Helen Thorne-Allenson is Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK, where she helps churches to offer compassionate and theologically grounded care to those who are struggling.

She's worked with London City Mission and is an experienced speaker and counsellor, known for tackling difficult pastoral topics like mental health issues, domestic abuse, anxiety and sexual purity with honesty and Gospel hope.

She is the author of several books, including Hope in an Anxious World, Walking with Domestic Abuse Sufferers, 5 Things to Pray for a Suffering Friend, Purity Is Possible, and Mental Health and Your Church: A Handbook for Biblical Care, co-written with Dr Steve Midgley.

Her latest book, A Church That Cares: A Biblical Guide to Loving One Another Well, is out now and continues her focus on helping congregations to support one another through life's hardest seasons.

In this episode of The Profile she talks to Premier Christianity's AJ Gomez about her conversion to Christianity as a young woman, how you can tell if a church is fostering an emotionally open culture and what it was like marrying for the first time in her fifties.

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Released on 22 Oct 2026