About Helene
Helene Homer-Ishikawa is a licensed clinical social worker in Colorado with 23 years of experience. She began her career focusing on family and children and later broadened her practice to include young adults, adults, and older adults. Helene has worked with people from many backgrounds and walks of life.
She helps with anxiety, depression, relationship strain, trauma, grief, and other life changes. Helene uses psychodynamic therapy to help people understand patterns that show up in their feelings and relationships.
Background and approach
Sessions are a space to talk through painful memories, recurring reactions, and long-standing worries. She aims to listen carefully and reflect observations in ways people can use right away. The therapist places emphasis on respect and compassion.
She encourages clients to take small steps toward change and to notice how past experiences shape present choices. Her approach balances attention to emotions with practical discussion about coping and decision making. People who come to her often want to make sense of relationship problems, manage mood shifts, or cope with loss and stressful transitions.
Helene also supports those working through identity and orientation concerns and people navigating neurodiversity or caregiving stress. Conversations are tailored to each person’s needs and pace. Helene works with a variety of issues including ADHD, bipolar mood concerns, anger, self-esteem struggles, and challenges tied to aging or abandonment.
She brings steady experience and a calm presence to help people find clearer footing and move forward.
Psychodynamic work delivered online
Psychodynamic therapy focuses on understanding how past experiences shape current reactions and relationships. It helps people notice recurring emotional patterns, unhelpful responses, and the roots of anxiety or depression. This approach can be useful for relationship issues, persistent mood difficulties, trauma-related reactions, and identity questions.In sessions the therapist listens for themes that repeat across a person’s life and gently reflects those observations back. Over time this can make confusing feelings easier to name and work with. Choosing the best approach is a shared process; the therapist will collaborate with each person to match techniques to their goals and situation.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face work and deeper conversational flow. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit into a lunch break or a busy day. Live chat and text messaging can be used for shorter check-ins, ongoing support between sessions, or when writing helps someone organize their thoughts. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent and to fit sessions into a busy life.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 23 years
- Licensed
- Colorado
- Languages
- English