Louise Adamson

My aim is to come alongside you - to really listen and understand how you experience life. I work collaboratively - taking into account what you want and need and how you want to work. I will also offer insights and suggestions if I think this may be of help to you, without directing our work together.  My hope is to help you make sense of your experiences and associated symptoms, such as:  Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Low self-esteem, Patterns of behaviours or Coping mechanisms which may no longer helpful. In so doing, my aim is to help you discover new ways of seeing yourself and develop new ways of being, feeling and relating, both to yourself and to other people.

My approach is grounded in Person-Centred Theory. This means my aim is to help you develop your understanding of what is right for you. I also other theoretical approaches and interventions which may help you better understand you and the difficulties you encounter.  Psychodynamic, Attachment, CBT theories and Embodiment  inform my Person-Centred work, and I use Creative Interventions and Pyscho-educational tools, where appropriate, to help foster greater personal insight and awareness.

From my trauma informed training I'm aware that the body can interpret experiences as traumatic, whether each individual considers them traumatic or not. This impacts the body and nervous system in ways that can make it challenging to tolerate feelings. The survival mechanisms of Fight, Fright, Freeze and Fawn (Submit) are likely to be easily triggered and lead to feelings of dis-regulation.  In these cases engaging the safety system of the brain and body creates an environment which allows for the possibility of learning new ways of thinking and relating.

My commitment to the non-judgemental acceptance of my clients stems from my understanding that:

'Our suffering comes from those parts of our psyche that are unseen, that are unfelt'.

(Karl Young)

It can be daunting to begin the search for help and for some of you counselling may be a totally new experience. I understand this and offer you a free 15 telephone call to give you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have about therapy and what it might be like for you should you decide to meet and work together.

​I offer short and long term counselling to adults and young people, and work face to face from the heart of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. I also work on-line for those of you who are either outside this geographical location or prefer this way of working.

I am an Accredited Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)* and work with adults and young people. I have a CBCAB Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling and an CPCAB Advanced Diploma in Counselling Children and Young People. I work in private practice and have spent time working in the charitable sector at Cotswold Counselling and TIC+ (Teens in Crisis).​

*To become an accredited member, a counsellor must have had training that meets our specific requirements and completed at least three years of supervised clinical practice. The application involves a rigorous assessment process that can take up to six months to complete".  British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

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Our first session will be a chance to for you tell me what brings you to counselling and explore what you want to be different as a result of counselling. It will also give you a taster for how it might feel to work with me and whether the type of counselling I offer will be helpful for you.  If we decide to work together we will plan in six sessions initially and then review the work to look at from a future focussed point of view.