Louis Carruthers, BACP

Louis Carruthers is a counsellor based in the United Kingdom. He holds BACP accreditation from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and has four years of practice experience. He offers one-to-one conversations aimed at helping people make sense of difficult feelings and move forward. He supports people dealing with relationships, trauma and abuse, intimacy concerns, eating issues, depression, stress and anxiety. He also works with challenges such as addictions, LGBT-related concerns, family pressures, anger and career stress. Additional focus areas include attachment and abandonment issues, body image, codependency, dissociation and problems around commitment and control. His style adapts to the person in front of him. He draws on person-centred, psychodynamic, existential, cognitive and relational ideas to shape sessions. Somatic and embodied approaches are used where trauma and bodily experience are part of the difficulty. Sessions aim to build self-awareness and practical next steps rather than only analysing problems. Louis has experience in community safety, special educational needs (SEN) education and housing work for vulnerable tenants. That background informs his interest in people affected by antisocial behaviour and the criminal justice system. Continuous professional development focuses on relationship and intimacy issues and relational trauma. He offers in-person and online formats and works with adults. Conversations are straightforward and paced to each person’s needs, with an emphasis on listening, clear options and collaborative planning.

Therapeutic approaches and how online sessions help

Louis blends person-centred work with relational and somatic-informed approaches. Person-centred work focuses on listening and understanding the person’s perspective so they can explore feelings at their own pace; it helps with depression, anxiety and self-esteem. Relational approaches look at patterns in close relationships and how past experiences shape current interactions, which is useful for intimacy, attachment and communication problems. Somatic-informed methods pay attention to bodily responses linked to trauma and can help people recognise and gently work with physical reactions.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss what feels most useful and adapt methods to the client’s needs, goals and preferences. This is a collaborative process that may change over time as the client notices progress or new priorities emerge.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging, offering practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when visual cues matter. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit more easily into a lunch break. Live chat and text messaging support shorter check-ins or ongoing written reflection between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit counselling around work, travel and busy family life while retaining continuity of care.