When eating feels like a daily battle, you don’t have to navigate it alone.
Expert Eating Disorder Care, with Advanced ARFID Support

Integrated nutrition therapy and counselling for children, adolescents, and adults experiencing complex feeding and eating challenges.
Compassionate, evidence-informed care that meets each person exactly where they are — supporting meaningful, lasting change.

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Helen Dean is a Registered Counsellor and Accredited Practising Dietitian.

Registered Counsellor and Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD)

Helen Dean is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Registered Counsellor with over 25 years of clinical experience supporting children, adolescents, and adults.

She is known for her integrated approach — combining nutrition therapy with counselling to address both the physical and psychological aspects of eating challenges.

Helen works with individuals and families experiencing eating disorders, ARFID, and complex feeding presentations, offering thoughtful, collaborative care that prioritises safety, trust, and lasting change.

Where Nutrition Therapy
Meets Counselling

Many individuals and families who seek my support have already tried strategies that haven’t helped — or have been told their eating concerns are “just behavioural.”

Eating challenges are rarely that simple. They are shaped by emotional, sensory, psychological, and nervous-system factors — not just food itself.

I provide integrated nutrition therapy and counselling for children, adolescents, and adults experiencing eating disorders, ARFID, and complex feeding presentations. Care is collaborative, compassionate, and thoughtfully paced to support lasting change.

I work closely with families and alongside GPs, psychologists, paediatricians, and schools to ensure treatment feels supported, coordinated, and safe.

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Our Services

Young woman is making breakfast and talk

For Individuals and Families

Helen has a warm, gentle approach to counselling and works closely with individuals and families to provide a safe and supportive space.

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A seasoned professional doing individual supervision with an eating disorder specialist.

For Dietitian and Mental Health Practicioners

Helen offers both group and individual supervision tailored to your experience level, whether you are new to the field of eating disorders or a seasoned professional.

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When Eating Becomes Difficult: Understanding ARFID

Is your child avoiding foods, eating very little, or becoming highly anxious at mealtimes?
These patterns can be consistent with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) — a complex eating difficulty that goes far beyond typical fussy eating.

At Stepping Stones with Helen Dean, families are supported to understand what is happening while receiving practical, psychologically-informed guidance to help move eating forward.

Eating Disorders & Recovery Resources

Most families wait too long to seek support with eating concerns.

One of the most common things I hear from parents is: "I wish we had come sooner." Not because they missed something. But because eating difficulties rarely resolve with time alone. What might begin as: Increasing food refusal; shrinking safe foods; anxiety at mealtimes; rigid food rules; slow weight changes; body worries, can quietly become more entrenched. Here is what I want parents to know: Seeking support early is not an overreaction. It is protective. You do not need to

2 days ago1 min read

What is food chaining?

A gradual approach that begins with safe foods and introduces tiny changes to help your child comfortably expand the foods they eat. How do you start food chaining? Identify a food your child reliably eats. Introduce a gradual change (e.g., brand, shape, texture, or flavour). Repeated, pressure-free exposure helps build acceptance. When your child accepts a changed food, it is added to their growing list of safe foods. From here, you can gently move on to the next step. Tips

3 days ago2 min read

You cannot reason with a nervous system that doesn’t feel safe.

When the brain senses threat, the body shifts into protection mode. Appetite can disappear. Rigidity increases. New foods feel impossible. Anxiety rises at mealtimes. This is not a child being difficult —it is a nervous system trying to stay safe. And when safety increases, eating often becomes easier. If your child’s eating feels overwhelming, seeking the right support can make a meaningful difference — for both of you. This is the lens I bring to feeding therapy. Helen Dean

4 days ago1 min read

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Parents Recommended

HELEN S.

Helen is a very caring, dedicated, non judgemental therapist who quickly forms a positive relationship with her clients.

LOUISA D.

Helen has been a valuable resource through at times what can be a difficult journey which touches not only our young person but also our whole family unit.

NICOLE A.

Our daughter feels comfortable to contact Helen independently for advice and we feel 100% supported on this road to recovery.

Take one step at time! Currently accepting new clients - book an appointment today.

When eating feels like a daily battle, you don’t have to navigate it alone. Expert Eating Disorder Care, with Advanced ARFID Support