Claire Myhill
Whether we are fighting battles no one sees, or just know that we are not living up to our potential, we all need to have a word with ourselves at some point in our lives. This is what therapy should feel like – a conversation with yourself. As a therapist, it’s a great privilege to join people on the important journey of self-discovery, and to help them figure out what the map says, as we fight the occasional monster together along the way. I believe that people have an astounding capacity for growth and love to help them resolve the problems that get in the way of living their best lives, or support them through the tough times, when things get heavy.
I consider myself an integrative therapist – so I draw on different tools as relevant, but I work strongly from a cognitive-behavioural perspective (CBT), which means I’m interested in understanding and improving the patterns of how we think, feel, and behave – and how these impact each other.
Although I tend to work in a fairly goal-orientated way, I prefer not to limit the kinds of people I want to work with. Whether someone is trying to break ceilings in their sport, or trying to cope with physical challenges and pain, my approach and the tools I use can usually help facilitate their journey and help them unlock their potential, so that they can achieve the goals that matter to them, relative to their context.
I spent my childhood in relatively high-performance settings, whilst also overcoming several major challenges, so focused on resilience-building and performance enhancement from a young age. Instead of just coping with setbacks, I found ways to grow, and regard this as one of my greatest strengths. Now I love being part of helping people empower themselves, grow, and improve their lives in various meaningful and fulfilling ways.
In addition to my psychological training, I have worked in various assessments centres and business contexts, developing a range of skills in people and organisational development (OD) consulting, which have provided useful insights related to the world of work. During my time spent in OD, I was involved in leadership development, role profiling, competency frameworks and interviewing, in addition to various other projects.
In different capacities, I have also studied and worked in numerous high-performance settings, including business leadership, several sporting disciplines, and professional ballet. Having studied journalism as my other major for my undergraduate degree, I am also interested in issues of politics and current affairs, including the empowerment of marginalised groups. Because of this interest, and through this exposure to developing people and organisations, my core purpose is to help people empower themselves so they can contribute to South Africa’s socioeconomic development and prosperity, in some way.