Clare Suart

I offer hour long sessions on Mondays and Tuesdays.

I do not offer phone conversations prior to having a session, because I don't find it a positive way to mutually assess one another. Meeting face2face enables a mutual experience that is more representative of therapy and is not available on the phone. Also, I cannot add any information that isn't already here on the website. If you do have a further specific question, you are welcome to contact me by email.

I offer emergency phone calls to clients once we've met and agreed to work together.

I am happy to offer Skype sessions but only once we've met and got to know each other. I find face2face presence much more conducive to building and working within the relationship, and it also speeds up the process.

I am open to fee reductions if someone is really financially stretched, once we've met and talked through the situation.

 I believe that the relationship between the client and the therapist is the most important aspect of therapy.  I aim to be open and empathic to enable the client to relax fully and share whatever is happening for them. 

I believe that it's essential that the client feels safe in my presence, feels listened to, 'seen' and accepted because 'We are damaged in relationship so the best healing is in relationship'. 

I have worked with many issues particularly complex trauma which presents in many forms - alcoholism, sexual abuse, self-harming, eating issues, depression, sleep difficulties, anxiety, panics, inability to live life as you wish, difficulties with working, anger, lack of motivation, behavioural patterns, family relationships - to name but a few. 

 Somewhere there is always pain, even if it isn't obvious. I have found that when the client and I can sit with that pain, something is able to spontaneously shift. 

To assist this I aim to develop an awareness of what is happening in your body - emotions can get stuck there for years, awareness enables them to shift. 

We all have defences and I fully respect them - they are protecting something precious and important so are a necessary part of life. I have found that by acknowledging them and quietly sitting with an awareness of them, allows them to spontaneously shift over time - there is no imperative to challenge them.

I do not believe in Blaming others, like ones parents. I find it more helpful to acknowledge and accept 'what is', make one's peace with that and then the way forward often appears more clearly.

I also think it's very important to work with the practicalities of our day to day lives, and offer support where I can. 

I do not have a 'normal' - I do not pathologise or judge a situation. We are all different and special with our own set of issues to be worked with, so as to free ourselves of whatever is hampering us from living a happier more satisfying life.

I have been practising for 15+ years - both in the NHS and in private practice. I initially trained at The Psychosynthesis Trust in London and have since incorporated other trainings - including Person-Centred,  Gestalt, EMDR-AT and Somatic.

I see clients in a wooden cabin in my garden 6 miles north of Hereford, where it is quiet and peaceful enabling us both to relax.

 I'm married with two adult children and grandchildren. I've also been a school teacher, run businesses, employed and managed people. I now garden (grow all our fruit and vegetables), am an environmental activist, do tapestry and meditate. I am a Reiki Master. 

 I believe that my life experiences enable me to offer a wider perspective in supporting and encouraging my clients. Also, I believe that the more of their own therapy a therapist has done themselves, the more available they are for their clients. So, I have spells of ongoing therapy with my own therapist. 

I much prefer working face2face as it enables me to engage with all aspects of the person. However, once we've met I am happy to have the occasional session/s online when transport or health issues etc make physical presence difficult. It's much better to have a session, than no session!

Our first session is essentially about the client sensing whether we can work together - whether she/he feels sufficiently safe with me to go forward. So I aim to be present, compassionate and utterly accepting to enable the client to feel seen and heard for who they are, and able to say whatever they need to say with feeling it needs to be filtered.

 I usually complete a questionnaire whilst we are discussing the issue. This gives me your background and acts as a reference for me in the future, so I can keep facts clear. It is confidential and kept securely. 

Those details together with what we discuss in sessions, I only share with my supervisor. It's a requirement of our profession that we have supervisors to discuss our clients with. This means the client benefits from another professional (my supervisor has been practising for over 35 years) being able to offer advice and opinions, and enables me to talk through the case - a contained 'airing' that I find very valuable.