Unlock Therapy

Psychotherapy, Counselling and Art Therapy in Bishop's Stortford

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Unlock Therapy



"Courage gives us a voice, and compassion gives us an ear. Without both, there is no opportunity for empathy and connection”

Brene Brown


Hello and welcome!

My name is Claire, and I am a warm, experienced Psychotherapist offering personalised therapy to adults and young people in Bishop's Stortford. At Unlock Therapy, I blend traditional talking therapy with creative, arts-based exploration, allowing you to choose the approach that feels most comfortable.

Through a collaborative process, my aim is to help you reclaim a sense of agency, discover meaning, and navigate life’s challenges with resilience and authenticity. Whether you’re working through past traumas, feeling disconnected or overwhelmed, or seeking to deepen your connection with yourself and others, I provide a safe and supportive space to explore, heal, and grow.

For those who feel words alone may not fully capture their experiences, creative arts provide a powerful alternative for expression and healing. Together, we tailor the approach to suit your needs, combining relational and creative methods.


My practice is grounded in inclusivity and affirmation, ensuring you feel heard, seen, and supported throughout your therapeutic journey. In particular, I have a special interest in ADHD, ASD, and neurodiversity.

How Therapy Can Help

You may suffer from:

  • Anxiety, overwhelm, or panic attacks
  • Depression, low moods, or feelings of emptiness
  • Difficulty regulating emotions and intense feelings
  • Low confidence, self-esteem, or identity challenges
  • Sleep disturbances or intrusive thoughts
  • Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress, or major life changes
  • Relational difficulties, family conflicts, or crises
  • Addiction, compulsive behaviors, or eating disorders

Perhaps you'd like to:

  • Find peace and develop a sense of calm
  • Restore hope, reconnect with yourself, and find meaning
  • Manage and express difficult emotions in a healthy way
  • Gain confidence, explore your identity, and feel authentic
  • Enhance your sleep and calm your mind
  • Heal from trauma and navigate life’s transitions
  • Create balanced, fulfilling relationships
  • Discover new and nourishing patterns of behaviour

Art therapy

Art therapy offers a unique creative process where art-making and psychotherapy combine to support personal growth, awareness, and healing. It provides a tangible, immediate way to express feelings and emotions, especially when words fall short. No prior artistic experience is needed—curiosity and openness are all that’s required.

Art therapy taps into a more playful and curious part of ourselves, encouraging creativity and exploration. Its aim is to ease distress, increase awareness, resolve conflicts, and support healing, particularly in response to trauma.

Sessions usually combine talking and artmaking, tailored to what works best for you. If you choose this approach, I will encourage you to explore and experiment with art materials at your own pace, while supporting you in reflecting on the process.

Express

Artmaking can take many forms—painting, drawing, clay work, collages, and even working with objects like stones, shells, or postcards. You may create independently, or we can explore the process together. Feel free to bring any found objects or artwork to your sessions.


Understand

Creating art can bring clarity to complex emotions and experiences, helping you uncover insights that are unconsciously remembered. Together, we’ll explore the emotions and meanings behind your work, revealing fresh perspectives and a deeper understanding of yourself.

Feel better

Art can be a transformative tool for self-expression, helping you to explore and accept all parts of yourself. As you engage with your inner world through creativity, you’ll cultivate greater self-compassion and openness, empowering you to access your potential for change and growth.

“Claire is a fantastic Art Therapist and I feel grateful and humbled to have worked closely and alongside her, explored ideas and interventions, numerous thought-provoking conversations, and co-facilitated therapeutic groups with her. She draws from a wealth of clinical and personal experience, thoughtfully weaving together a very human, authentic, trauma-informed, compassionate and creative approach to human distress and suffering. I always valued her emphasis on understanding the way everyone develops their own personal meaning and purpose in life, and how early experiences and relationships inform the way people relate to themselves and others in the present. Claire has a skilled way of tailoring interventions to the individual, understanding and using creative approaches to unpack and safely explore patterns of anxiety, avoidance, shame and rumination.”

— Dr Leon Simpson, Principal Clinical Psychologist & CAT Therapist.

Credentials

I trained at the Institute for Arts and Therapy in Education (IATE) and gained an MA (Distinction) in Integrative Arts Psychotherapy.


I am accredited by the Health and Care Professions Council (HPCP) and follow their standards of proficiency. I am also a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and abide by their Ethical Framework for Good Practice. I have regular supervision with a UKCP registered psychotherapist and am dedicated to continue to learn and grow as a therapist in the best interests of any indvidual I work with.

My work in the NHS, community-based charities and private practice has seen me successfully help clients experiencing a wide range of presenting issues. I have a lifetime of involvement in the arts in various capacities, including in my previous career as a primary school teacher.

I have been honoured to work with a diverse range of clients from many different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds and am committed to working inclusively.

Ready to take the next step?

For a free, initial, 20-minute phone consultation please contact me.

First session:

Our first session is an opportunity to explore what brings you to therapy and your hopes for the process. This initial meeting also allows us to assess whether my approach feels right for you and address any questions you have. If we decide to move forward, we’ll meet weekly for a 50-minute session, either in person or online.

On-going sessions:

Everyone’s needs are different, so the number of sessions will depend on your circumstances. I offer both time-limited and longer-term psychotherapy.


We’ll check in after six weeks to ensure you're feeling understood and supported in your process. I encourage feedback throughout, so we can make sure you’re getting the most from our sessions.

Fees & availability

I see clients in person and on zoom for regular weekday sessions and on Saturday mornings.

My fee is £80 for a standard 50-minute session.

Please be aware that all of my low-cost spaces are currently full. 

Payment is due before each session via bank transfer. Please note that if you want to cancel an appointment, I require at least 24 hours' notice, if not you will still need to pay for any sessions missed.

Get in touch

If you would like any more information about the services I offer, please complete this contact form and I will respond as soon as possible, usually within 24 hours.

You can also message me on 07815 780 331 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first.


I look forward to hearing from you.

Some frequently asked questions

Does therapy work?

Psychotherapy has been shown to help many people recover and move forward from mental health symptoms and is recognised as beneficial by the NHS.

Benefits of talk therapies - NHS (www.nhs.uk)

Therapy is an investment in yourself. It can be used to help solve particular problems or can be a process of personal development within the therapeutic relationship. Either way, it is a positive step towards understanding your problems, enabling you to make conscious changes in your life and create the best future for yourself.

What is the difference between counselling, psychotherapy and arts psychotherapy?

Counselling and psychotherapy are terms that are often used interchangeably. However, counselling usually refers to shorter-term more focused work, exploring and gaining insight into a particular issue, while psychotherapy tends to be a longer-term process and is often indicated if your difficulties are more deeply rooted.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy aims to increase your awareness of your ‘inner world’ and the influence it holds over your relationships, both from the past and the present. As with other therapies, the context for healing is an empathic therapeutic relationship, developed over time through profound conversation. Working with the arts in psychotherapy can help deepen that conversation, as it combines psychotherapeutic technique with creative processes using arts materials or actions to help in how you communicate your feelings, thoughts and emotions.

What are the benefits of art therapy?

The arts work with a part of us which can be under-used or forgotten as we grow into adulthood. Art therapy provides the opportunity for reconnecting with the imaginative aspects of your personality, allowing in the more playful, spontaneous, open and experimental part of self. This can be helpful if you tend to overthink things, as art-making can get you ‘out of your head’, opening doors to new ways of expressing things and broadening your scope for healthy change.


Furthermore, making art in a therapeutic setting often allows us to get beneath the surface and explore what is really happening in our lives, accessing deeper thoughts and feelings that may lie beyond conscious awareness. The art can hold many meanings at once and can create a safe distance between us and our feelings, which are now outside of us safely contained in an image, poem, or other creative form. This helps to calm the mind and facilitates healing when particular issues or feelings are too difficult to talk about.

How many therapy or counselling sessions will I need?

This depends very much on the difficulties you are bringing, how you work and what you are hoping to achieve. In our initial session, we can discuss your needs and situation in detail and work together to decide whether short or longer-term therapy would be most appropriate. Together we will review your work regularly to get a sense of how it is going and how long you may continue. You have the right to stop or take a break from therapy at any time. In general, it is most beneficial for this to be mutually decided and I encourage you to discuss this with me so that our work can be reviewed and thought about together before ending.

Is counselling confidential?

All sessions are confidential. The only exception to confidentiality is if I believe that serious harm may occur to yourself or others. Should this situation occur, I would then make every effort to seek your consent to break the agreement about confidentiality. However, with or without your agreement, I am ethically and professionally obliged in these circumstances to contact appropriate professionals and disclose relevant information.

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