Mental health has never had more awareness than it does now.
And it’s certainly a pressing issue. More than 1 in 7 adults in the UK say their mental health is currently bad.
The story is even worse for business owners. According to Mental Health UK, 4 in 5 small business owners reported experiencing symptoms of poor mental health at least a few times a year.
This rise in cases could be down to greater individual awareness of the issue and even some level of misunderstanding, but there’s no question it’s important. Taking care of your mental wellbeing is as important as the rest of your body.
Fortunately for us, C4DI has a ‘resident expert’, and for this month’s interview we had the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Claire Wilson to find out why she started her private psychology practice and what business owners like those in the C4DI network can do to take greater care.
Growing alongside the NHS
Claire Wilson set up The Psychology Place back in 2012 and like a lot of business stories, it began whilst working in another role. In this case that was working as a full-time clinical psychologist in the NHS.
“An evenings and weekends situation” to begin with she began to reduce her NHS hours and put more time into the practice, before leaving the NHS completely in 2019, to work on it full time.
Of course, she gained her expertise in the NHS, doing a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, and specialising in the aftereffects of complex trauma. “We worked with a lot of ex-military, torture survivors, asylum seekers, [victims of] domestic violence, and those in emergency services, like police and paramedics for example. Over the years, I went into working in children's services as well. So, I've done a lot of work with looked-after and adopted children as well.”
But it was also this time that gave her the impetus to start her own practice. “I'm passionate about people having access to good, high-quality services that are trauma informed and involve a qualified professional. Sadly, in my last few years, NHS waiting lists were growing and as you get higher in position, you're dealing with the impact of that. Often the life changing intensive one to one therapy is sadly not quite as available as it used to be on the NHS.”
With a heavy heart that she left, but hasn’t looked back since, and can now work directly with clients who need that care. The business and her work in psychology has flourished and now she’s a published author.
Getting published
Claire offers a range of services addressing a variety of psychological issues, some you may have heard of, others perhaps not. She’s done intensive training in other therapeutic models to enhance her practice since qualifying. “I began training in EMDR/eye movement and desensitisation in 2009 and became an accredited practitioner a few years back. EMDR is an evidence-based therapy for working with trauma related issues such as PTSD but can also be used for performance coaching and phobias for example. Public figures like Prince Harry have spoken about his experience of EMDR which he did to work through the trauma of losing his mum.
"It’s an exciting therapy for which the evidence base is growing all the time as we better understand our brain structures and memory functions and the technology expands to help us see neurological change.” Now on the consultant practitioner pathway for EMDR, she does a lot of mentoring of other practitioners and is increasingly being called upon for her expertise.
As an expert witness, something she has been doing for over 12 years, she works “closely with a lot of local solicitors providing psychological assessments for court proceedings, often in personal injury or clinical negligence cases. That’s evolved to be quite complex, high value cases where you need precise, thorough assessments and a certain set of expertise. I’ve also been asked to present at a national conference in October for solicitors, exploring psychological issues in assessment in the medico legal field which is a great opportunity”.
As of March 2024, she’s also a published author. “I had a chapter published in the Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Analytic Therapy. There's a book launch in London and it's a great collective achievement for the cognitive analytic community, with multiple areas of specialism and expertise pulled together in this one enormous handbook, so I'm very proud to be involved in that." In brief, Cognitive Analytic Therapy, looks at unhelpful or repetitive problematic patterns in our lives and relationships that may underpin emotional distress. It’s also a great consultation model to use with business leaders and staff to look at team dynamics, how you function as a team and becoming more cohesive and effective. Claire is hoping to use this with businesses more as she develops further into the business psychology field.
Claire with the book she’s published in.
We’re not mind readers!
For someone in this position you’d expect that they hear their fair share of misconceptions. We wanted to know whether there were any myths she’d like to debunk. The idea that they’re “mind readers” or “constantly assessing people” is a common one, says Claire.
Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that. It can sometimes be hard to switch off she admits, and it certainly gives you a deeper connection to people, but “we don't go around analysing and assessing people all the time. We need that break as well and to be able to compartmentalise our work the best we can.”
However, it’s indicative of the greater awareness of mental health in the media that she has seen more interest in therapy, which has had a positive impact on her business. She’s passionate about destigmatising therapy too and making it easy to access.
“I think people are more likely to talk about therapy. I see that in my practices. A lot of my clients are high functioning professionals, who may want to address their work life balance, and are making an investment in their mental health in the same way they might their physical health.”
And what about some top tips? For businesspeople and professionals like the ones that use the C4DI buildings, she believes a couple of things are key to generating positive mental health.
“Fundamentally we thrive and work on relationships. So, if we have good, solid, reciprocal, caring, nurturing relationships, we can weather quite a lot really.”
She commends organisations that take employee wellbeing seriously and support “employees to feel like they’re valued and respected. Local businesses have funded us for staff sessions, either in a group or one to one format. Bringing in psychology to look at how you're operating as a business can be helpful.”
This is on top of a healthy work life balance which she admits may be a cliché but “it's often that imbalance at the root of mental health difficulties or psychological distress.”
Community is key
There are few better places to nurture and develop relationships like that than a shared office building like C4DI. And it helps a small business like Claire’s too. “It's nice for me not to feel isolated and have those in person contacts,” she says.
The environment is also important for the work she’s doing. Many of the people she sees there will be talking about distressing things and will understandably be nervous, so creating a friendly, welcoming atmosphere is important. “I've worked in some really tricky buildings in the past so I like having a space that reflects my values and being able to show clients that I'm investing in having a premises that values them really sets the tone for my whole business.”
C4DI is also the ideal home because The Psychology Place is very much a digital first practice. Unshackled from the vast systems of a larger organisation, she’s able to take full advantage of the digital tools at her fingertips. They’re fully paperless for a start. “We have an online clinic system, where we book appointments, and the invoicing comes from that. All my notes are kept electronically.” Collaborators making the shift has also helped and means she’s not drowning in the paperwork that can come with some cases.
She was also well prepared for the separating event of Covid-19. During the pandemic she was able to quickly translate her sessions to being online. “We quite quickly went through a video call transition and a lot of my clients gave me feedback on how swiftly we did that.”
“As humans I think we need that face-to-face contact… but even now people can see me fully online if that suits them better. It's allowed me to continue working with clients who've maybe left the area but weren't ready to finish therapy. I do work with people in other countries who might want to seek my specialism as well.”
Community, like the one we have at C4DI is obviously key to psychological health and wellbeing. “We've evolved to need people. If we have good support, if we have people who care about us and how we're doing, our resilience and well-being tends to be better.”
“The improvements we make are also within relationships in our lives - sharing the struggles of being human and de-shaming and normalising our emotions is so important. I’m lucky I get to facilitate those journeys for people.”