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Dr Helen Damon

Fostering flourishing

I provide expert relational, depth-focused therapy in Bank, Central London, grounded in existential and person-centred principles to support meaningful and lasting change. I can help you build self-esteem, clarify and live out your core values, and navigate loss, change, and big decisions.

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I can help 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. 

Working with me
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.

My philosophy

As an existentialist, I believe being human presents us with big questions and challenges about the meaning of our life, especially in relation to our death, and about navigating our capacity to act in relation to the limits of what we can know and control. I value opportunities to work with people engaging with these fundamental questions.

 

As a person-centred therapist, I believe human beings have an innate tendency towards self-actualisation; we strive to live authentically and meaningfully. I value opportunities to support people to live their best lives. Working with people in this way is authentic for me and something I find profoundly meaningful.

Am I the right therapist for you?

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.

Accreditations

I’m a counselling psychologist registered with the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), an associate fellow of the BPS (AFBPsS), a member of the BPS Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors (RAPPS), and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

Qualifications and training

I’m trained to doctoral level in several types of therapy (existential-phenomenological, person-centred, psychodynamic, and CBT). This enables me to tailor the way I work to best meet your therapeutic needs, preferences, and goals.

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​My qualifications and training include:

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  • 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

  • Death and Dying (Distinction) - The Open University

  • Bereavement Training - Barts Health NHS Trust

  • Suicide Awareness and Prevention - The Maytree Centre

  • Coordinating Supervisor Skills (Part One) - The British Psychological Society

  • Supervision Skills Certificate - The British Psychological Society

  • Moving Your Practice Online - Online Therapy Institute

Experience

Alongside my independent practice, I work as a visiting lecturer on the professional doctorate (DPsych) in counselling psychology at City St George's, University of London, an associate supervisor on the professional doctorate (DCPsych) in counselling psychology and psychotherapy at the Metanoia Institute, and as the external examiner for the DPsych Counselling Psychology at the University of South Wales.

 

I offer academic support to psychological practitioners, review journal articles for Counselling Psychology Review and Counselling Psychology Quarterly, and collaborate with senior lecturers in science education at King’s College London to conduct research and training on reducing stress and promoting wellbeing. 

 

I’ve presented at BPS conferences and published academic and policy articles in ASE International, BERA Bites, the BERA Blog, Counselling Psychology Review, Science Teacher Education, and Qualitative Research. I’ve contributed chapters to Balancing on Quicksand: Reflections on Power, Politics and the Relational (Milton, 2021) and The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education Research (Maguire & Towers, 2022). I’ve been awarded a research grant by King’s College London.

 

I’ve established and delivered clinical supervision for Mental Health First Aiders at the Francis Crick Institute, advised the Clinical Director of Cruse Bereavement Support on establishing clinical placements and Mental Health First Aid, and been featured as an expert in psychology in The Guardian, The Observer, on Refinery 29, and in the book Body Confident You, Body Confident Kid (Ord, 2025).

 

I’ve previously worked in the NHS, including in hospitals and specialised child and adult bereavement services; the charitable sector; and academia, including as a senior lecturer and lecturer on professional doctorates in counselling psychology at City St George's, University of London and Regent’s University London, as an external examiner for courses at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, and as a fitness to practise panel member and registration appeals panel member for the HCPC.

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