Louise Keller

Louise is a qualified Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist with 18 years of experience working with children of all ages; she believes firmly that collaborative work with parents and families is fundamental to creating a ‘cradle of care’ around the child. She liaises closely with schools, and other professionals where necessary, so that the child’s best interests can be addressed systemically.

Louise integrates child development theory with psychodynamic thinking and the creative arts. Through play (e.g. using painting, music, sand tray), she helps children articulate their feelings so that even overwhelming emotions can be understood and managed. Alongside this, Louise helps parents gain an appreciation of where their child is developmentally and supports them to increase their capacity to respond thoughtfully and effectively to challenging behaviour that can often seem hard to decipher. Before meeting with a child, Louise consults with parents (if necessary between 2-4 sessions) and, in discussion with them, formulates the most appropriate treatment plan: Sometimes working just with parents is the best approach; sometimes seeing parents initially and then combining this with sessions for a child; and sometimes seeing the child on their own or as a family may be necessary.

Louise also works with adults and couples in a way that is both exploratory and pragmatic in its approach. She promotes the clients’ capacity to think flexibly about issues that have become entrenched or resistant to change; to help understand as well as experiment with alternative ways of addressing these. Typically, issues that she works with include anxiety (ie: separation, performance or generalised), depression, bereavement and loss, separation and divorce, addictions, self-harm/ self destructive behaviour, (intergenerational) trauma, learning difficulties and differences.

As well as her private practice, Louise currently consults to Newham Learning and provides therapy to NHS frontline workers. She also works with a number of schools (both primary and secondary in the state and independent sectors) where she has helped develop their pastoral support and in-house counselling services. She provides training workshops for schools along with supervision for teachers and headteachers. In addition she offers workshops in corporate settings (e.g. ‘Understanding unconscious dynamics in the workplace’ and ‘Valuing frustration’).

Louise works out of both TTC’s rooms and her private practice in Primrose Hill. She offers online consultations as well as seeing clients for ‘walking’ sessions in the surrounding parks (or a combination of these where appropriate).

Her clinical experience has involved extensive work with children and their families in a variety of educational settings since 2003. This includes being a part of a multi-disciplinary team in a specialist nursery school for children with speech, language and hearing difficulties, as well as children with a range of autistic spectrum disorders. She spent six years working as a counsellor with the charity Place2Be. She has been on placements at Great Ormond Street Hospital (Mildred Creek Unit) and NHS Chelsea and Westminster Centre for Psychological Wellbeing, part of the Gordon Hospital.

Previously, Louise worked as a qualified Special Needs teacher, specialising in dyslexia. She has studied at the Tavistock Clinic; The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (IATE) and gained her Masters degree in Integrative Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy at Terapia (Middlesex).