Helen has had training in a number of therapeutic model including Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT) and uses these approaches to inform her work with young people and adults with a range of presenting difficulties including those with Eating Disorders. Her preference is to work collaboratively with individuals or families and offer evidence-based interventions following comprehensive assessment and formulation to reach a shared understanding of the areas/issues of concern. Over her time in the NHS Helen has become aware that families of children with feeding disorders may also have experienced trauma in their child’s early life and if this is the case, she is able to help support both parents and the child to understand and manage their difficult feelings, drawing particularly on her CAT training to help formulate and ACT/CFT strategies to help manage day to day. She has worked in a multi-disciplinary team assessing neurodevelopmental delay and disorder, including autism, and offered individual and group therapy and interventions to carers and families, as well as liaising with nurseries and schools.

Helen has received training in the Sensory Oral Sequential Approach to feeding, an evidence-based approach used widely in the USA for children with restricted eating, including those with ARFID.