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 author, educator, researcher, psychotherapist, and consultant whose work spans the physical and health sciences, professional practice, leadership, philosophy, and organisational life.

Originally trained as a chemist, I began my academic career in the physical sciences before moving into counselling and psychotherapy. Today my teaching, research, and programme development bring the physical and health sciences into dialogue with phenomenology, hermeneutics, and qualitative inquiry, exploring questions of movement, wellbeing, psychotherapy, and professional judgement.

For more than two decades I have worked across mental health services in the NHS, third and private sectors, higher education, and UK Government Inquiries, including the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and the UK COVID-19 Inquiry. My work has included psychotherapy, supervision, teaching, research, curriculum development, organisational consultation, and reflective practice across a wide range of professional settings.

My research explores how people practise, lead, learn, care, and exercise professional judgement under conditions of uncertainty. Current work includes a HEIF-funded phenomenological study of insomnia, the development of an interdisciplinary BSc in Sport and Exercise Science at UWE Bristol, and research examining leadership, reflective practice, and responsibility, care, and the persistence of what matters in complex professional settings.

Area of expertise

Research and Education

• Qualitative and phenomenological research
• Health and wellbeing
• Movement science
• Curriculum and programme development
• Professional judgement
• Leadership and organisational reflection

Professional Practice

• Clinical supervision
• Reflective practice
• Group supervision (BACP Senior Accreditation)
• Professional ethics
• Organisational consultation
• Relational, phenomenological and hermeneutic practice

Research and Writing

Books

• Workplace Wellbeing: A Relational Approach (Routledge, 2020)
• Philosophical Foundations of Psychotherapy: Radical Relationality (Routledge, 2025)
• Entwined Selves: Relational Encounter in Psychotherapy (with Niall Keane, Routledge, in press)

Current Research

• Hermeneutic approaches to psychiatric understanding
• Reflection, self-account, and therapeutic encounter
• The lived experience of insomnia and sleep disturbance (HEIF funded)
• Organisational reflection, leadership, and professional practice
• Responsibility, care, and the persistence of what matters

Publications

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