Claire Smith

I am a BACP-accredited psychodynamic therapist with over ten years of experience working in private practice and within the NHS. I work with adults who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or who sense that something deeper is going on beneath the surface of their day-to-day struggles.

My path into counselling was not straightforward. I had been preparing for a career in nursing when a serious knee injury put those plans on hold. During what turned out to be a long recovery, I enrolled on a counselling course, partly out of curiosity. I expected to return to nursing eventually. That did not happen.

Psychodynamic training requires you to undergo your own personal therapy, and that experience changed things for me profoundly. Over three years I came to understand, not just intellectually but in a felt sense, what it means to be truly heard and held in mind by another person. That is when I knew this was the work I wanted to do.

Before I trained as a therapist, I spent several years working in the NHS as a healthcare assistant and ward clerk. Looking back, the thread was always there: listening carefully to people, sitting with them in difficult moments, taking the time that the system often could not afford. Counselling gave that instinct a proper framework and a place to develop.

I bring that NHS grounding into my private practice. I am practical, attentive, and serious about the work. I do not believe therapy needs to be intimidating, but I do believe it needs to be honest.

As a psychodynamic therapist, I am interested in the whole picture, not only what is happening now but how earlier experiences may be shaping the way you feel and respond to life today. The patterns we develop in relationships, and the beliefs we form about ourselves, often have roots that go further back than we realise.

I will not tell you what to do or set you exercises. Instead, I listen carefully and we explore together whatever feels most pressing. Over time, this process can bring greater clarity to feelings, patterns, and experiences that have not been fully understood before.

Some people come with a specific difficulty and want to work through it over a defined number of sessions. Others prefer something more open-ended that allows for deeper exploration. There is no single right way to do therapy, and we would think together about what suits you best.

I believe that most people already have their own answers. They just need the right conditions to find them. My role is not to fix anything. It is to help you understand yourself well enough that things begin to make more sense.

I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), membership number 216379. Accreditation is a step beyond registration. It reflects sustained competence, significant post-qualification practice hours, and a commitment to regular clinical supervision.

I completed my psychodynamic counselling training in 2015 on a course validated by the University of Surrey. In the decade since, I have continued to develop my practice through ongoing professional development, supervision, and further training.

I work within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions, which sets clear standards for safe, accountable practice.