Helen Cain

Hello and a warm welcome,

Thank you for considering me as your therapist. Reaching out is a big step and takes courage. I would welcome the opportunity to meet for an introduction.

I practice both online and in-person and offer you a free 25-minute conversation to share what brings you here. To consider whether this feels like something that has potential to bring you relief, greater ease and clarity of what these next steps might look like.

I am an experienced UK-based registered and accredited counsellor, now working both in private practice and within the education sector. I have previously provided counselling for loss and bereavement, addiction and trauma within other settings.

Working together

Our therapeutic relationship would be central to establishing a safe space in which to gradually explore what is bringing you to therapy. I offer you a calm, compassionate approach, alongside my wholehearted commitment to honesty and acceptance.

How I work

For me, the combined power of our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations form our experience in the world. Through our earliest attachments, we discover whether it is safe to listen and act upon these messages. It can sometimes be necessary to hide some of our true identity in order to feel love and belonging. Whilst these adaptations are essential for survival, they can contribute to a feeling of dis-ease in adult life; that we are not living an authentic life and can turn to all manner of coping strategies to manage this difficulty.

Through building a trusting space together and offering you unconditional acceptance, I hope to offer the freedom to bring all of you into our time together. To figure out who you truly are beneath the weight of sometimes unconscious self-protective behaviours and develop the confidence and bravery to live a life more aligned with your real values, beliefs and instincts.

Online and in-person counselling

I adapted my therapeutic practice during the Covid-19 pandemic, to offer a meaningful alternative to face to face work and have continued to truly believe in the effectiveness of this platform to this day.

Online work enables you to access counselling support at a time and in a place that is right for you. This may, perhaps, give you more possibilities to access support whilst also managing your existing commitments.

I also have a quiet, village location practice room in rural Suffolk. This is just 15 minutes’ drive from Bury St. Edmunds.

Both options offer you safe and confidential space to explore personal concerns or a particularly painful issue you may be facing. Many of us experience difficult emotions at certain challenging times in life, some of which are detailed below in terms of what I can help with.

Talking therapy is central to my practice but I also draw on creative interventions such as grounding, visualisation and focusing through mindfulness when words are hard to find.

Human Toolbox 

As well as being a counsellor, I am also a trained ‘Human Toolbox’  practitioner. This is a powerful psycho-educational tool, used to explain why we respond in certain ways to the experiences we face. It is solution focused; it sets out how we can harness the innate tools we already possess within us to take control and find healthier, more informed choices of responding to life’s ever-changing situations.

Anxiety and depression are normal bodily responses to difficult situations but often our coping mechanisms and behaviours fuel our stress response rather than enable us to manage more effectively.

I integrate this awareness into my counselling practice, together with creative interventions, breathwork and mindful, somatic awareness. My aim is to empower you to develop the internal resources that generate greater self-compassion, confidence, energy and joy.

I am also a member of the 'Creative Counsellors' organisation.

In the early stages, I aim to create a sense of safety and trust. I will be curious about any previous experiences of therapy, what has been helpful, what has been less helpful and any grounding or stabilising strategies you already use. I believe it is vital that we work on these initial regulating skills before anything else. Thereafter, and when you are ready, I will invite you to tell your story, without judgement or expectation. I will offer you unwavering kindness, patience and encouragement.

Moving towards healing

We all possess the inner wisdom and knowledge to know what is best. But we can sometimes feel stuck between staying with what is familiar but no longer serving us and choosing a new and unknown alternative. Becoming open to this is part of the process, it is a sign of change, but this is difficult to do alone.

I will notice, reflect, gently wonder and steadfastly ‘sit alongside’ you as you observe and discover new, and sometimes painful truths. You have the capacity to re-write your narrative, find courageous new ways forward and separate your past, present and future. This takes patience and time but offers a chance to find who you were meant to be, in the lighter space that is healing.

Governance

I work within the BACP ‘Ethical Framework for Counsellors’ and also the BACP Guidelines for Online Counselling and Psychotherapy. I will explain that the content of our sessions will not be shared with anyone else, except for the purposes of supervision of my clinical work, or in the instance of a disclosure where I believe you, or someone close to you, may be in imminent harm.

At Integro Counselling, we are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Information you provide to us will only be used in accordance with the privacy statement available on our website. We hold a licence with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and our licence number is: ZA815346.