Meet Helen
I can see your potential even when you're struggling to see it for yourself.I’m Helen, and I’m a counsellor and coach working online and face to face in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
I have a Diploma in Gestalt therapy from The Albany Centre. I’m fully insured and a member of the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP); I work within the BACP’s ethical framework.
My job is to provide a safe and empathic environment where you can explore difficult feelings and identify new ways to approach problems in your life. Together we will work to identify the coping mechanisms that no longer serve you and develop new approaches to help you move forward with confidence.
As a Gestalt therapist, I will work with what’s happening for you right here and now. We will look at how your past impacts and influences how you feel and respond to life’s challenges today, and explore new approaches to help you feel better.
I’ve worked with anxiety, workplace stress, addiction, bereavement, codependency, divorce and relationship breakdown, chronic illness and pain, depression and the pain of infertility and pregnancy loss.
I’m also a mum of teenagers and I know how challenging this stage of parenting can be. As a parent coach, I will help you find different ways of relating with your teenager to help you get back to the relationship you want to have with them.
She was empathetic in our discussions
After dealing with the loss of my parents in the space of a year of each other, I had counselling with Helen. She helped me acknowledge and cope with my grief in our sessions together. She was empathetic in our discussions and gave advice on how to manage my grief moving forward.
The first time I had therapy, I was hooked.
I have a child with type 1 diabetes, a life-altering medical condition that most people don’t understand.
My world turned upside down as I watched her life change almost beyond recognition. I went into overdrive trying to fix things for her, and I was constantly exhausted, ignoring my own needs in favour of hers. Even worse, I felt judged and misunderstood by people around me. I was angry with the world and full of guilt.
It took me two years to get my head round things, and by then I was in excruciating physical pain. I’d had fibromyalgia for 17 years, but my pain levels were now off my usual scale. I’d even resorted to a shoulder operation that didn’t fix things. And then I was referred to a counsellor and I started talking. And my therapist listened.
Shame dies when stories are told in safe spaces – Ann Voskamp
There is nothing more powerful than being seen and heard; except perhaps being believed and accepted. I cried with relief that day as I realised that my counsellor not only believed what I told her about how hard my life felt, but wanted to know more. She wasn’t scared of my anger, she named my shame for what it was, and she helped me find new ways of looking at myself, my daughter’s life, and my relationship with the world.
As my anxiety started to feel less intense, the pain became more manageable and I started to address some other issues in my life that were no longer serving me. The power of talking through my problems with someone who was 100% there for me was such an important experience that I wanted to give it to other people, so I trained as a counsellor myself.
If you’re living with pain – emotional or physical – get in touch and let’s see if I can help.
