About me

Rachel Yates – LGBTQ+ Person-Centred Counsellor Walthamstow, East London E17 and Online

I am an experienced counsellor within the LGBTQ+ / Gender Sexuality and Relationship Diversity and Queer community. I want to ensure that LGBTQ+ people can access private counselling and therapy knowing that they will be safe, accepted and understood and not have to explain their gender or sexuality. I work with people exploring and questioning their sexuality and / or gender identity and all the other issues that come with being human. I worked for 2 years at East London Out Project (ELOP), a specialist LGBTQ centre offering counselling and group support in Walthamstow, East London.

I have 20+ years’ experience working in the mental health and homelessness sector in London. I have developed and managed psychologically and trauma informed environments, offering non-medical, Person-Centred peer support to men and women with experience of psychological crisis and distress, trauma and abuse, sex working, and using alcohol and drugs to cope. I have trained in group facilitation skills and for 7 years have been running the ‘Westminster Unusual Beliefs Group’, a peer-led community support group for people who hear voices, and have experiences and beliefs that are distressing or others find unusual or label as paranoid. I am a member of Drop The Disorder and the Hearing Voices Network, non-pathologising approaches to mental health.

I have personal lived experience of chronic fatigue and a long-term health condition.

Professional qualifications and memberships
​
Member of National Counselling Society (NCS Accredited Registrant – MNCS Accred.)
Membership number: NCS18-07417. I follow their Code of Ethics.

Accredited Voluntary Register

Training
  • Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling – Person-Centred Pathway, City Lit Institute, London
  • Certificate in Counselling Skills – Person Centred Approach, City Lit

Work experience

  • Volunteer Counsellor, ELOP (East London Out Project) LGBTQ Centre
Other memberships

Gendered Intelligence: Understanding diversity in creative ways

TPCAFINAL3 800

  • World Association for Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counselling (WAPCEPC)
Short courses and conferences
  • Kink on Pink – Pink Therapy webinar series for therapists. May-June 2020
  • Working with Shame, Carolyn Spring. February 2020
  • Cross Cultural Communication 2019. Intensive Person-Centred Personal Development Group. Hungary. July 2019 (7 days)
  • Working alongside trans, gender diverse and questioning people.Gendered Intelligence, London. November 2018  (2 days)
  • Kink Conference – From the Bottom to the Top – emerging trends in therapy and BDSM. Pink Therapy. October 2018
  • Working with Suicide and Self-Harm. Clare Shaw. September 2018
  • Deconstructing Personality Disorder. MIND. September 2018
  • PCE 2018 Vienna – 13th World Conference for Person-Centred & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counselling. WAPCEPC, Vienna, Austria. July 2018 (5 days)
  • Trauma Informed Mental Health Services. University of East London. June 2018
  • ISPS Liverpool 2017, Making real change happen. The 20th International Congress of ISPS. University of Liverpool. August 2017 (5 days)
  • Introduction to the Open Dialogue Approach. Open Dialogue UK. March 2014 (6 days)
  • Making sense of voices, Maastricht Interview Technique. Peter Bullimore, Hearing Voices Network. January 2014 (2 days)
  • Trauma, Abuse and Dissociation. Jacqui Dillon and Eleanor Longdon. April 2013 (2 days)