About Helen
Helen Downs is a counsellor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, addictions and trauma. She also supports those dealing with relationship and family strains, grief, self-esteem and life changes. Helen uses straightforward, compassionate work to help people find direction again.
She trained as a hypnotherapist and has practised hypnotherapy for seven years, alongside broader counselling work. Her background includes work in the prison services, where she gained experience with people affected by addiction, neurodiversity and the criminal justice system.
Background and approach
Helen draws on several approaches in sessions. She uses client-centred listening to follow what matters most to each person. She brings in practical tools from cognitive behavioural therapy to identify unhelpful thoughts and try different responses.
She also uses techniques from dialectical behaviour therapy to teach coping skills for strong emotions, and psychodynamic ideas to look at past patterns that keep repeating. Hypnotherapy is offered as an additional option when it fits a person's goals. Throughout her work Helen emphasises respect, sensitivity and clear collaboration.
She aims to create straightforward steps people can take between sessions. The focus is on helping clients build stability, cope better day to day, and make practical change when they’re ready.
Approaches that suit online therapy
Helen commonly uses client-centred work and cognitive behavioural therapy in online sessions. Client-centred therapy focuses on listening carefully and responding to what matters most to the person, helping people feel heard and understood. Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, looks at thoughts and behaviours and uses practical exercises to test new ways of coping and reduce anxiety or low mood.She also draws on dialectical behaviour therapy skills when strong emotions are a problem. DBT techniques teach breathing, grounding and emotion-regulation tools that can be practised between sessions to manage intense feelings more safely.
Choosing the right approach is a shared process. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences and what has or hasn’t helped before. Together they decide which methods to try and adapt them as work progresses.
Online work uses several formats to fit different lives - video calls for face-to-face conversation, phone sessions for when bandwidth or visual focus matters less, live chat for quick check-ins, and text-based messaging for ongoing written support. These options make it easier to fit counselling around work, family and travel while keeping therapy consistent and practical.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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