About Louise Ward - Counsellor, CBT & Psychotherapist
Everyone need a place to be heard, to heal, thrive and grow and my aim is to provide a safe space to process the challenges of life and learn to be who you are meant to be.
My approach to counselling and psychotherapy is based on an Integrative Model of therapy with a focus on Cognitive Behaviourial Therapy.
I also draw from a number of different approaches including:
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- Schema Therapy
- Relational Intimacy
- Evidenced based Couple Therapy
Professional Accreditation: I am a fully accredited member of the Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (IACP).
Contact Louise
Useful Links
Couple Therapy
Schema Questionnaire
Stop Exercise
Anxiety Help
Depression
Testimonials
Dear Louise, we want to say thank you for the way you serve Spirit Radio. You are always so well prepared, your counsel is so well balanced. You are a great addition to the regular line up. Louise, it is the generosity of people like yourself who have made it possible to keep the station going and we wanted to take a moment to say "thank you".
Rob and the team from Spirit Radio
10. May, 2024.
I thought I would write to you to thank you for walking the journey with me over this last few months. I would like to thank you for all the love, support and encouragement and for the times you have really gone out of you way to help me. I am doing extremely well, you truly are an inspirational and amazing person and can't find the words to express how grateful I am for your input, care, guidance and expertise you have shown me over these few months. Thank you again.
Jackie
10. May, 2024.
I wanted to take a minute and let you know that our daughter who attended you last year is doing really well. She has benefitted so much from going to see you in many of the areas of her life, with her self-esteem, her confidence, her friends and family and a year on we are still very much seeing the fruit from seeing you and we are so grateful, again thank you so much.
Breda
10. May, 2024.
When I first came to Louise I was a shell of a being; hiding behind a composed exterior, inside I was crumbling. I had been silently experiencing intense depression and anxiety for years, my negative thoughts consumed me and I had once again hit rock bottom. Having the opportunity to enter into therapy with Louise has allowed me to freely explore and gain understanding over the roots of my thoughts and experiences and in doing so has empowered me to claim authority over my thoughts and to take ownership of and make changes to my life. Through her unconditional positive regard, reassuring support and relentless encouragement, Louise created for me an atmosphere of comfort and hope. My thought patterns have been transformed and my coping mechanisms strengthened. I now understand my past, live in my present and believe in my future. I cannot speak highly enough of Louise Ward not only as a counsellor but as an exceptionally kind and compassionate human being.
Carly
10. May, 2024.
One of the most important decisions in a person's life is to face up to their issues and seek Counselling. It took a long time for me to get the courage up to attend Counselling in the first instance & I will always be grateful that Louise Ward was the Counsellor that I chose. Louise has such a gentle, patient, compassionate, almost spiritual manner about her which immediately put me at my ease. Through her expert wisdom, experience, resourcefulness and guidance, Louise has not only helped me through a difficult time, but she has also provided me with coping mechanisms for life. Louise is such a beautiful person on both the inside & outside, and when i look at the work Louise does for her Clients, Radio & Charity work, I cannot help but be inspired & want to live my best life!
Laura
10. May, 2024.
After my husband and I separated, my son obviously found this extraordinarily difficult. As an only child he had nobody to confide in .. Louise was his ‘safe haven’ to discuss all of his worries and anguish. She became his voice and was able to explain to both of us as parents, what we needed to do to lessen the impact. She was able to also cover issues that we were unable to discuss with each other, given the emotionally charged situation we were in. With Louise’s fantastic support we were able to piece together new lives and living arrangements, which my son was able to understand and deal with. She made a huge difference and I will always be grateful!
Audrey
10. May, 2024.
Dear Louise,
I don't think I really understood how damaged our relationship was until we came to you for counselling. I'm not sure what might have happened but I now realise how deeply unhappy we both were. Pete's affair, whilst a terrible blow for me, threw us into your compassionate arms and what a blessing that was for us!
Via your gentle and wonderfully professional skills you guided us to a completely new place. You diagnosed our problems quickly and encouraged each of us to take responsibility for what had happened, but you did this without apportioning blame to either of us. We began meeting each other’s needs. Louise, our recovery can be attributed to your skills at leading us along this rocky road and we would not have gotten to where we are today without you,
many thanks and good wishes to you
PD and JF
10. May, 2024.
Dear Louise
Thank you for bringing us closer together. With your help we have become more in tune with ourselves and each other, our relationship has never been better, again thanks you so much!
H and C
10. May, 2024.
Louise, I just want to say a huge thank you for giving me the best gift anyone could give me. I have suffered with terrible anxiety for the past few years and now I have my life back and there is no better feeling! I am so thankful for you helping me get better. I love my life now and I can’t wait begin it in a new way, thanks to you!
Sandie
10. May, 2024.
“Louise, our marriage counsellor, is truly extraordinary. She not only guided us in rebuilding our marriage to be stronger than ever but also established an exceptional foundation of communication, love, trust, and compassion that far surpassed our wildest expectations. We are profoundly grateful for her insightful guidance and the wisdom she generously shared during our sessions!
Thanks again so much for what you’ve done for us!
Lynn and Paddy
10. September, 2023.
This small card is an attempt to begin conveying what you have done for me over the past year. From the moment I walked into your office on my first session you have offered and shown me unparalleled compassion, care, support, guidance, and encouragement. Thank you for travelling each step of the journey with me, for going at my pace and at the same time knowing when I needed to hurry along. Thank you for helping me expose my thoughts and behavioural patterns for what they were and for consequently revealing and endorsing who I really am. Thank you for every text, mail, call, every moment of your time and every outpouring of your heart. You continuously go above and beyond what is required and do so with your gentleness and without seeking any reward. The honesty and integrity you operate with inspires me. Thank you for your endearing heart and for wrapping everything you say in love. Thank you for being the voice of reason and for being the voice of hope. Thank you for taking me at my word and for always, always honouring my heart. Thank you so much for the insight you have. I value every word you speak and opinion you offer. Thank you for holding me who could not hold myself. Thank you for the times past and the times to come. You have been so good to me and words cannot ever capture my gratitude. My thinking is transformed, I am living in new freedom and am daring to dream of my future. Thank you Louise I would not be here without you.
Rebecca
10. August, 2023.
I came across Louise in a time of crisis and very calmly, quickly and sensitivity she identified the source of my issues and helped me to understand what made me tick. Piece by piece over a few months she brought me through an incredible journey of self-awareness and helped me to develop a toolbox of skills to help me through any situation. It is almost a year now and I cannot thank Louise enough for the wonderful and fulfilling life she has helped me to see and experience again through her professional and caring skills. I couldn’t recommend her highly enough.
S McG
10. August, 2022.
I first came to Louise to help me with unhealthy intrusive thoughts that caused me much anxiety. I was lost in these unhealthy/untrue thoughts and had a habit of always picturing the worst case scenario when I really had nothing to be worrying about. ‘Disaster movie making’ as Louise referred to it.
Louise on presentation is warm, caring, kind and nurturing-exactly what every counsellor should be but not all possess these qualities. Louise helped me gain perspective on my thoughts that were causing me to be anxious and helped me develop tools in managing this.
At times, I continue to experience these but I know now how to manage these. The reassurance that Louise provided to me was so invaluable and exactly what I needed. Louise can work wonders over a very short number of sessions. Louise I am truly thankful to you!
M
10. May, 2022.
Prior to meeting Louise we were very concerned for the future of our marriage. Having attended a different therapist previously and still ending up back where we started, we genuinely thought this was the end for us. From our very first appointment Louise's approach was different to what we had previously done. We began communicating in a way we had never done before. We started to really listen and hear each other and with Louise's methods and guidance we were truly able to get to the root of our issues.
It was a challenging road but we can honestly say that our relationship is better now, than it has ever been and that includes the relationship we had before we were married. Louise has taught us so many tools to help us connect, communicate, listen, support and appreciate each other and we will be eternally grateful for what she has done for us.
Susan and Carl
17. October, 2021.
In the year I have attended therapy with Louise, my life has changed dramatically for the better. She supported me through the darkest and most difficult periods of my life with consistent and unconditional advice and care. I have finally reached a stage where I can say I'm proud of myself and of what I've overcome. Without Louise, none of the work I've done would have been possible. She taught me how to let my inner child mature and develop in a healthy way and how to finally own my story. She is by far the best therapist I have ever encountered and I would recommend her to anyone experiencing any emotional difficulty. Louise has a gift of healing and taught me how to forgive myself in a way that no one else has ever been able to do and for that I am eternally grateful.
Jessica
10. February, 2021.
I would like to thank you for the help and support I received from you over the last few months. I had spent some time in hospital and was in recovery from a severe bout of Depression/Anxiety. My family felt that I would benefit from your "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy” and so you were contacted. Indeed this was the case and I felt the benefit of your Counselling Sessions immediately. You helped me to understand the reason for my illness and in doing so my recovery was hastened.
Best Regards Anne
Anne
10. November, 2019.
When I initially visited Louise I was a broken person acting out my life rather than living. I’d become so overwhelmed with perfectionism, low self-esteem and the need to be accepted I thought I was beyond help. Louise listened carefully and guided me on a path of self-discovery and recovery and within a few months she turned my life around.
Not only is Louise an expert in multiple areas of psychology, she is warm and empathetic with an amazing ability to facilitate tailored self-recovery rather than handing you ready made solutions. Going for counselling is never an easy decision but Louise’s abilities are such that I soon looked forward to the sessions rather than seeing them as a burden
AM
20. April, 2019.
I first came to Louise with intrusive thoughts that honestly scared me. I remember having them about eight weeks after the birth of my son. I had big changes in my life as I had moved up from Cork to Dublin. My baby was only two and half weeks old when we made the move and I was also a new mother. I did not know anyone really. I had no friends up in Dublin so it was just my partner and myself. Horrible thoughts started to creep into my mind. It was not a pleasant time for me. I didn’t know what to do with these thoughts and thought I was such a horrible person for even thinking this way. I was so afraid of having post-natal depression of getting it! It was genuinely one of my biggest fears while I was pregnant as my mother had it.
One night I was feeding my son I realised I had to do something about this, something about the way I was feeling. My anxiety was at a high. I found Louise’s web page and made contact. I schedule an appointment and it went from there.
When I first met Louise I was frightened, I didn’t know what to expect. I brought my baby with me and she welcomed me with a smile. Her voice so calming and listening to me intensively. I felt so much better after the appointment almost like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. A sense of relief! I didn’t want to go to a doctor as I didn’t want the medication route. I wanted to talk things through first and see where it went. I did not have the post-natal depression I feared instead Anxiety and OCD.
Louise helped me through this much difficult time in my life. I am glad I went to see her and she rationalised my thoughts for me. I am very grateful to her.
Jx
9. April, 2019.
Dear Louise,
Thank you for being present to me in the last five months. In that time I have come to know my emotions. This was made possible by your gentle and caring approach, which allowed me to be open and truthful. I have come to value and accept myself and for the first time in my life I see myself as a beautiful and wonderful creation of God! Thank you so much again!
NM
10. July, 2017.
Words cannot describe how thankful we are to Louise for helping us through our horrific ordeal. We had been involved in a horrendous accident that we thought we would never get over. Thankfully Louise has helped us to deal with the psychological effects of the accident and we are well on the road to recovery. We are still amazed at how far we have come in a relatively short space of time. Louise has taught us how to understand, and more importantly change our thought process for the better. Not only has she coached us to overcome our traumatic experience, she has given us a set of life skills that we can use to better improve our future lives. Thank you Louise and keep up your amazing work.
Anonymous
10. August, 2015.