ABOUT ME
Hi, I’m Clare.
I am a registered counsellor with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA), providing evidence-based and person-centred support to individuals, couples, and families. I work with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, offering a grounded and compassionate space to explore challenges such as anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, identity exploration, and significant life transitions.
My professional experience includes working with young people within a juvenile justice environment using trauma-informed approaches, as well as supporting clients navigating complex emotional and interpersonal experiences. I hold an undergraduate degree in Psychology (with a major in Anthropology), postgraduate qualifications in Counselling, and am currently completing advanced training in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. I also draw on my background as a personal trainer, acknowledging the interconnected nature of the body, nervous system, and emotional wellbeing.
I grew up in regional Victoria, spending much of my childhood outdoors and around animals—especially horses. While my early years were full of curiosity, movement, and connection, like most people, they also held moments and experiences that shaped how I came to understand myself and others. Those early lessons, along with the challenges and choices that came later, continue to inform the depth and empathy I bring to my work.
Becoming a parent was another meaningful turning point for me. Motherhood shifted my understanding of identity, resilience, and self-compassion in profound ways. It taught me that growth is rarely linear, that it’s okay not to have everything figured out, and that we are always allowed to begin again.
Horses have remained a constant thread throughout my life — a place of grounding, relational honesty, and emotional regulation. Their presence encourages attunement, curiosity, and authenticity, and this shapes much of how I hold space in therapy: gently, respectfully, and without judgement.
My approach to counselling is collaborative. I’m not here to tell you who you are or how to be. I’m here to support you in reconnecting with your own clarity, your own inner knowing, and your own capacity to move forward — at your pace, and in your way.
Practice Philosophy
My practice is grounded in the belief that every person has the capacity to heal, grow, and reconnect with themselves, even in the midst of uncertainty or pain. I don’t view people as “problems to be fixed,” but as individuals shaped by their experiences, environments, relationships, and internal worlds.
Therapy, to me, is not about giving answers — it’s about creating a space where you feel safe enough to explore your own.
I work from a trauma-informed, relational and strengths-based perspective. This means:
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You lead the pace.
I trust that you know what feels right to look at, what needs time, and when space or grounding is needed. -
Your experiences are valid.
How you’ve learned to cope or survive makes sense in the context of what you’ve lived. -
We work with the whole self.
The mind, the body, and the nervous system all hold stories. Sometimes words tell the story; sometimes the body does. -
There is room for nuance.
Healing rarely looks neat. It can be quiet, slow, surprising, and nonlinear. All of this is welcome here.
Connection sits at the heart of my work — connection to self, to others, to the natural world, and in some cases, to animals. Horses in particular can offer a relational presence that is honest, regulating, and grounding. This is woven into therapy where it supports the process.
Ultimately, my role is to walk alongside you — not ahead, not behind.
To offer steadiness, curiosity, and respect while you make meaning, build trust within yourself, and find what feels true and right for your life and where you are at each time that we meet. Whether we are out in nature, interacting with horses, sitting in a safe space together or on an online platform; these are the way’s I will show up for you, together in our therapy sessions.