Helen Carmichael's career in the film and TV industries began in the late sixties when she joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). During this time she began her career as a scriptwriter, eventually working full-time as a freelancer in radio and TV, writing drama, children's, animation, documentary and educational programmes. She has assessed for the Australian Film Commission (AFC), Special Broadcasting Services-TV (SBS-TV), Pacific Film and TV Corporation and Australian Broadcasting Tribunal as well as the Australian Writers' Guild (AWG) where she headed the Copyright Committee for seven years. She has organised many national and international seminars on copyright and screenwriting for the Australian Film TV and Radio School (AFTRS), the AWG and the Department of Multicultural Affairs of the Prime Minister's Office as well as cultural exchanges between the AFTRS and the national film school in Rome, where she taught during 1994.

Helen was commissioning editor/co-producer (1981-83) of Experimental Playhouse, SBS-TV's first series of one-off dramas written by people of non-English speaking backgrounds. In 1988-89 she was awarded a scholarship from the Italian government to research the Italian film industry and teaching institutions. During this time she worked with writers from the Olmi Institute and the University of Padova film department. In 1999 she was invited to curate the Australian section of Italy's international film festival, AntennaCinema, an annual week-long event held in Padova near Venice which looks at the latest developments in film, television and related industries. She is a published poet in both English and Italian.

Helen was senior lecturer in scriptwriting for the AFTRS for over twenty years where her focus was to develop the artist's individual voice through practical, hands-on work. She is now an accredited lifecoach and counsellor, specialising in creativity and working with artists of all kinds, as well as people from all walks of life who wish to make their own life their main work of art.  

In 2003 Helen began working as a creativity coach with dedicated script laboratories such as the AFC's inaugural SPARK, followed by attachments to the European script laboratories Sources2 in Italy, North by North West in Denmark and Pygmalion in the UK. 2006 saw her working with the staff and film makers of Amsterdam's Binger Filmlab. In 2005 Script Forum invited Helen to their annual conference in Berlin to give a presentation on her work and to run a series of one-to-one Play of Life sessions. Helen has also worked one-to-one with producers at the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) Conference 2003, where she ran Lateral Producing, and as a mentor with XMediaLab. The AFTRS also organises series of one-to-one sessions with writers, directors and producers, as well as commissioning individual consultations with their full-time students.   Helen also runs group workshops for visual artists on goal setting and achieving as well as creative collaboration workshops for production managers and team sessions for core creatives coming together to find a common vision for new projects.   During 2004 she gave seminars on Surviving Writing for the South Australian Film Commission and AFC Brisbane. As a consultant on Test Drive, the AFC/AFTRS workshop for low budget digital short-makers, Helen works with the producer/director teams defining expectations of each professional relationship.   In the world of theatre and music, Helen also works with directors to find their vision of the play and orchestral leaders exploring new ways of rehearsing, as well as with individual musicians.   More information on Helen's work as a Creativity Coach can be found on the following websites: