About Claire

About Me

Hello, I’m Claire, I’m married with a grown up son and daughter and we live in Braddan in the Isle of Man with our four dogs, two rabbits and a selection of axolotls and fish!

I have always had an avid interest in Counselling and Psychology ever since I was young but they weren’t offered as subjects to study at school at the time.  Over the years, as the internet took off I found I was in a position to be able to study online from home which has been really helpful.  I studied with the Association of Learning to gain my Level 3 qualification and then went on to train as a Voluntary Bereavement Counsellor.  I am now a qualified Children and Young People’s Bereavement Specialist at Cruse IOM.  I followed up on Level 3 Counselling by undertaking Level 5 Counselling and am now qualified at this level and I am a qualified Youth Mental Health First Aider.

All of this training and studying combined has given me the skills and expertise required to practise as a Counsellor.

In 2011 I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the young age of 33.  With two young children who were just 7 and 5, this was a difficult and trying time for us all.  I underwent intense chemotherapy followed by major surgery here on the Island and then 15 rounds of radiotherapy at Clatterbridge Hospital in Liverpool.  Nothing can describe the feeling of finding out you have cancer and the trauma that you are facing but I kept a positive attitude throughout and decided once and for all I wanted to use my experience to help others.  There is something so fulfilling about being able to comfort people who are perhaps in a similar situation to where you have recently been and to be able to support and console them is a great privilege.  It really is true that going through such a major ordeal changes your whole perspective and outlook on life.

I was brought up in a hugely warmhearted and affectionate environment and being the only child, have always been extremely close to my parents and grandparents. My upbringing was amazing thanks to my Mum and Dad and they taught me to be genuine, loyal, kind and caring.  I am devoted to my family and friends and fiercely protective of them.  I am so immensely proud of my children and have been extremely fortunate to watch them grow into the amazing humans that they are today.

My cancer diagnosis whilst traumatic at the time, has certainly shaped me into the person I am today.  It has helped me grow in confidence and given me the courage to go after the things I want in life, including helping others as much as I possibly can.  My experience means I am familiar with what it feels like to be in a place where there can often be little light, where you feel down and can’t find the way back up, where you need support and don’t know where to turn.  I hope to aid people in finding the light at the end of the tunnel and provide them with the empathy and support that they need throughout their journey, whatever that journey may be.