Claire is an experienced BACP Accredited Psychodynamic Psychotherapist working with individuals and groups at Flint Healthcare. She trained in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy at Brighton University and in Group Psychotherapy with the IGA (Institute of Group Analysis).
Much of Claire’s work is with people who have spent a long time feeling that they are “too much” or “not enough”; too intense, too sensitive, too reactive, or conversely, too shut down, too rigid, too exhausted by the effort of holding everything together. Many of the people she works with are neurodivergent, have trauma histories, or both. She brings a deep understanding of how neurodivergent nervous systems work, how trauma shapes emotional life, and why standard therapeutic approaches so often fall short for people in these groups.
Claire is a qualified DBT therapist, trained with the Linehan Institute-approved British Isles DBT Training, and is currently completing Level 2 training in Radically Open DBT (RO-DBT) with its founder, Thomas Lynch. She is also a trauma-informed practitioner trained in Brainspotting, a brain-body processing approach developed from EMDR. Her work draws together psychodynamic understanding, neuroscience, and practical skills-based approaches to offer something that addresses both the depth of a person’s experience and the day-to-day reality of living with it.
DBT-Informed Skills Groups at Flint Healthcare
Claire runs two structured, time-limited DBT-Informed Skills Groups which offer individual sessions alongside the group sessions where needed. Both groups are designed specifically with neurodivergent and trauma-affected participants in mind. These are not generic skills programmes – they are built around an understanding that many people who struggle with emotional regulation, relationships and distress are not broken or lacking in insight; they are often highly sensitive, deeply perceptive people whose nervous systems developed in environments that couldn’t meet them. The groups aim to offer both understanding and practical tools.
Both programmes cover the core DBT skill domains of emotion regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness, woven together with psychoeducation on nervous system architecture, trauma responses, and the particular ways that ADHD, autism and sensory sensitivity shape emotional experience.
12-Week DBT-Informed Programme – A focused, structured introduction to understanding your emotional and nervous system, and to building practical skills for managing emotional intensity, surviving difficult moments without making things worse, and navigating relationships more effectively. This group is well suited to people who are ready to begin this work, who tend toward emotional intensity or reactivity, and who want a clear framework for understanding what is happening for them and why. Individual sessions are offered alongside to fully personalise the individual’s specific needs.
20-Week DBT-Informed Programme – A more extended programme offering the same core skills with greater depth, more time to practise and consolidate, and more space for the psychoeducation around trauma and neurodivergent experience that many participants find genuinely transformative. This programme is particularly suited to those with more complex or longstanding patterns — including AuDHD presentations, chronic emotional dysregulation, or significant early relational trauma – and to those who simply benefit from a slower, more spacious pace. Again, individual sessions are offered alongside to fully personalise the individual’s specific needs.
Both groups are run in a warm, structured environment that takes seriously the experience of people who have often found conventional settings hard to be in. If you have found other groups or approaches overwhelming, too fast, too unstructured, or simply not relevant to your actual experience, these programmes are designed with you in mind. Please get in touch for more information or to find out the next start date. Claire is happy to also have a brief initial call to answer any questions about how the group runs and what is included in the individual sessions.
Claire works alongside Billy, her toy poodle, who brings his own particular welcome to every session. In her spare time, Claire sea swims and cycles, and her interests include film, live music and charity shopping.
