Clare Harland

I offer sessions online (via Zoom) and in person, from consulting rooms in Russell Square and Kings Cross, London. 

I work Monday-Friday but please note that I am not able to offer early morning or evening sessions.

I am an integrative therapist who can support you to navigate challenges and upheavals in your life, reflect on emotions, behaviours or relational patterns that may be causing difficulty, and explore ways forward.

My priority is to create a warm, welcoming environment where you feel accepted and listened to with compassion and respect, and where, together, we can unpack any thoughts and feelings you may be struggling with. 

As part of this process, we may consider how experiences or narratives from the past are affecting you in the present, giving attention to what troubles you or holds you back, while also identifying sources of strength and resilience to draw on. We will also explore what gives you energy, meaning and purpose, and how this can support and inform the way you live.

Interests 

I am experienced in working with loss, bereavement, anxiety, relational difficulties, life transitions and uncertainties, identity issues, and patterns of perfectionism and people pleasing. 

Other interests include:

• Supporting parents and carers who have experienced the challenges associated with having a baby or child who is very unwell, including those who have spent time in neonatal or paediatric care, and adults who may have been through such experiences themselves in early life
  
• Supporting people who work in high-pressure or exacting environments (including people within the university and development sectors)

I also have an interest in the fast-developing field of genetic / hereditary health conditions and the psychological implications of our growing understanding of, and testing for, such conditions.

Background & qualifications

I gained a Diploma in Integrative Counselling followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and Counselling, both from The Minster Centre, which is a leading integrative therapy training institute affiliated with Middlesex University. 

I am committed to my ongoing personal and professional development and undertake regular CPD. In particular, I have a growing interest in narrative therapy and recently completed a Level Two training with the Institute of Narrative Therapy. 

I work in private practice and also receive staff counselling referrals from employers (together with my colleagues at Pause Counselling & Psychotherapy). I have previously been a volunteer counsellor in a GP practice and with a charity supporting parents with young children, and I am a trustee of MumsAid, a maternal mental health charity.

Prior to training as a therapist, I worked in the non-profit sector for a number of years. I originally studied history at the University of Oxford and have always been fascinated by how the contexts we live in, and the narratives we inherit, inform our experience.

During our initial consultation we will explore what brings you to therapy, what your hopes or expectations might be, and talk through any questions you might have. I will also tell you more about how I work and we can discuss whether my approach feels like the right fit for you. 

If we agree to work together after that, sessions will be held weekly. I usually suggest that clients book a series of six sessions, at the end of which we will review how things are going and whether you feel therapy is addressing your needs, with the possibility of booking further sessions after that.

If at any point I believe that your needs may be better suited to another professional, I will let you know and we can consider alternative sources of support.