Meet Helen
She Has a Heartfelt Dedication to Her Clients as well as Professional Excellence.
There’s no easy way to sum up what brings someone into this work. For Helen Capanda, it wasn’t just one thing, but a slow unfolding over many years of working with children, parents, and families. Teaching, counselling, supporting emotional wellbeing in schools, all of it shaped her approach. But perhaps more than anything, it was her deep curiosity. Curiosity about why we behave the way we do. Why some children carry so much and say so little. Why some parents feel like they’re failing, even when they’re doing everything they can.
Helen Capanda doesn’t show up as someone with all the answers. That’s not really her style. She listens, closely, not just to words, but to pauses, to body language, to what’s being avoided. Her presence is often described as soft but grounded, warm but not intrusive. She works creatively and gently, but she’s not afraid to help people look at what’s hard to face. That balance is part of what makes her work effective, even when it takes time.
Working With Children and Parents
Children express things differently. Sometimes with words, sometimes through behaviour, sometimes not at all. Helen Capanda’s work with children isn’t about analysing or fixing, it’s about creating a space where a child can begin to feel safe enough to explore what’s going on inside. That might happen through drawing, sand tray, roleplay, or quiet conversation. Every session is shaped around what the child needs.
Parents are always part of the picture too. Whether your child is struggling with anxiety, trauma, emotional outbursts, or shutdowns, Helen Capanda’s approach includes you in a supportive, non-judgemental way. She knows how much love and fear and frustration can live side by side in family life. She also knows that when one person in the family is struggling, everyone feels it.
Her approach is shaped by a few key beliefs. That behaviour always makes sense if we understand what’s underneath it. That connection and safety are more important than compliance. That every child wants to feel understood, even when they can’t say it. And that parents don’t need to be perfect, just supported.
- Helen helps children regulate emotions, process past experiences, and find their own voice
- She supports parents with emotional insight, tools to create more calm, and a chance to step out of the overwhelm
Therapy might be playful, reflective, quiet, creative, or all of those things in the same session. Helen adapts, always working at the child’s pace. Some children open up quickly. Others need time. Either is okay.
Helen Capanda also works directly with parents, offering regular review sessions or separate parent-only support. That might include guidance around emotional regulation, understanding behaviour, or even exploring how your own childhood is shaping your parenting. She holds that space gently, but honestly. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s clarity, confidence, and connection.
Working With Adults
Sometimes, the people who show up in Helen’s therapy room aren’t children or parents, but adults carrying their own stories. You might be overwhelmed and unsure why. You might be stuck in patterns that make no sense to you. Or perhaps you’ve tried talking to friends, read the books, done your best to cope, but nothing’s really shifted.
Helen Capanda works with adults who want to go deeper, not necessarily into the past for its own sake, but to understand what still lives on in the present. That might be trauma, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, shame, or something you can’t even name yet. You don’t need a neat label to begin. Just a willingness to explore what’s going on inside, even if it feels tangled.
Her style is quiet, curious, and compassionate. She won’t push you faster than you’re ready to go, but she will walk alongside you with real steadiness. You don’t need to arrive with perfectly formed thoughts. Some people speak in fragments. Some start with silence. Some cry and don’t know why. All of that is welcome.
- Helen uses EMDR, the Flash Technique, creative visualisation, grounding tools, and talking therapy, depending on what feels right
- Her approach blends neuroscience, parts work, creative methods, and deep emotional presence, so healing can happen safely and in your own time
Sessions might explore your relationship with yourself, unprocessed experiences, physical symptoms that seem connected to stress, or the way you keep ending up in the same emotional place. Helen Capanda’s role is not to tell you who you are, but to help you hear yourself more clearly. That often becomes the beginning of real change.
Helen Capanda’s background includes over 20 years working in schools as both a teacher and counsellor. She holds a Diploma in Child Counselling from The Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education, is trained in EMDR, and is a BACP Accredited Member.
Helen has completed Janina Fisher’s Clinical Trauma Professional Training (Level 1: Working with the Neurobiological Legacy of Trauma; Level 2: Treatment of Complex Trauma and Dissociative Disorders), as well as Level 1 Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), which focuses on strengthening relationships between parents and children.
She integrates polyvagal theory, internal family systems ideas, creative arts, and body-based work into her sessions, though none of that is more important than the relationship itself.
Whether you’re a parent seeking support for your child, or an adult looking for something that feels more real than just coping, Helen Capanda offers therapy that meets you gently, honestly, and with a lot of heart.
