Louise Bol

My working hours are as follows;

Mondays-Thursdays 8am-8pm in my welcoming and confidential Southport garden office . 

I currently have availability at various times within these hours, please contact me to discuss.

I am happy to offer bi-weekly appointments or flexible ways of working as I recognise not everyone can attend for therapy 9am-5pm, and not everyone can afford weekly appointment fees. If you have any questions about the practicalities of attending, please contact me to discuss. 

As well as online, phone and in person appointments, I also offer home visits and walk & talk counselling.

Hi, my name is Louise. 

By looking on here for help you've already taken that first, difficult step towards getting support for whatever is troubling you. 

Finding the right therapist/counsellor can be daunting, as I know from personal experience. 

If, after looking at my profile something I say resonates with you and you feel I may be the right counsellor to work with you, contact me for a free, no commitment, 20-minute initial appointment to help you decide.

I'm an experienced CBT therapist and counsellor. Being a person- centred counsellor means that I put you, the client (person), at the centre of our therapeutic relationship. It's your space and time, to be heard and understood. As your counsellor, I'll do all I can to help you in your exploration of whatever issues you bring. 

I'll do this by listening to you carefully, compassionately acknowledging your experiences, and responding with my genuine warmth, honesty, empathy, and acceptance. And without judging you, or what you are saying.

Being understood and accepted in this way will help you feel safe to express your thoughts and feelings and so to begin to deal with your difficulties, to gain insight, and to heal emotionally. I'll be there to encourage, support and guide you on every step of your therapeutic journey. Through this counselling process, it is likely you'll discover your own solutions.

I also offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy -CBT. The aim of CBT is to help you become more aware of your thought processes, so improve your state of mind. 

In sessions we'll work together collaboratively to identify your goals, thought patterns and behaviours, then we'll look at CBT strategies and tools which we both feel could help with whatever problems are causing you distress. 

I use CBT to help with issues such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, addictions, phobias, OCD, stress, worry, sleep problems, trauma, and a range of other issues. 

I am an experienced bereavement counsellor. 

I offer face to face, online, telephone and also outdoors (walk & talk) therapy. 

I am an experienced CBT  (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) therapist, holding a Post Graduate Qualification in CBT. ​I am also an experienced and compassionate person-centred counsellor.

Being able to offer these two therapy approaches, Person-Centred Counselling and CBT, enables me to work with you in a flexible way, to best suit you, and the issues you are dealing with. You can decide how we work together, based on what you are most comfortable with. 

I have a dedicated counselling garden office in Southport which provides a warm, welcoming, and confidential space for us to work together. I also work one day per week in Liverpool in a lovely city centre office (wheelchair accessible).

I offer a free (no commitment) 20 minute initial consultation to discuss ways I am able to help you.

Whatever the difficulty you are experiencing, and however insurmountable it might seem at this moment in time, please don't struggle on alone, do get in touch with me.

If you decide to take up my offer of a free, no commitment, 20 minute initial consultation (Phone, Zoom, or in person), we can use this time to discuss how I may be able to help you with whatever issues you are dealing with. This will also give you a chance to decide if you are comfortable opening up and to consider if I am the right counsellor for you.

In our first main one hour session we can explore your hopes for therapy, discussing how the issues you have brought to therapy affect your day to day life, and considering what your life will look like when these issues are no longer so problematic. We can then make a plan together of ways to tackle these issues, at a pace that is set by you. 

I offer supervision sessions from the comfort of my garden office or via Zoom/phone.

I work Monday-Thursday 8am-8pm and I make myself available to supervisees outside of those hours when there is an urgent need to speak to me as your supervisor.

I view supervision as an exploratory process which gives you a regular opportunity to reflect in depth about all aspects of your practice in an atmosphere which feels supportive and emotionally safe, but also offers constructive feedback and where appropriate challenge, to aid your professional development and competence, ensuring you are working as effectively, safely and ethically as possible.

For me good supervision should be collaborative, a working alliance between supervisor & supervisee. I see my role as that of a facilitator, helping you in exploration of your work in terms of material clients bring, their processes, your feelings/personal material, where this may be affecting/be affected by the client work, discussion of where you might want to go next.

Through the dialogue of supervision greater insight and understanding may be achieved and this is ultimately beneficial for clients. I aim for my supervision to also be restorative, in as much as it aids you by supporting you in what can often be emotionally demanding and challenging work.

In our first supervision session we can discuss how you see supervision.  What are your expectations of supervision? How do you see those expectations might be met? 

I am an experienced supervisor. I work with both qualified and trainee counsellors who counsel a wide range of clients in a variety of different settings. 

My main modalities for supervision are person-centered and CBT and I regularly offer supervision in both those modalities and also an integrative approach. 

As a person-centred supervisor, I believe that the core conditions of empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard are as relevant, essential and facilitating in the supervisory relationship as they are in the client-counsellor relationship. Also, that supervisee’s innate desire for growth and development can be relied upon as the motivating principle in successful supervision.

I put a lot of enthasis on building a collaborative relationship with my supervisees. I believe supervision should be supportive but should not shy away from challenge and open exploration of arising issues, where appropriate.

I am experienced in writting reports for trainees who are undertaking training in various universities, F.E. collegues. 

I have a successful private practice myself offering CBT and person-centred couselling (in person and remotely) so have nearly 10 years of experience of working with a wide variety of clients.

I also recently achieved a postgraduate qualification, so understand from person experience the stresses and challenges of being a student.

What supervisees can expect from me

• My empathy, congruence and unconditional positive regard

• My undivided attention, support, guidance, experience/knowledge

• A relationship characterised by mutual professional respect and appropriate boundaries.

• A relationship characterised by honesty, openness, challenge and constructive feedback for both parties.

• A relationship characterised by a sense of shared responsibility for agenda setting, the tasks and work of supervision, etc.

• A relationship which endeavours to be adaptive, flexible and responsive to your needs and levels of professional development.

• An opportunity to critically reflect on your work.

• Support you in managing your workload with the aim of protecting clients and preventing counsellor burnout.

• Ensuring supervision takes place as agreed.

• Ensuring appropriate record keeping for supervision.

• The completion of any reports, references, etc., or undertaking of any agreed action, in a timely manner.

• Carrying out regular reviews which provide us both with an opportunity for open and frank discussion about the nature of our relationship.

• To model good practice, ethical values, principles and personal moral qualities, as outlined in the BACP ethical framework.

What I expect from supervisee’s

• To attend supervision sessions as arranged, being appropriately prepared.

• To be honest and open with self and with the supervisor and to be open to exploration of all aspects of practice.

• To be open to and accepting of constructive feedback, perceiving it as essential in the process of self-development and learning.

• To take appropriate responsibility for all aspects of client work

• To do their part to ensure the supervisory relationship is characterised by mutual professional respect, appropriate boundaries, and is characterised by honesty, openness, challenge and constructive feedback for both parties.

• To take appropriate responsibility for all aspects of client work