Dr Helen Damon
Integrative psychologistAbout Me
Hello, I'm Helen. I'm a chartered psychologist (BPS) and registered counselling psychologist (HCPC) with over 12 years’ clinical experience. Alongside my independent practice, I work as a senior lecturer on the professional doctorate in counselling psychology at City, University of London.
I’m trained to doctoral level in several types of therapy. This enables me to tailor my approach to best meet your unique therapeutic needs, preferences, and goals. As your therapist, I’ll meet you with warmth and empathy to create a safe psychological space. Working with the material you bring, I’ll offer reflections, questions, interpretations, and constructive challenges to support you in deepening and extending your self-knowledge and making positive changes in your life.
People I work with
I offer weekly sessions to individual adults (aged 18 and above) experiencing a range of psychological challenges, including anxiety, low mood, relationship difficulties, stress, and more. I specialise in working with people experiencing:
*Low self-esteem;
*Questioning "Who am I? What do I value? How can I live my best life?";
*Loss, bereavement, terminal illness, and end-of-life/dying, including historic loss/bereavement.
Where I work
I offer in-person sessions in Central London in rooms on Queen Victoria Street (near Mansion House and Bank).
How We'll Work Together
Working with the material you choose to bring each session, we’ll engage in collaborative and exploratory dialogue to develop a full understanding of your current challenges. We’ll consider how they developed, how they are maintained, and the impact they have on your self, relationships, and life as a whole. This is likely to entail engaging with material that’s unknown, avoided, or painful. I’ll then support you in making constructive changes to move forward in your life with increasing self-awareness, authenticity, and fulfilment.
I strongly believe that there’s no quick fix for attaining lasting therapeutic change. For therapy to be effective, it requires your motivation and sustained commitment to engaging actively in sessions. This means bringing material and being open and curious about yourself. Working alongside you, my role is to help you help yourself: to develop your ability to act as your own therapist.
I offer open-ended interventions: in practice, clients typically choose to work with me for at least three months, and most often for up to between six months and a year or longer.
Your next steps
By engaging in therapy, you’re making a significant commitment to and investment in yourself. It’s therefore important that you take the time you need to find a therapist whose way of working matches your therapeutic needs, preferences, and goals, and with whom you could see yourself building a collaborative and constructive therapeutic relationship. If you think I might be a good therapeutic match for you, please email me with any questions or comments you’d like me to respond to, or to arrange a free Zoom meeting to explore the possibility of starting work together. I look forward to hearing from you!
Issues often worked with
Types of therapy
Therapy offered
Client groups
Fees
My fee is £120 per session.
I offer a free Zoom meeting, lasting up to 50 minutes, to all potential clients. This is an opportunity for us to discuss whether your therapeutic needs, preferences and goals might match the current scope of my private practice and whether we feel we might form a collaborative and constructive therapeutic relationship. If so, we can go on to book a first therapy session: if not, I can signpost you to other sources of therapeutic support.
Availability
I offer sessions in-person on Mondays and Tuesdays between 8.30am and 1.30pm.
Training and qualifications
I’m registered with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Further, I'm an Associate Fellow of the BPS (AFBPsS), a member of the BPS Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors (RAPPS), and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). I’m trained in person-centred, existential-phenomenological, psychodynamic, and CBT therapies to doctoral level.
Alongside my independent practice, I work as a senior lecturer on the professional doctorate in counselling psychology at City, University of London, as a Fitness to Practise Panel Member and Registration Appeals Panel Member for the Health and Care Professions Council, and as an external examiner for the professional doctorate (DPsych) in counselling psychology at the University of South Wales. I also offer academic supervision to psychological practitioners, review journal articles for Counselling Psychology Review and Counselling Psychology Quarterly, collaborate with Lecturers in Science Education at King’s College London to conduct research and training on promoting wellbeing, and deliver clinical supervision to Mental Health First Aiders at the Francis Crick Institute.
I’ve previously worked in the NHS, including in hospitals and specialised bereavement services; the charitable sector; and academia, including as a lecturer on the professional doctorate in counselling psychology at Regent’s University London and as an external examiner for courses at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.
I've completed the following qualifications and trainings:
- DPsych Counselling Psychology - Regent's University London
- MA Play Therapy (Distinction) - The University of Roehampton
- WPF Therapy Certificate in CBT Skills - WPF Therapy
- Intensive Filial Therapy Training Programme - The Family Enhancement & Play Therapy Center
- BSc (Hons) Psychology (First Class) - The Open University
- BA (Hons) Literae Humaniores (Classics and Philosophy) (2:1) - The University of Oxford
- Coordinating Supervisor Skills (Part One) - The British Psychological Society
- Supervision Skills Certificate - The British Psychological Society
- Moving Your Practice Online - Online Therapy Institute
- Suicide Awareness and Prevention - The Maytree Centre
- Bereavement Training - Barts Health NHS Trust
- Death and Dying (Distinction) - The Open University
Verified professional membership
