Code of Ethics and Professional Practice

Practitioner: Laura How
Practice: Laura How Counselling and Guidance
Document version: 1.0
Date adopted: 06/04/2026
Next scheduled review: 06/04/2027

This document sits alongside the Privacy Policy and should be read with it.

1. Purpose and scope

This document sets out the ethical and professional standards I hold myself to in my work as a counsellor and coach. It is a public statement, available to anyone considering working with me or interested in how I practise.

It applies to my one-to-one work with clients, my couples and intensive work, my supervisory relationships, and the public-facing parts of my practice including my YouTube channel, podcast, and written work. Where this document refers to clients it includes prospective clients, current clients, and former clients whose data or material remains in my care.

This document complements, but does not replace, the Privacy Policy published at laurahow.com, which sets out in detail how personal data is handled. Where the two documents address the same subject, the Privacy Policy is authoritative on data matters and this document is authoritative on clinical and ethical matters.

2. Professional position and accountability

2.1 Regulatory context

Counselling and psychotherapy in the United Kingdom are not statutorily regulated. Membership of professional bodies such as BACP, UKCP and NCS is voluntary, not required by law. I have chosen to practise outside membership of these bodies.

This decision reflects a commitment to maintaining independence in clinical voice and specialist focus. I hold myself to standards equivalent to those frameworks, with the additional safeguards set out in this document. Prospective clients are welcome to ask any question about my training, supervision, insurance, or practice before deciding whether to work with me.

2.2 Training, experience and continuing development

I qualified as a counsellor in 2011 with a Diploma in Counselling from the University of the West of England, on a BACP-accredited training course.

My clinical career began in addiction and crisis support, where I worked across some of the most demanding settings in that field, including:

• Support Worker, Women’s Refuge
• Support Worker, Turning Point
• Support Worker, Addaction
• Training, Recreation, Education, Employment and Support Worker, Addiction Recovery Agency
• Trainee Counsellor on the Day Programme, Addiction Recovery Agency
• Trainee Student Counsellor, Weston College

That grounding in addiction, recovery and the support of women fleeing abusive relationships continues to inform my work today, including the work with couples and individuals that has become my public specialism.

Counselling is the work of my life. I read, study, supervise, and think about therapy continuously, and my professional development is an ongoing daily commitment rather than a quota of hours to clear each year. Records of formal continuing professional development are held privately and are available to my supervisor and insurer on request.

2.3 Clinical supervision

I am in regular clinical supervision with a qualified clinical supervisor. Supervision is a confidential professional relationship in which client work is discussed in anonymised form, ensuring my practice is reflective, ethical, and safe. My supervisor is bound by the same confidentiality standards that apply to my work with clients. The frequency, identity, and credentials of my supervisor are available to clients on request.

2.4 Insurance

I hold full professional indemnity, public liability and products liability insurance with Hiscox, one of the UK’s leading specialist insurers. Cover includes treatment and professional liability, public and products liability, and abuse or molestation cover. Specific policy details, including limits and policy number, are available to clients and other parties with a legitimate professional interest on request.

3. Core principles

My practice is guided by six core principles. They sit behind every clinical decision and every interaction with clients. Where any of these principles come into tension with one another, as they sometimes do, I work the tension openly in supervision rather than resolving it silently.

3.1 Client autonomy

Clients are the experts on their own lives. My role is to help clients think clearly, see honestly, and choose deliberately. I do not steer clients toward outcomes I personally prefer, including outcomes that might be culturally fashionable in therapy or beyond it. I will challenge a client’s thinking; I will not direct their decisions.

3.2 Trustworthiness

I keep my word. I hold confidences carefully and breach them only where the limits set out in this document are reached. I am honest with clients about what I do and do not know, and about the limits of what therapy can do.

3.3 Beneficence

I work for the wellbeing of the client. In couples work, I work for the wellbeing of the relationship and of both partners, including the partner whose perspective is less popular in mainstream therapy culture.

3.4 Non-maleficence

I take care to avoid harm. I work within my competence. I refer or signpost where another practitioner is better placed to help. I do not undertake work I am not equipped to do.

3.5 Honest engagement

Therapy depends on honest exchange. I will tell a client when I think they are avoiding something, when I disagree with a course of action they are considering, or when I think they are not yet ready for a step they want to take. I do this with care, but I do it. Comfort is not the goal; clarity is.

3.6 Self-respect and sustainable practice

Good therapy depends on a therapist who is well, rested, supervised, and not overcommitted. I limit my caseload, take supervision seriously, take regular breaks, and do not work in ways that compromise the quality of attention I bring to each client.

4. Working with clients

4.1 Initial contact and informed consent

Before therapy begins, prospective clients are given a written Client Agreement setting out fees, cancellation terms, contact arrangements, confidentiality, data handling, and the limits of the work. The agreement is signed before the first session. Clients are encouraged to ask any questions before signing.

4.2 The therapeutic frame

Sessions are held at agreed times, for agreed durations, in agreed formats (in person, online, or by phone). I keep to time. I prepare for each session by reviewing notes from previous work. I expect clients to attend sober, alert, and able to engage.

4.3 Between-session contact

Between-session contact is generally limited to administrative matters, such as rescheduling. I do not provide therapy by email or text message. In situations where between-session contact is clinically warranted, for example a welfare check following a session involving significant disclosure or risk, I make this explicit and limited.

In a clinical emergency or crisis, clients are advised to contact emergency services (999 in the UK), the Samaritans (116 123), or their GP, rather than rely on between-session contact with me.

4.4 Couples and intensive work

When I work with a couple, the relationship is the client. I hold the interests of both partners equally, including in moments where the two partners have competing accounts of the same situation. I do not take sides, and I will name this principle openly when one partner asks me to favour their position.

Where a disclosure is made in a couples session that materially changes the therapeutic frame, including a disclosure of abuse, coercion, or non-consensual sex, I will pause the couples work and seek supervisor guidance before proceeding. In such circumstances, continued work may take a different form, or may need to end.

4.5 Dual relationships and boundaries

I do not provide therapy to people with whom I have a significant pre-existing personal, social, or business relationship. I do not enter into significant personal, social, or business relationships with current or former clients. Where a small overlap is unavoidable (for example in a small community), I will name it openly and discuss it with my supervisor.

4.6 Social media and public platforms

I do not interact with current or former clients on social media. I do not follow, friend, like, comment on, or message clients on any platform. Clients are welcome to follow my public work; I will not follow them in return, and I will not respond to direct messages from clients on social media.

4.7 Ending therapy

Clients can end therapy at any time. I will offer a final session where possible to review the work and close cleanly. Where I believe a client would benefit from continuing work but with a different practitioner, I will say so and offer to support a referral. Where I believe ongoing work with me is no longer indicated, I will say so honestly and explain my reasoning.

5. Confidentiality

What is said in our sessions stays between us, with the limits set out below. I take confidentiality seriously. It is the foundation of therapeutic trust.

5.1 The limits of confidentiality

I will breach confidentiality where there is a serious and credible risk of harm to the client, to another identifiable person, or to a child. I will breach confidentiality where required to do so by law, including by court order and under safeguarding legislation. I will breach confidentiality where a client discloses involvement in serious criminal activity that creates ongoing risk to others, after seeking supervisor guidance and where possible discussing the intended action with the client first.

Where confidentiality must be broken, I will tell the client what I am doing and why, and I will share only the minimum information necessary to address the concern.

5.2 Supervision

Client work is discussed in supervision in anonymised form. Supervisors are bound by the same confidentiality standards that apply to my own work.

5.3 Couples confidentiality

In couples work, I do not hold secrets between partners. If I am told something in an individual session that materially affects the couples work, I will expect the discloser to bring it into the joint work, and I will support them in doing so. I make this clear at the outset of any couples engagement.

6. Safeguarding

Where I become aware of a child or vulnerable adult at risk of significant harm, I have a responsibility to act, including where this means breaching confidentiality. I will seek supervisor guidance promptly in any such situation, and where indicated I will refer to the appropriate statutory service (children’s social care, adult social care, or the police).

Where an adult client discloses a crime committed against them, I will not report on their behalf without their consent except where there is a continuing risk to a child or another identifiable person, or where I am required to do so by law. I will support the client in considering their own options, including specialist support services and reporting routes, without pressuring them toward any particular course of action.

Where an adult client discloses a crime they have committed, I will seek supervisor guidance. The action I take will depend on the nature of the crime, the time elapsed, and any continuing risk to others.

7. Records, data, and recordings

Detailed information on data handling, including the recording workflow and consent process, is set out in the Privacy Policy. The summary below addresses the clinical and ethical dimensions of records and recordings.

7.1 Session notes

I keep brief factual notes of each session, sufficient to support the continuity of the work and to meet professional and legal requirements. Notes are stored in encrypted, password-protected systems. Clients have the right to request access to their own records; arrangements for this are set out in the Privacy Policy.

7.2 Session recordings

Some sessions are recorded for the purpose of producing accurate session notes. Recording requires explicit written consent from every person present in the session, given before the session begins. A client who has declined recording in their Client Agreement will not be recorded, and the absence of recording does not affect the quality of the work. Recordings are handled in accordance with the workflow set out in the Privacy Policy, including same-day deletion of audio after local transcription.

7.3 Use of artificial intelligence tools

I use AI tools, specifically Claude provided by Anthropic, to assist with session note preparation from transcripts. Anthropic operates as a data processor under a data processing agreement and does not use input data to train its models. The full data flow is described in the Privacy Policy. AI tools assist my work; they do not replace clinical judgement.

8. Public work and communication

8.1 Why I work in public

Part of my professional work happens in public, through my YouTube channel, the Love and Cherish podcast, and written articles. This work is part of my practice rather than separate from it. I write and speak publicly about clinical issues that I believe are under-served by mainstream relationship therapy, particularly the experience of long-term sexless marriages and the male experience of sexual rejection. The public focus reflects what I choose to teach in public; it is not the limit of what I work with clinically.

8.2 Confidentiality in public work

I never discuss identifiable clients in public material. Where a public video or article draws on clinical themes, the material is generalised, anonymised, and not traceable to any individual client. I do not use composite cases that would be identifiable to anyone in a client’s life.

8.3 Pre-engagement transparency

My public material is openly available before any client decides to work with me. Prospective clients are encouraged to read or watch some of this material as part of deciding whether my approach is the right fit. I would rather a prospective client decide I am not the right therapist for them, before we start, than discover it after several sessions.

8.4 Values transparency

I have views about relationships, sex, family, and society which inform my work and are visible in my public material. Clients are welcome to disagree with my publicly stated views; many do, on some points, and the work proceeds well. What clients can expect is that I will not impose those views in the consulting room, that I will hold their autonomy as paramount, and that I will say openly when my views and theirs diverge rather than steer them silently.

9. Scope of practice and referral

My professional experience spans more than twenty years of mental health work work, beginning in addiction and crisis support and developing over time into a specialism in long-term relationships and intimacy. My YouTube channel and podcast focus on sexless marriages and the male experience of sexual rejection because I believe these subjects are under-served, but my clinical practice is broader.

Within my competence I work with:

• Individuals and couples in relationship and intimacy difficulty, including sexless marriages, mismatched desire, infidelity recovery, and the rebuilding of trust.
• Adults in recovery from addiction, including alcohol, drugs, and behavioural addictions.
• Adults working through the impact of past abuse, coercive relationships, or domestic violence in earlier chapters of their lives.
• Adults navigating major life transitions, loss, identity change, and the questions that bring people to therapy in midlife and beyond.

I do not undertake work that is outside my competence, including:

• Acute psychiatric crisis, where specialist mental health services are required.
• Active substance dependence requiring detox, residential rehabilitation, or specialist medical intervention.
• Ongoing experience of active domestic violence where the client is in immediate physical danger; this requires specialist domestic abuse services and routes to safety beyond the scope of one-to-one therapy.
• Work with under-18s.

Where a prospective or current client’s needs sit outside my scope, I will say so honestly and offer to support a referral to an appropriate specialist.

10. Complaints

If you are unhappy with any aspect of my work, I would prefer to hear about it. Concerns are taken seriously. The complaints process is straightforward.

10.1 First step

Where possible, raise the concern with me directly, in writing to laura@laurahow.com or in a session. I will acknowledge receipt within five working days and will offer a substantive response, in writing or in conversation as preferred, within twenty working days.

10.2 If the matter is not resolved

If you are not satisfied with my response, or you would prefer not to raise the concern with me directly, you can write to my clinical supervisor. Supervisor contact details are available on request. The supervisor will review the concern independently and respond within twenty working days.

10.3 Data and privacy concerns

Concerns specifically about how your personal data has been handled can be raised through the route above and, if not resolved, with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

10.4 Records of complaints

All complaints are recorded, including the substance of the concern, the steps taken in response, and the outcome. Records of complaints are reviewed in supervision and inform changes to my practice where indicated.

10.5 Your legal rights

Nothing in this complaints process limits your legal rights. You retain at all times the right to seek independent legal advice and to pursue a claim in the courts. I hold professional indemnity insurance with Hiscox so that any legitimate claim against me can be properly addressed.

11. Review and updates

This document is reviewed annually and updated when changes to my practice, the law, or relevant professional standards make revision necessary. The version number and date at the top of this document confirm when it was last updated. Material changes will be summarised in a brief note alongside the published document.

12. Contact

Questions about this document, or about any aspect of my practice, are welcome. Please write to laura@laurahow.com.