I’ll be honest… when I was younger and way into adulthood…I thought therapy was rubbish.

Not because therapy itself doesn’t work, but because my experience of it didn’t. I never felt seen or heard. My confidentiality was broken. I felt like hard work. Like a problem that needed fixing.

And when you’re young, those experiences stick.

What I know now is this: therapy isn’t rubbish.
Its the fact not every therapist is right for every person.

That understanding shapes everything about how I work today.

When a young person comes to me, autonomy matters. Trust matters. I am very clear about confidentiality and what that means, because safety comes first. I meet them where they’re at, their interests, their hobbies, their world, and we find a way of working together that fits them.

Because life is hard enough anyway.

Add neurodivergence into that, for example ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, feeling different, not quite fitting in, not always understanding how the world works, and it can feel twice as hard. Sometimes there aren’t words for what’s going on. And that’s okay.

There is nothing worse than someone asking “what’s wrong?” when you genuinely don’t know.

In therapy with me, there’s no pressure to have perfect answers. We can find ways of exploring things without needing words straight away. Drawing, music, gaming, films, TV, Lego, crystals, hot chocolate, haribo…. anything can become part of the work if that’s what helps. Therapy doesn’t have to look clinical or formal.

My room certainly doesn’t.

Big comfy sofas. Maybe sitting at the table. Maybe side by side on stools over a hot chocolate at the breakfast bar. Playing with Arthur my therapy puppy or sat with steve the therapy cat, working in the campervan, going for a walk or to the park, We work in ways that feel safe, human and real.

Online we can use various apps, screen share, games, activities, music, spotify. Its endless. We work together and find out the best way, for nobody else, for the person sitting in front of me, physically or through a screen.

Because healing sits in the relationship. In building trust.

I remember what it was like trying to fit in. I turned to alcohol as a teenager because it felt like the only way to get it right. I didn’t know how to talk about what had happened to me. I didn’t know how to be a teenager. Life didn’t come easily.

Alcohol seemed to work, until it didn’t.

Or maybe it never really did. It masked things. It helped me survive for a while, but it also started a struggle that lasted nearly 30 years. Behind closed doors. Feelings locked away.

There is nothing worse than people asking how you are feeling, wanting to know what is wrong when you dont have the words or even know yourself. It's debilitating. Your defences are reacting involuntary, you feel horrific and life is an endless struggle. Yep that was me too.

Until one day I found a therapist who changed my life.

I learned that it was okay to be me. That there was nothing wrong with me. I just learned differently. Processed differently. Lived differently. I’ve been sober a good few years. I know I am not the problem.

And that’s what I want young people to discover now, not in 30 years’ time.

I don’t want them growing up believing they’re broken or not good enough. I don’t want them needing drugs or alcohol to cope with life because they don’t know another way.

I can’t change the whole world, it’s still very square and very neurotypical. I’m a round peg who never fit into that square hole, and I know many others feel the same.

My work is about showing that. Modelling that. Meeting each person, young person, adult, child, exactly where they are. Taking things at their pace, in their language, doing it their way.

Because there is nothing wrong with them.

It’s about what happened to them, or what they are going through, and that does not define who they are.

Healing is possible.

If this resonates, or you’d like to find out more, feel free to get in touch for a free intro chat.

Stay safe, stay connected and take gentle care

Louise x