Helene Igwebuike
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
As a specialist relationship counsellor and certified Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer, I am genuinely committed to supporting couples and individuals in healing and transforming relationships with self and others by restoring emotional closeness, physical intimacy, personal and relationship well-being. My goal is to create a warm non-judgemental oasis where you can safely explore and share your thoughts and feelings and experience relating with a deeper level of understanding and responsiveness that dissolves issues and strengthens relationships. I help both individuals and couples open up and experience sharing, communicating and interacting in new ways in relationships that allow for emotional closeness and intimacy.
Sometimes when it feels too late to heal the hurt or your relationship feels quite shaky, couple counselling can provide the much needed personal and relationship support. You can recover or discover what is missing from your relationship and work towards creating an emotionally and physically fulfilling relationship. Or you may need support to heal emotionally after a betrayal or separation.
I am of mixed heritage and moved to London from Denmark in 1997 to pursue postgraduate degrees in Information Systems and Journalism respectively, and then stayed on to live and work as a Web Editor. Having personally experienced the benefits of couple counselling, I decided to retrain as a counsellor from 2003.
The way I work
In my therapeutic practice, I use an integrative model incorporating elements of Psychodynamic, Integrative Behavioural Couple Therapy (IBCT) and Gerald Egan's 'Skilled Helper' models, while specialising in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), an experiential attachment-based and systemic approach that focuses on accessing and healing emotions and strengthening relational bonds by facilitating new ways of talking and responding to significant others.
The goals of EFT are to go within and process the emotions that drive each partner's habitual responses and facilitate heart-to-heart bonding conversations that redefine the relationship as safe and secure. Emotion is the key agent of change as we are driven by the emotions we feel inside and intellectual insight isn't sufficient in creating lasting change.
I work with couples and individuals in a safe supportive and contained environment that fosters the emotional safety needed to:
- Make sense of what is going on inside you and between you
- Perceive yourself and your partner differently and appreciate the impact you have on each other
- Talk, listen, understand and share your deeper feelings and emotions in a different way that pulls you closer
- Understand, accept and more freely express different aspects of yourself
- Feel secure enough assert your needs from a place of openness and vulnerability that allows your partner to hear and respond without feeling judged, angry, resentful, unappreciated, inadequate, incompetent, criticised or blamed
- Heal emotionally from losing or letting go of a significant relationship.
Of course counselling isn’t a magic cure and while a counsellor facilitates healing and change, it requires that you are both willing to change and committed to working on yourself and your relationship. I can support you in undertaking a journey of exploration that takes you right to the heart of your issues. I work with the neutrality, specialist knowledge, skills and experience needed to heal emotions and transform relationships. Everything discussed is strictly confidential and handled with warmth, care and sensitivity.
Training, qualifications & experience
Professional Memberships
- Lifetime Member of the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)
- Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
Counselling Qualifications
- ICEEFT Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist & Supervisor & Trainer
- Diploma in Clinical Supervision and Consultancy (NAOS Institute)
- Externship in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)
- EFT Core Skills Advanced Training (ICEEFT)
- Emotion-Focused Psychotherapy for Individuals Level 1 & 2 & 3 (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow)
- AEDP Immersion course and Essential Skills 1 (ES1) training - Level 2 AEDP Therapist (AEDP Institute)
- Foundations of Systemic Practice Applications and Skills (Sutton Systems Group)
- Integrative Behavioural Couple Therapy (IBCT): Including Couple Therapy for Depression (Prudence Skynner Family & Couple Therapy Clinic, Springfield University Hospital)
- Diploma in Relationship Counselling (York St John University)
- Certificate in Relationship Counselling (York St John University)
- Certificate in Person-Centred Counselling Skills (Mary Ward Centre)
- Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner Training (nlpNorth East)
I am committed to continuing professional development training especially within the field of EFT and undertake extensive monthly supervision.
Training, Supervision Groups and Couples Workshops
I help organise and run regular Hold Me Tight (HMT) relationship enhancement workshops for couples, EFT training workshops for all therapists and a monthly Saturday afternoon supervision group in Covent Garden for EFT trained therapists. You can email me at helene@counselling4couples.co.uk if you would like to find out more and enrol on any of these events.
Member organisations
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples and individuals in person or online by Skype.
Therapies offered
Fees
Additional information
I offer counselling sessions in person and online for couples and individuals who live too far from my consultaton venues and these virtual sessions work really well provided we have an initial face to face meeting.
When I work
Daytime, evening and night sessions, including online sessions.
Further information
Counselling 4 Couples Enfield venue is very near Winchmore Hill Rail Station at:
- Winchmore Hill Friends Meeting House, 59 Church Hill, Winchmore Hill, London, N21 1LE
- Daytime and evening Skype counselling sessions are available worldwide.
Counselling 4 Couples King's Cross venue:
My consultation room in Kings Cross Central London is only 3 minutes walk from Kings Cross station (Euston Road British Library exit) at:
Helios, 116 Judd Street, Kings Cross, London, WC1H 9NS
