Clare McDonald (She/her)Social Worker

Clare is an accredited Mental Health Social Worker and Gestalt Psychotherapist with 10 years’ experience working in the public and private sector of counselling and therapeutic services. Clare completed her bachelors (Hons.) degree in Ireland and four-year advanced training in gestalt psychotherapy in Melbourne, Australia. Clare offers a warm, relational approach to therapy where you can expect to be supported and challenged. She believes that the relational approach to therapy can be transformative, encourage deeper meaning-making and self-acceptance. Clare’s areas of specialty are working with victim/survivors of abuse, sexual violence, reproductive trauma, complex trauma, PTSD, bereavement, and loneliness. Whether or not you have a formal diagnosis or not, her interest is in your lived experiences and how this has shaped you in the present moment. Clare acknowledges that ‘recovering’ from traumatic experience requires trust, safety and a pace that feels right for you. There may not be a quick fix solution to what you bring to therapy, but she will help you to help yourself to cultivate curiosity and self-compassion and will encourage an increase of self-awareness and connection to all parts of you, embracing your whole self. Clare offers a space for all people who want to connect or reconnect back to themselves in creating a sense of home and steadiness within themselves. “The journey of aliveness, engagement in the world, risk taking, and connectedness is the grandest journey of all” – Close & Reese, 2018. Living in Melbourne? Find a mental health social worker near you. Our team is here to help!