1-1 Work
I offer individual therapy and coaching as well as clinical supervision to other therapists. Work can be face-to-face, online or outdoors. Further information including FAQs below.
Therapy
Therapy is an exciting and challenging process that can transform our experience of ourselves and the world around us. Perhaps most importantly, therapy allows us to learn to tolerate the full range of our emotional experience, making it possible to live with greater aliveness, freedom, and possibility.
I offer humanistic psychotherapy, drawing on a range of therapeutic trainings and approaches including gestalt, formative psychology, tantra and Pesso Boyden. My approach is creative, somatic and relational. I encourage an awareness of body sensation and felt experience as routes for exploration.
I work holistically, attending to mind, body, feelings, life circumstances, family history and cultural background. I offer a warm, safe, non-judgemental and supportive space for exploration.
I also run regular groups and courses which can be wonderful adjuncts to therapy.
Supervision
I offer clinical supervision to therapists working with adults and adolescents. I love the collaborative nature of supervision and my approach is relational, integrative and holistic. The focus can be entirely on clinical work, or we can explore aspects of your life that may impact your practice. I have experience supervising therapists across various modalities, including humanistic, psychodynamic, CBT, and body-based approaches.
Coaching
My coaching practice evolved out of my work supporting therapists. Initially, I ran workshops to help therapists develop their practices in ways which they found most satisfying. This evolved into coaching therapists, and I discovered I loved the focused nature of work that is not in itself therapeutic but still feels transformative. I now offer coaching more widely, not just to other practitioners but to anyone who is interested in a holistic and embodied approach to thinking about their life.
FAQs
The first couple of sessions provide an opportunity to see if we both feel we can work well together. In these sessions I’ll ask what has brought you to therapy, and we’ll look at what you aim to get from it and see if we both feel the way I work will suit you.
It’s likely that therapy will involve some exploration of your childhood experiences, along with understanding your current circumstances and challenges. As well as being interested in your thoughts and feelings, I will draw your attention to what is happening in your body. Our nervous system is inextricably linked to our mental state, so I am always curious about the information held in the body. Therapy can be a very creative process, and I often use visualisations, imagery and metaphor to deepen the work.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, I have adopted a hybrid approach. In addition to face-to-face and online sessions, I also offer sessions outdoors, walking and talking (or sometimes sitting in the sunshine when the weather permits). There is a physicality to this work which is very different from the usual format of therapy and this way of working is proving to be very popular – here is a description of outdoor work from someone I have worked with for some time now (Click to link to testimonial):
I have worked online for a number of years, so I am comfortable providing therapy in this way, and there can be many benefits to it – not least allowing people to continue to benefit from the work if they move away.
Therapy and supervision sessions last fifty minutes. With therapy, meeting weekly – ideally at the same time – creates a sense of continuity and helps get the best from the therapy by building on what has already been covered. I encourage this regularity, particularly at the start of our work together. I build in regular reviews to all my work.
Coaching sessions may vary in length, which we can discuss before we start.
I charge £80 per session for both therapy and supervision, payable in advance of each session. I have a limited number of discounted rates available for those in genuine need – please ask when you contact me.
My practice is located on Sturton Street in central Cambridge, fifteen minutes’ walk from the train station and the city centre. There are pay-and-display parking bays nearby on Sturton Street, or non-restricted parking is available on nearby streets (York St or Abbey Walk are closest). There is plenty of parking in the nearby Beehive Centre, which is a five-minute walk away.
Outdoor sessions are held nearby on Coldham's Common.
Online sessions are on Zoom.
Our conversations charged me up creatively – my work as a designer really developed afterwards because of the confidence I gained. I’ll always be grateful to have had the chance to work with Claire and for my first experience of therapy to have been such a positive one.
Claire challenged my thinking in a really gentle way, and the body work we did is something I still talk to friends about today. It was fascinating, and made me aware of how self compassion could lead to a healthier outlook on my life.
I worked with Claire for a total of about four years, and I can honestly say that she is one of the warmest and most gentle people I have ever met. She made me feel safe and accepted and heard in a way I had never experienced before.
Claire and I only met a handful of times, but the transformative impact of her therapeutic practice has been life-changing.