Claire Sims , BACP

Claire Sims is a fully qualified counsellor based in the United Kingdom with 20 years of counselling and professional experience. She trained in psychodynamic counselling and now describes her work as integrative, drawing on a range of skills and perspectives to meet each person’s needs. She explains her BACP credential as membership of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, reflecting her professional standing in the field.

Claire’s practice supports people facing stress and anxiety, relationship difficulties, trauma and abuse, sexual and domestic violence, grief and loss, and a broad spectrum of emotional and life challenges including addiction, self-esteem concerns, parenting difficulties, eating and sleeping problems, and mood conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder. She also works with issues around attachment, abandonment, family and blended family dynamics, intimacy and commitment, communication problems, and isolation or loneliness.

Her route into counselling began in 2000, after a career as a hairdresser and time as a stay-at-home parent led her to seek a different path. She began seeing clients in 2005 and has since worked across a variety of roles and services. Her experience includes counselling and leadership roles at Suffolk Rape Crisis, setting up outreach and video counselling services, training others to work online and by telephone, bereavement work at St Elizabeth Hospice, IAPT provision, and coordinating helplines and services for community mental health organisations. Claire works in a trauma-informed, client-led way, aiming to collaborate with people at their own pace and support them to feel more in control as they make changes in their lives.

Psychodynamic and Integrative Support Delivered Online

Psychodynamic Therapy explores how early experiences and unconscious patterns influence present feelings and relationships. It helps people understand recurring emotional themes, long-standing difficulties with attachment, and the roots of anxiety or relational pain by reflecting on past and present dynamics in the therapeutic relationship.

Working in an integrative way means combining psychodynamic insight with practical techniques tailored to the individual. This approach can address a wide range of concerns from grief and trauma to stress and self-esteem by adapting methods to what best supports each person’s goals.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process and Claire will work collaboratively with clients to identify what fits their needs, goals, and preferences. Licensed professionals and therapists can offer different pathways, and Claire aims to help each person decide together which methods to try and how to pace the work.

Online therapy via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging offers flexibility for people balancing work, family, or health needs. These options make it easier to attend sessions from home or elsewhere, maintain continuity of care, and choose the communication style that feels most comfortable while accessing the same therapeutic principles as face-to-face work.