Helen Howat
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This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Trained as a Relate counsellor and psychosexual therapist I have been helping couples and individuals with their relationships for many years.
I know how distressing, draining and lonely it can feel if your relationship isn't working or if you are struggling to be in a relationship. I also know how helpful it can be to talk this through with a counsellor - either on your own or with a partner.
I can offer you an opportunity to think things through, to talk about them and to find a way forward.
You may need me to:
* Just listen
* Ask questions
* Help you talk and listen to one another
* Dare to look at what you have been avoiding
* Talk with you about your sexual relationship
* Help you make connections
* Suggest new things to try which might make a difference
I can support you to look at what you are doing, thinking and feeling and perhaps look at how your past is affecting you now. If sex therapy feels appropriate then I can provide a structured treatment programme paced just right for you.
What is relationship counselling?
Generally people come to relationship counselling because they can no longer put-up with how things are between them. This leaves two options - to change the relationship or to leave it.
By first of all looking at your relationship from a variety of angles: when things began to change; what has been happening over the course of the relationship; how work/children/in-laws/money/illness are impacting; previous relationships; your sexual relationship; the effect of different up-bringings, you can gain a thorough understanding of why your relationship is at this point. Once you have this understanding you are in a better position to make decisions about it and to make changes that stick.
The main outcome from relationship counselling, from my experience, is an improvement in communication - being able to talk more openly and honestly; listening and understanding one another; negotiating and problem solving.
People come for help with their relationship both on their own and together.
What is sex therapy?
Sex therapy involves a structured, gently-paced series of activities that you do on your own or with your partner in the privacy of your own home. I would help you to talk about how the activities had gone, how you had felt and what you were thinking. No activities are carried out in the therapy room or in my presence.
The gradual nature of the treatment allows sexual confidence to build and for you to become more open in how you talk with each other.
Sexual difficulties that can be helped include:
- problems in achieving or maintaining an erection (Erectile Dysfunction)
- ejaculating too quickly (Premature Ejaculation)
- not being able to ejaculate when you want to
- loss of desire
- pain on intercourse
- inability to achieve orgasm (Anorgasmia)
- inability to achieve penetration
Training, qualifications & experience
Qualifications
Postgraduate Diploma Psychosexual Therapy
Relate Couple Counselling Certificate
BSc (hons) Combined Science (Psychology/Biology)
Experience
I worked for Relate as a couple counsellor for 12 years and a psychosexual therapist for 4 years.
Professional Membership
Accredited member of the College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT)
General member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (MBACP)
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
Therapies offered
Fees
£65.00 per session
When I work
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