Lynne Gabriel, OBE
Professor of Counselling and Mental Health
Founder and Centre Director, York St John Communities Centre
REF Impact Case Study Lead and co-lead for REF Unit of Assessment (UoA 3, Allied Health).
I am Professor of Counselling and Mental Health at York St John University. As a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Accredited and Registered Counsellor and Psychotherapist, an EMCC Global Accredited Coach, and a trained clinical supervisor, I have extensive experience of supporting student practitioners and trained helping professionals and leaders. My work within counselling and mental health has involved complex leadership roles within the context of higher education, the helping professions, and mental health system transformation. I also have extensive experience of supporting research degree candidates from the counselling, psychology, mental health, and allied health professions to successfully complete their degrees.
My experience of working with people facing life challenges and mental health issues has included in-depth and sustained work around bereavement, loss, relationship abuse, trauma and relational ethics. My work and publications on relational ethics for the counselling professions has supported the evolution of the various iterations of BACP’s Ethical Framework since the early 2000s. During Covid-19, I co-developed and delivered online bereavement groups to support people bereaved during the pandemic - and the groups continue to run today through the York St John Communities Centre - and also supported BACP to provide resources and events to support practitioner members of the association.
Involved in the 2024-26 NHSE national 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centre programme, I value and champion accessible, compassionate and co-produced relational care. Within the University, I founded the York St John Communities Centre in 2016 to provide accessible therapies, wellbeing services and communities focused projects. My publications include published books on ethics in practice, as well as concept and research papers and book chapters on multiple aspects of work within the counselling and care professions. With my co-editor Professor Andrew Reeves, I developed the Ethics in Action series for Routledge.
In 2022, I was awarded an OBE for services to higher education and mental health. In relation to my ongoing work in counselling and mental health, in 2023 I was appointed as President of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) and actively contribute to UK and international evolution of the counselling and mental health professions. Other recent roles include serving as a Commissioner for UK Commissions focused on the evolution of health and mental health care (Commission for the Future of Counselling & Psychotherapy; the Fielding Commission, and the Healthcare Devolution Commission). In 2025 I reduced my full time academic work to part time, in order to rebalance my work-life activities. My current work portfolio continues to actively support the university's civic actions and commitment.
I lead a taught MA research year and supervise doctoral and postgraduate researchers.
In recent years I set up a public facing counselling and mental health service, based on the University campus. A key aim of the project was to provide quality teaching and educational placements for students. The project has provided clinical, training and work related placements for many students and is now known as the York St John Communities Centre.
I am passionate about research and value the production of practice-base evidence and evidence informed practice.
After setting up the York St John based counselling and mental health centre, now known as the York St John Communities Centre, I connected with other universities to set up a research consortium. This has now developed into the UK Training, Research and Counselling Clinic Consortium, with collaborators from multiple UK universities and two lead bodies in the counselling professions: British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).
Recent publications
Across the years I have been involved in multiple professional activities, locally, nationally and internationally.
The following are examples of some of my recent involvements:
- Chair of BACP Ethics and Good Practice Guidance Committee (stepping down in 2023)
- Co-Chair of York’s Mental Health Partnership Board
- Member of UK Expert Reference Group for SCoPED (scoping of practice and education in counselling and psychotherapy)
- Founder and member of the UK Training, Research and Counselling Clinics (TRACCs)
- Member of the international Pluralistic Practice Network - I am a member of several of the network's working groups
- Conference host for 2023 BACP student conference
