Claire Spooner
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This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
I offer humanistic psychotherapy (using the term ‘therapy’ for convenience). I am interested in the whole person: their mind, body, feelings, life circumstances, family history and cultural background. We are all unique, and I believe that each person is the best judge of what is right for them, so the therapy has to respond to the individual. I want everyone I work with to feel safe enough to explore any issue they need to in a non-judgemental and confidential environment.
Therapy is an exciting and challenging process that can transform our experience of the world and ourselves in it. It can provide support in times of crisis, and enable us to make the best of our lives when sometimes things don’t go to plan. Therapy can help us to understand ourselves better, to change patterns of behaviour that no longer work for us, to find solutions to challenges we may be facing and allow us to process and move beyond experiences that might be holding us back or bringing us pain. In these ways we can take charge of our lives.
Feelings of confusion, sadness, anger, or being unable to feel at all, how we deal with a specific issue such as a bereavement or relationship breakdown, or simply how we find a sense of meaning and richness to life… these are some of the many reasons why we may decide to start therapy.
Training, qualifications & experience
I am a humanistic psychotherapist with more than fifteen years’ experience. In addition to my own therapy practice I have worked as a therapist within the NHS and the Youth Offending Service, for MIND, for the City Literary Institute in London and Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, and most recently as a supervisor for Centre 33 in Cambridge.
My original training was with Spectrum Therapy in North London and I have been accredited with the BACP since 2012. I completed a three-year training in Pesso Boyden Psychotherapy (PBSP) in 2020 and am also a trained supervisor. Since 2021 I have been offering coaching in addition to therapy, workshops and supervision.
In all areas of my work the focus of my practice is on finding the ways every individual can live their lives more fully as themselves. I am particularly interested in challenging people to find the edges that take them beyond just functioning and towards realising more of their potential in all areas of their lives.
I have experience working with anxiety, low self-esteem and addictions; race, identity, gender, sexuality and relationship diversity issues; moving beyond childhood trauma and recovering from abuse; working with cult survivors and service veterans, dealing with illness and loss, and sex and relationship issues. I am passionate about supporting people who are really motivated to seek change, particularly during times of transition.
Most of my work is with individuals but I will occasionally work with couples or family members. Everyone’s experience of therapy is different, but my hope is that each person I work with will come away from the process with a richer sense of being alive.
My background is in the arts. Originally a landscape architect, I designed school and community sensory gardens before starting my own garden design business. I also worked as a theatre designer and art director for a number of years. I am a partner, a mother and a stepmother.
Member organisations
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
I have many years experience of working with young people as well as with adults. I have a particular interest in working with issues of identity, sexuality, life transitions and self esteem. As well as focussing on how we experience ourselves in the present moment, I enjoy using dreams, imagery and metaphor as tools for self exploration.
Therapies offered
Fees
£80.00 per session
Additional information
£80 per 50 minute session. I offer a limited number of lower cost places. Please ask when you contact me.
Further information
Session lasts fifty minutes and I prefer to work with clients weekly. I provide both short and long term therapy. No minimum or maximum number of sessions are needed and we can discuss your individual requirements so you have the experience that works best for you.
