Rachel Yates – LGBTQ+ Person-Centred Counsellor Walthamstow, East London E17
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.
- 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
- Hearing Voices Network, UK
- The Person Centred Association (formerly BAPCA)
- World Association for Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counselling (WAPCEPC)
- ISPS – The International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis
- July 2019 (7 days) – Cross Cultural Communication 2019. Intensive Person-Centred Personal Development Group. Pecs, Hungary.
- November 2018 (2 days) – Working alongside trans, gender diverse and questioning people. Gendered Intelligence, London
- October 2018 – Kink Conference – from the bottom to the top – emerging trends in therapy and BDSM. Pink Therapy
- September 2018 – Working with Suicide and Self-Harm. Clare Shaw
- September 2018 – Deconstructing Personality Disorder. MIND
- July 2018 (5 days) – PCE 2018 Vienna – 13th World Conference for Person-Centred & Experiential Psychotherapy & Counselling. WAPCEPC, Vienna, Austria
- June 2018 – Trauma Informed Mental Health Services. University of East London
- August 2017 (5 days) – ISPS Liverpool 2017, Making real change happen. The 20th International Congress of ISPS. University of Liverpool
- March 2014 (6 days) – Introduction to the Open Dialogue Approach. Open Dialogue UK
- January 2014 (2 days) – Making sense of voices, Maastricht Interview Technique. Peter Bullimore, Hearing Voices Network
- April 2013 (2 days) – Trauma, Abuse and Dissociation. Jacqui Dillon and Eleanor Longdon