Clare Macro

BA (Hons) Counselling, Class of 2016

I graduated with a First-Class Degree in Counselling in 2016.  I am a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and I set up my own business in 2017.

After working in the Insurance industry since the age of 16, I needed a change of career and had a desire to help others.  I finally applied to University Campus Suffolk, now University of Suffolk, at the age of 36, and started the very next term.  With a young daughter, I chose UCS as I needed to stay local.  Counselling was a new course to UCS, previously only being available at Bury (west Suffolk).

The course was Integrative Counselling, which is a combined approach to Psychotherapy that brings together different elements of specific therapies.  Integrative Counselling aims to improve an individual’s well-being and mental health.  Therapy can help a person to change behaviour, reduce anxieties, promote healing, facilitate wholeness and increase happiness.

As an Integrative Therapist, we take the view that there is no single approach that can treat each client in all situations.  I tailor counselling techniques to the individual needs and personal circumstances of each client.  All theories are considered to have value and I aim to integrate various therapies including: humanistic, psychodynamic, mindfulness, cognitive and behavioural.

A personal challenge at university was writing essays, again after such a long gap from education, however there was lots of support available at UCS for mature students that were a little rusty in this area.  I gained a lot of experience in my placement at Survivors In Transition, working with adults who were sexually abused as children.  These placements are crucial to putting into practise the skills taught in the classroom.  The course also involved attending 40 hours of personal therapy which was vital for our own self-awareness and development. 

In my final year I was offered a position as School Counsellor at Westbourne High School which I loved.  This opportunity allowed me to grow my confidence as a Counsellor and feel as though I was genuinely making a difference to young people’s mental health.  This led to me also working at the Pupil Referral Units in Ipswich counselling vulnerable young people.

In 2017 I decided to start my own practice working from an outbuilding in my home and have never looked back.  I work with people of all ages and cover a variety of different conditions and psychological issues including: anxiety, bereavement, PTSD, depression, addictions, low self-esteem, eating disorders, relationship and attachment issues.

I find this area of work can be extremely challenging emotionally but also very rewarding.  I love the flexibility of working for myself and attend regular supervision to ensure my own self-care.