Helen Yates

Hello and welcome to Helen's Healing Counselling Service. Finding a counsellor can be a daunting and overwhelming task. Fundamentally I believe that a trusting and safe relationship between counsellor and client is key. I offer non-judgemental, confidential support, encouragement and a listening ear to work through problems and explore options, choices and solutions. Exploring past and present in order to work towards living your best authentic life and feel closer to your true self, removing that feeling of being lost and or stuck as well as improving the relationships and relating to others in your life in a positive and healthy way. 

How can counselling help?

You deserve to feel happy, compassionate to yourself and free to make your own choices and judgements. Struggling in silence can bring about difficult feelings, particularly of isolation and loneliness. Counselling gives you time and space to work through your problems at your own pace without pressure and helps you to gain a different perspective on problems and issues in a respectful, mutual and non-judgmental environment. Counselling can help you regain a positive wellbeing and balance in your life by looking at and exploring struggles and difficult feelings without judgement or opinions. 

Person Centred Counselling was founded by Carl Rogers in the 1950's. "When another person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified, or when he or she is doubtful of self- worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance.... provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another"- Carl Rogers, founder of the humanistic/ person centred approach. 

There can be huge liberation for an individual to feel heard and respected in what they have to say without views and opinions from others. I feel passionate for an individual to feel fulfilled, supported and living their life to their full potential and I am able to support you in changes, coping strategies and positive communication to be able to do this. If you are struggling at the moment whether that be mental health, self-worth, confidence, relationships, stress or pressure around a decision to be made do get in touch to discuss how I may be able to support you.

I have experience working with addiction, bereavement, separation and abandonment, anxiety and depression, PTSD, trauma, including childhood trauma, eating disorders, low self-esteem and confidence, LGBTQ+ difficulties, neurodiversity, miscarriage, self-harm, sexual abuse in childhood and adulthood, body dysmorphia, gender dysmorphia and many other issues. I can offer Zoom, Whats App, telephone or face to face sessions after an initial assessment to see if I can support you and if we feel that we can work together. I am a member of the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) and work to the BACP's code of ethics and conduct.

I work in a person centred/ humanistic way which has been the essence of my training although I have knowledge, experience and training of integration and therefore will draw on different modalities to suit each individual. 

£45 for 50 minute session.

I offer concessions for students and individuals on low income. 

I am a person centred therapist at my core but work in an integrative way, meaning that I will draw from a variety of different counselling models and theories in order to find the most useful framework for each individuals needs. Together we will work in a collaborative way to explore and reflect on what's going on for you. I am able to support you in gaining further insight into yourself and who you are and your values as well as supporting you to have positive relationships with those around you. Empathic listening that I offer can be gold for alleviating distress and overwhelm and can lead from nothing making sense to problems, situations and distress becoming clearer and more manageable. I offer short term, focused counselling to explore an particular issue that is troubling you and causing distress as well as long term counselling to support you in more of a bigger picture and looking at past patterns, patterns of relating currently, issues and experiences which shape how you live in the present.

What to expect in your first session.

Getting in touch may be difficult and challenging and may take some courage but it can be the first steps to change, fulfilment and improvement in your life, leading to a feeling of self-acceptance and calm. It's important to understand it is a brave and courageous step towards an investment in yourself. If you feel you would like to proceed with your enquiry we can arrange a first session together. In our first session we will have introductions and I will ask you what has led you to counselling at this time and brought you to Helen's Healing Counselling Service. I will hear and empathise with you to understand a little more about what's going on for you at the moment and we can talk about how I can best support you and I can explain how I work. This is a chance for us to see if we feel comfortable working together and if so we can look at how we move forward.