Helen Damon

I foster flourishing. I can support you to build a positive relationship with yourself; navigate loss, change, and big decisions; and identify your core personal values to live authentically and meaningfully. I CAN SUPPORT YOU TO: BUILD A POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOURSELF Do you feel, or have you been told, that you’re somehow unacceptable or not living as you “should”? Are you a “people-pleaser” who fears others’ judgement? Perhaps you’ve experienced criticism, doubt, or disapproval that’s left you feeling guilty, ashamed, or disconnected from parts of yourself. We can work together to identify and challenge critical thoughts and feelings that don’t serve you. I’ll support you to recognise, express, and assert your own thoughts, feelings, needs, and boundaries. We can cultivate an internal sense of your inherent worth, enabling to treat yourself with compassion and respect. From this foundation, you can then constructively challenge yourself to explore new ways of being. PROCESS AND NAVIGATE LOSS, CHANGE, AND BIG DECISIONS Have you experienced, or are you anticipating, a significant loss, change, or decision? Perhaps someone in your life has died, or you’re contemplating the meaning of life in relation to death. Perhaps you’re navigating a change in your relationship status or career, wondering or worried about the next stage of your life, or at a crossroads and uncertain how to proceed. You can speak freely about your experience with me. We’ll take time to honour its significance and understand how it’s affecting you and your sense of self. I’ll support you to disentangle yourself from external expectations and narratives that don’t serve you, and identify how to live authentically in relation to this experience. IDENTIFY YOUR PERSONAL VALUES TO LIVE AUTHENTICALLY AND MEANINGFULLY Are you questioning who you are, what matters to you, or what gives your life meaning? Perhaps you’re feeling stuck or unfulfilled, or living at odds with your values. I’ll support you to identify your core personal values and challenge inherited values that don’t serve you. We’ll use these values to make sense of feelings of stuckness, meaninglessness, and conflict, and to guide your decisions and actions. This will foster flourishing across all areas of your life, enabling you to live as authentically and meaningfully as possible. HOW WILL WE WORK TOGETHER? We’ll work collaboratively, engaging in an open and exploratory discussion in response to the topics you raise. We’ll follow and examine the thoughts, feelings, and memories that emerge for you, identifying links and patterns between them. This approach enables a deep understanding of the roots of your experience; how your past echoes in your present and may limit your future. Equipped with this understanding, we’ll identify positive changes for you to make in all areas of your life. My ultimate aim is to effect lifelong change by enabling you to become your own therapist – to be able to apply the insight and skills developed in our work to maintain your own psychological wellbeing. ARE YOU THE RIGHT THERAPIST FOR ME? The right therapist for you should feel safe and, I believe, also constructively challenging. They should support you to deepen and extend your self-knowledge and make positive changes in your life. To ensure you feel safe, I’ll meet you with warmth, empathy, and the utmost respect. I’ll regularly check in with you and welcome your feedback about how you’re experiencing our work. To ensure you feel constructively challenged, I’ll actively raise thoughts, questions, interpretations and different perspectives about the topics you bring. I’m not a “blank slate” sort of therapist: I'm naturally expressive and "talk with my hands". I’ll use imagery, metaphor, and humour (where appropriate) to express myself clearly and help us develop new ways of understanding your experiences. Research consistently shows it’s the quality of the therapeutic relationship that has the biggest impact on therapeutic change. If you think I might be the right therapist for you, please email me using the link at the top of this page or at [email protected] with any questions or to book a free Zoom call. This’ll give you more of a sense of what it’d be like for us to work together. HOW LONG WILL WE WORK TOGETHER? You can work with me for as long as feels helpful for you. Most people choose to work with me for at least three months, up to a year or more. Therapy is an investment in yourself and an act of self-care, so please to take all the time you need. I specialise in long-term, relational therapy, as I believe lasting change comes from working at depth—getting to the heart and roots of what’s troubling you, rather than focusing only on surface-level symptoms. WHAT'S MY NEXT STEP? Please email me using the link at the top of this page or at [email protected] In your email, please tell me a bit about what you’d like to focus on in therapy, and let me know if you have any questions about working together. This will give me an initial sense of whether I might be a suitable therapeutic match for you. We can then book a free Zoom call, lasting up to 50 minutes, to decide whether to book a first therapy session. I look forward to hearing from you!