Helene Homer-Ishikawa , LCSW, CSW

Helene Homer-Ishikawa is a licensed clinical social worker in Colorado with 23 years of practice. She brings long-term experience helping people with anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, and life transitions. Her background includes early work focused on family and children and later expansion to young adults, adults, and older adults.

She speaks plainly and listens carefully. Sessions focus on understanding patterns in feelings and relationships. She combines thoughtful listening with questions that help people see what gets in the way of change.

Helene has worked with people from many different backgrounds. That experience informs how she adjusts pace, tone, and the kinds of questions she asks. She pays attention to gender and sexual orientation as part of each person’s story, including concerns common in LGBT communities.

Her approach draws on psychodynamic therapy to look at long-standing patterns and how past experiences shape present behavior. In practical terms this means talking about recurring conflicts, defenses, and relationship habits so they become clearer and more manageable.

People who benefit most are those ready to reflect on relationships, patterns, and strong emotions. Helene supports parents coping with parenting strain, people handling career or life transitions, and those facing mood, anxiety, or trauma-related concerns. She aims to create a steady, respectful space for change.

How psychodynamic work translates to online therapy

Psychodynamic therapy looks at repeating patterns in feelings and relationships and how past experiences shape current behavior. Sessions involve talking about thoughts, memories, and relationships to make patterns clearer and reduce their hold on day-to-day choices. This approach can help with anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, grief, and trauma-related reactions.

In practice she focuses on listening and helping people notice what keeps happening in their lives. Together a therapist and client consider goals and try different ways of approaching problems. Finding the right approach is part of the work and will be decided collaboratively, based on your needs, goals, and preferences.

Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for deeper conversational work, phone can be better when bandwidth is limited, and messaging or live chat can fit quick check-ins or people who prefer writing. These options make it easier to fit sessions into a busy life and to keep momentum between appointments.