Annie, academic / contemplative:
"Helen is amazing. She has a wonderful way of being present with humour and skill and a gentle patience. I went to her with questions about what to do with my life. I came away remembering my loves and stories, and with insights into how to choose what I do with honour and presence. She has a phenomenal memory and a bulging sack of truths and metaphors from across history and the globe. Helen is incredibly thoughtful in all senses of the word."

Meg, artist/teacher/businesswoman:
"It's almost as if I was too unhappy at the time to take in much objectively. You were someone I could really tell everything to - different from an outside friend who I might worry would think me mad, or who I might be embarrassed to tell certain things to - but I liked your calm acceptance of whatever I was saying/feeling and to me you came across as warm and sympathetic. Don't know how much this relates to philosophical counselling as opposed to any other kind of therapy - or if it's more to do with the actual therapist."

K, poet:
"As one travels through life with our baggage of beliefs and assumptions, in constant motion of thinking, doing and saying, it is useful to have a guide who stops us in our tracks, and checks whether those are really our beliefs. What are our assumptions? Why are we doing things that circle us back to the place we try to leave?"

C, freelance researcher:
"On the basis of my brief but positive experience:-  good critical listening with insight into, and concern for, ethical values in political context."

RP, development consultant:
"I've had deep insights through understanding my strengths and capacities, rather than focussing on stresses and insecurities. And I also related to the spiritual side of my values, discovering archetypal images, almost like fairy tale figures, that are helpful to me. There are different paths."

LG, environmental activist:
"The return to, and refining of, basic principles brings the clarity I need to stay true to my ethics whilst charting a way through the incredibly complex political, social, economic and personal context of post-apartheid South Africa."

PR, property developer:
"In philosophical counselling, my own present morals, ethics, political principles and beliefs are the basis by which my issues are dealt with. This is much more direct and quick than having to delve back into the "he-said and she-said" of the past, or just talking about emotions."