Kate Howells
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Hello and welcome to my profile. My name is Kate Howells and I am a fully qualified Integrative Counsellor whose work is primarily underpinned by Gestalt Therapy. You are probably coming to counselling because you are feeling stuck and cannot stop behaving in unhelpful old patterns. You may have an idea of how you would like to be, but don’t know how to get there, perhaps feeling entrenched in anxiety and/or depression. Whilst you will be really keen to change, we will work towards you becoming more aware of how you are right now. This is because all of the difficulties you are experiencing will have developed for good reasons in response to your environment and events that have happened in your life. If we work together to discover what is going on for you and you can accept it as a reasonable response to your life so far, then you will find that alternative ways of being begin to emerge.
If you are on the autistic spectrum, you may find the way that I work helpful to you. Whilst many autistic clients have said that they would like to learn to relate like a neurotypical person, that is not the kind of work that I offer. It is my understanding that mental health issues develop for the majority of people as a result of not feeling accepted or good enough in the world as they are. Being on the autistic spectrum, this feeling of non-acceptance will be magnified following difficulties fitting-in at home, at school, in the work-place and in relationships. You may have been camouflaging your autism for years already by mimicking the behaviour of others. This will have been at a huge cost to you emotionally, psychologically and physically. It may have caused you to experience anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts and other difficulties. This may have gone on so long that you feel that the mental health issues are part of the autism, leading to feelings of hopelessness.
Consequently, the work we will do is not about changing you, but more about disentangling the add-ons (anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts …) from your sense of who you are. As you begin to understand and accept yourself more, so you may find it less difficult to connect to others. It is when we are trying to be who we are not that we find it the most difficult to connect. Therefore, the work will be about freeing you up from trying to be like others so that you can accept yourself and consequently relate to others more easily.
It is widely recognised that in order for therapy to be effective, a really good working relationship between client and counsellor is essential. In light of this, I offer a free 15 minute initial phone or zoom consultation so that we can decide together whether we are a good fit for your therapy.
I am a Registered Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and work within their Ethical Guidelines for Good Practice in Counselling. I am fully insured and have an up to date enhanced DBS check.
Training, qualifications & experience
- BSc Psychology (1st Class Honours)
- Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Counselling - Dartmoor Counselling and Psychotherapy Centre
Other Training
- Person Centred Couples Counselling (2 days training)
- Domestic Abuse Training – pairs. (2 days training)
- Domestic Abuse Awareness training
- Understanding Child Protection with Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board
- Exploring Suicide Risk
- Understanding Emotional Trauma
- Developing cultural competence for working with LGBT Clients
- Lost in Transition Conference (Intercom Trust) - exploring the needs of gender-conflicted children and young people, and their families/schools
- Working with Shame
- Anger, Rage and Relationship
- KUF Training (3 days training on how to work more effectively with clients diagnosed with a personality disorder)
- Autism Awareness Training
- Ongoing member of a Gestalt Personal Development Group
- Eating Disorder Conference
Experience
- Lead Counsellor of the Victims of Crime Counselling Project at a Plymouth based charity offering support and information to young people between the ages of 13 and 25.
- Counsellor at a Plymouth based Community Interest Company, working with a wide range of clients in both short term and long term work.
- Counsellor at a Plymouth Secondary School, working with girls from the age of 11 to 18 years of age.
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Photos & videos
Fees
£7,500.00 per session
Additional information
£75 per hour for individual counselling
£90 per hour for couples counselling
Free initial 15 minute zoom or phone consultation
When I work
Mondays and Fridays 8.30 am - 6.00 pm
