)

Position:

Senior Lecturer

Department:

College of Health, Science and Society

Telephone:

+441173282490

Email:

James.Costello@uwe.ac.uk

Social media:

About me

I am an academic, psychotherapist, and BACP Senior Accredited Supervisor (Groups) working at the intersection of clinical practice, phenomenological–hermeneutic inquiry, and organisational life.

Over more than two decades, I have worked across NHS services, higher education, and the third sector, as well as in high-stakes public contexts including UK Government Inquiries. Much of my work now takes place where complexity, responsibility, and human vulnerability converge, and where established frameworks of understanding begin to strain.

My work is concerned with how people live and practise when difficulties do not readily resolve. This includes grief, illness, trauma, organisational complexity, and situations where responsibility persists without clear solutions. In these contexts, the work often turns toward accompaniment, ethical restraint, and the capacity to remain with what does not yield easily to technique or explanation.

Area of expertise

Practice and Supervision

My work centres on reflective practice, supervision, and dialogue with experienced practitioners and teams, particularly where the work carries significant ethical, emotional, or organisational weight.

I work primarily with:

• senior clinicians and supervisors
• practitioners in complex or high-demand settings
• teams operating at the limits of established models

I do not offer high-volume supervision. My work is selective and develops with experienced practitioners and teams working in complex situations that do not easily fit established approaches. The focus is on creating a space where uncertainty, responsibility, and difficulty can be thought about carefully, without rushing to resolution.

At its best, this is work where no one is pretending, where language can falter a little, and where no one is required to be ahead of the room. Some of this work continues in small groups of practitioners who meet to reflect on situations that do not readily yield to standard ways of working.

Research and Writing

I am the author of:

• Philosophical Foundations of Psychotherapy: Radical Relationality (Routledge, 2024)
• Workplace Wellbeing: A Relational Approach (Routledge, 2020)

My recent article, “A Return to Radical Relationality” (Therapy Today, 2026) reflects ongoing dialogue with practitioners and the uptake of this work in practice.

Forthcoming:

• Entwined Selves (with Niall Keane, Routledge, 2026)
• The limits of understanding in psychotherapy, submitted to Human Studies.
• A HEIF-funded project on insomnia, exploring the lived experience of sleeplessness and its implications for practice.

Publications

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