- Years in practice
- 20
- Registration
- BACP
- Languages
- English
- Focus
- Stress, Anxiety
- Focus
- Relationship issues
- Focus
- Trauma and abuse
About Claire
Claire Sims is a counsellor based in the United Kingdom with 20 years of professional experience. She uses a psychodynamic foundation and an integrative approach to help people understand patterns that affect their lives. Claire is warm and straightforward, and she aims to work at a pace that suits each person.
She supports people with common pressures such as stress, anxiety and depression. She also helps with relationship and intimacy concerns, grief and loss, and parenting-related stress.
Background and approach
Addictions, sleeping and eating problems, and work or career worries are also within her remit. Her background includes frontline counselling, helpline work and coordinating services for charities. Claire has run bereavement support at a hospice and developed video and telephone counselling services.
That range of roles has informed how she adapts sessions to different needs. In sessions she pays attention to early life patterns, attachment and how past events shape current relationships and behaviour. She describes her work as collaborative - clients help set the pace and aims.
Claire combines reflective listening with practical talking, helping people notice repeated patterns and try different ways of coping. Parents seeking help with family strain or balancing care and self-care will find a practical focus in her work. She explains things plainly and offers steady support while people make changes.
Claire trained initially in psychodynamic counselling and later broadened her practice to draw on multiple methods. Her BACP registration is part of her professional identity and she delivers sessions by phone, video call, live chat or messaging.
What Claire works with
Everything Claire lists, in their own terms. Parenting is the reason this directory exists; the rest shows what else Claire helps people with.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
- Grief
- Self esteem
- Addictions
- Family conflicts
- Intimacy-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Sleeping disorders
- Parenting issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Bipolar disorder
- Depression
- Coping with life changes
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- ADHD
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Dependent personality
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counselling
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Personality disorders
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Approaches Claire lists
Listing an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each counsellor names and does not check training records.
How psychodynamic work translates to online therapy
Psychodynamic therapy looks at how early relationships and repeated patterns influence feelings today. Online sessions let people talk about attachment, abandonment and long-standing patterns while staying in familiar surroundings, which can make it easier to reflect on personal history.Claire also practises in an integrative way, blending psychodynamic thinking with practical talking and coping strategies. This combination can help with anxiety, grief, parenting stress and relationship patterns by linking understanding to small changes in daily life.
Choosing a therapeutic approach is part of the work itself. The therapist will discuss goals and preferences and together they will decide which way of working feels most helpful. That collaborative process means methods can shift as needs change.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and non-verbal cues, phone sessions use less bandwidth and can fit into a short break, chat is useful for quick check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make therapy more flexible for people juggling parenting, work and other responsibilities.
Questions people ask about Claire
What concerns does she help with?
She works with stress, anxiety, depression and relationship difficulties, plus grief, trauma and abuse. Other areas include parenting strain, addictions, sleep and eating issues.
How does she approach therapy?
Her practice is rooted in psychodynamic therapy and is now integrative. That means she looks at past patterns and attachment while also using practical talking to change current habits.
How much experience does she have?
Claire has 20 years of counselling and professional experience across helplines, hospice bereavement work and community services.
What are her credentials and where is she based?
She is registered with the BACP and works in the United Kingdom.
Which languages are offered?
Sessions are offered in English.
Can people from other countries work with her?
She is not currently accepting international clients and works with people in the United Kingdom.
What session formats does she use?
Claire provides video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging to suit different preferences and circumstances.
How does pricing and getting started work?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability and sessions are arranged through a subscription that can be cancelled at any time. To begin, select the Start Therapy button, complete the short matching questionnaire and schedule according to availability.
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