About Dr Laura Bolger

My professional background may look slightly different to other therapists. As a Forensic Psychologist, I have 14 years’ experience across the criminal justice sector working with some of the most complex and high-risk individuals within the system. It’s some of the work I have loved most; making sense of why people do the things they do and helping people who often felt they deserved so little begin to believe that meaningful change was possible for them too. 

You might read that and question whether I’m right for you. You might think “I’m not a criminal – she can’t be right for me?” Maybe you want to go back to Google and search for someone else. 

But let me tell you why I might be the right fit. Working in the police taught me that there's more to a person than their behaviour. In the courts, I saw the value of real support to those in moments of crisis. In the youth justice system, I saw how much harm to children goes unnoticed and started to see how the experiences of our early years can really shape the rest of our lives. My research into gangs taught me how much someone's identity and behaviour can shift, depending on what they need to do to survive. And working in prison I started to piece it all together: understanding how early experience shapes the patterns that underpin someone's struggles today. 

When I look back I can see that my work has given me years of holding the hardest, most complex material there is. The people I’ve worked with have often lived through unthinkable things, and I’ve been able to build trust and safety inside a system that traumatises as much as it punishes, helping people to move forward towards genuine change. What this means for you is that there’s no judgement when you walk into my therapy room. Nothing unsettles me, and I can hold things other people might not feel able to.