Dr James Costello

• Qualifications:BSc(Hons), PGDip Counselling, MSc (Counselling & Psychotherapy), Doctor of Philosophy, Registered Member MBACP (Accredited), BACP Senior Accredited Supervisor (Groups)
• Position:Senior Lecturer
• Telephone:+4411732 82490
• Email:James.Costello@uwe.ac.uk

About me

I am a counselling practitioner, supervisor, educationalist, author, and consultant.

I started-out in the natural sciences, doing my PhD with the 2016 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner in the area now known as nanotechnology.  Following this I was a Research Fellow at Oxford, then with the Leverhulme Trust.  I still maintain a fascination with nanomachines and smart liquids for aeronautics (see my publications and patents below).

I was drawn to the practice of counselling and psychotherapy because the workplace, and the art of learning and research all involve social processes with the transformative power of relationships at their heart.

I am a Registered and Accredited member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy, a Senior Accredited Supervisor, and gained an MSc in Counselling & Psychotherapy (Bristol) through the exploration of gendered experiences of perinatal depression.  Training resources from this research are available for download below.  I engage in practice, supervision, training and consultancy across a range of settings.  I am proud to support Dads in Mind (a charity linked to Bluebell which helps families manage perinatal emotional wellbeing), and am currently on sabbatical from Kinergy, a Bristol-based agency supporting survivors of sexual abuse.

I am an experienced Case Worker for the University and College Union, where I employ my skills and abilities for advocacy, conflict resolution, and mediation on behalf of members.  I am a passionate advocate of workplace wellbeing through the practice of embedded counselling skills.  I offer consultancy and training to public (i.e., HEI's, NHS), and private sector organisations committed to supporting the psychological wellbeing of their workers.

My latest book: Workplace Wellbeing - A Relational Approach (Routledge 2020) is, put simply: "a must for anyone interested in workplace wellbeing" (Therapy Today, February 2021).  I am co-founder of Born Human, a holistic mental health consultancy which seeks to promote the values, skills and ideals of a Relational Approach in the workplace.  To find out more about the future direction of our wellbeing at work in a post COVID world, see my interview with BACP Workplace. 

Area of expertise

My expertise as a therapist working one-to-one, with groups, and as a Senior Accredited supervisor comes from almost twenty years' practice across a range of settings, including:

• Private (i.e., Born Human);
• Third (i.e., Bluebell Care, Dementia Care Trust, and Kinergy), along with
• Public (i.e., HEIs', and NHS Counselling Services) sectors.

I am linked to the Department of Social Sciences, and teach on the: Certificate in Counselling Skills; BACP Accredited MA in Counselling & Psychotherapy; and occasionally BSc(Hons) Psychology and Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology.

My leadership experience as an educationalist spans both FE (as HoD) and HE, leading the Foundation Science Year more recently.  A University Teaching Fellow and an experienced external examiner, I have also been awarded prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry, and HEFC STEM Teaching Fellowships.

I continue to work from time to time as a consultant with small, medium, and large organisations (i.e., Airbus).  Here, my blended expertise in social processes, and science and technology has led to the solution of real-world problems, as evidenced by my track record of inventions, patents and publications across both the natural sciences and humanities.

Publications

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