Helen James

LOCATION: Wilbury Road, Hove and Online
AVAILABILITY: Wednesday evenings (in-person or online). Other times online
PRICE: £65 per session £80 couples
SPECIALISMS:
Children & Young people's issues 
Depression
Anxiety
Disordered eating
Identity & Self esteem
Trauma

Training

Helen originally trained in Psychology but began training in Counselling Adults, Children and Adolescents in 2016. She then continued  her training at Terapia in London, gaining her MA in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. 

Helen has worked with children and young people since 2014 in capacities such as a mentor with the YMCA, and counselling in private, state and boarding schools, as well as in services within Higher education. 

Helen has also worked within the Child and Adolescent inpatient unit at a local NHS hospital which really gave her a deep insight into the struggles of our young people. 

Helen has done additional training in Trauma and the polyvagal theory, bereavement, children born after loss; attachment and grief. Helen has also trained in online therapy, and young people and gender identity and substance abuse.

Approach

Helen's Integrative training allows her to draw on a variety of approaches such as using sandtray, clay, art and other creative therapies as well as CBT, Person centred and narrative therapies. 

She is also trained in IFS or 'parts work' and attachment focused work. Her training covered the development of the infant, all the way through to the challenges of adult life and Helen enjoys working with all age groups. 

Helen works well with parents and couples in relationship and find this a very rewarding part of her work. Helen works from a perspective influenced by Dan Hughes and his PACE model, and also enjoys supporting the spiritual aspect of her client's journeys.

Children & Young People

Helen really enjoys working with children and young people and has a natural affinity with teenagers. This time brings with it many challenges as young people begin to navigate the future as individuals and to begin the process of self-discovery and individuation in their own right. 

This stage of life can feel utterly overwhelming and teenagers can feel completely lost at times, bringing with it, not just the highly anticipated and longed for freedoms, but the agonies and complexities of finding their way in the world and solidifying their own identity. Stress, depression, anxiety, self esteem, body dysmorphia, rebelliousness and disordered eating can all be challenges to overcome in this phase of life. 

Learning to cope with the 'big stuff' in life is at times, seemingly impossible. Helen will support you in learning to handle complex emotional states in a safe and non-judgemental space; empowering you to move on with your life, with a newfound steady and confident perspective.

Identity & Self-Esteem

Helen uses the therapeutic relationship as the safe space in which to explore such issues as life goals and family expectations, core values and belief systems. Alongside questions of gender identity, sexual identity and beliefs about 'success' all influence how you feel about yourself. 

Helen will support you in examining where your beliefs have come from, and how holding onto them impacts upon your life today. She can help you understand them, and to let them go if they are not serving you. 

Helen works with her client's self-esteem, aiming to root out and unravel her client's negative beliefs about themselves; reframing their perceptions in a fuller and more positive way. She has been trained to work with societal assumptions about the way people look, present themselves and their cultural backgrounds; Helen always looks beyond the initial presentation of the client to discover what is behind the public face. 

She always works to encourage her clients to be the most confident, comfortable and authentic versions of themselves. Helen believes wholeheartedly that difference is exciting and always tries to support her clients to find their own authentic sense of themselves.

Trauma

Helen works from a compassionate and attachment trauma informed perspective, believing that we will all experience traumas in our lives, and that the 'size' of the trauma is often irrelevant to the impact it has on your life. 

Helen has undergone extra training in trauma and the polyvagal system and as such has a sound awareness of how trauma can be stored in the body and its role in our physical manifestation of both our mental, emotional and biological health. 

She works from a position heavily influenced by Judith Herman’s work on the ‘3 stages of trauma recovery' believing that stabilisation and safety are the cornerstones of her work when dealing with traumatised individuals. 

Helen has a deep interest in intergenerational patterns of trauma within families and how these can be expressed. She also understands the impact of trauma occurring at a young age, and how this can affect the developing child, whether through abuse, bereavement, neglect, bullying or chronic ill health. Her approach is rooted in meeting the client where they are, and supporting her clients as their stories unfold.

Other Issues that Helen works with

Helen is experienced in working with a range of issues, such as body dysmorphia disorder, disordered eating patterns, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and perfectionism. 

She also works with school-related issues, such as children who have been excluded, or who are at risk of being excluded from schools. 

She is experienced in working with both child and adult victims of sexual abuse and rape. 

Helen also works with parents, on parenting issues, pre-and post-natal mental health, fertility issues and miscarriage/ baby loss.

Other information

Helen has a passion for working with young people and enjoys the chance to understand their worlds. She enjoys working creatively, believing that self-expression through creative activity can really support mental health and the development of the individual. 

Helen has a particular interest in working with young people and children who have received life-changing illness diagnoses and helping parents and teens, mothers and daughters and fathers and sons to understand one another better.