Dr Clare Conway, BSc (Hons). DClinPsy. CPsychol. AFBPsS.

Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Advanced Schema Therapist in private practice in Mayfair, London, W1K.

Are my services right for you?

  • Upsetting past events can simmer away within one’s life, negatively influencing choices or re-emerging cruelly years later through panic attacks, depression, an excruciating episode of fatigue or mania. Trauma also wrecks havoc perniciously through the lies we tell ourselves, the shame-filled secrets we keep, the scolding ways in which we speak to ourselves and others, the relationship or career opportunities we sabotage and the physical symptoms we manifest. If your past is resurfacing in these unhelpful ways, you may benefit from the trauma-focused approach offered through my practice.

  • Central to my practice, Schema Therapy is effective in resolving and breaking unhealthy relationship patterns. This includes fears of intimacy, self-sacrificing and people pleasing behaviours, difficulties in upholding boundaries, abandonment anxiety or interpersonal distrust, grievances and hostility, among others.

  • It isn’t only our relationships that can be negatively affected by our past. Unprocessed trauma can also derail career and business success. I offer tailored services designed specifically to work with the psychological challenges facing individuals within high-pressured, competitive, creative and entrepreneurial roles through StartupHEALTHY and FounderBALANCE®.

  • This is something we can also work on. I am experienced in working with and containing the more destructive side of being human. Each of us has a more impulsive, instinctive and self-defeating side. We all have the capacity to act out, to hurt ourselves and those we love the most. Career success and relationship stability can also be unwittingly sabotaged.

    The art of living fully involves integrating our drive for stability and order with a drive for freedom and instinct. For some individuals however the balance tips and they may develop risky behaviours, a reliance on alcohol, drugs or sex. Or conversely, become so rigid in their thinking, and inhibited and over-controlled, that they stop connecting with others; hiding instead behind a mask. Self-defeating behaviours are often communicating an unmet need, and the goal of therapy is to reach the more vulnerable emotions that sit beneath these behaviours.

  • Having completed doctoral training in clinical psychology and a range of treatment models, including EMDR, CBT, MBT and Schema Therapy, I can integrate approaches to improve outcomes.

  • Our life experiences can manifest in our bodies and aggravate physical health conditions, distort our posture and our facial expressions - twisting and gnawing as uncomfortable sensations. As such, I take an interest in your non-verbal communications, as much as I do the words you share.

  • I know that life is messy and that negative feelings are inevitable and necessary. Having worked with individuals across the full trauma continuum, I know that silencing negative thoughts or denying disturbing memories, beliefs, fantasies or impulses is not the answer. We need to be able to move more smoothly between self states and foster a healthy adult self by putting words to our experiences, responding more adaptively and with greater flexibility; acknowledging also the texture inherent in living fully.

Work with me

Each and every one of us has a story to tell. But it’s the parts of the story that we keep repeating, the parts we hurry through or the parts that are not shared at all, that I also listen out for. Sometimes it is only through the carefully timed observations, attuned listening and inquiring mind of another that we can begin to take a genuine interest in ourselves.

Arrange an initial consultation

You’ve seen a life coach already. But really, there’s something deeper holding you back.

Work with me to reach your unresolved conflicts and needs

Clinical Experience

Dr Conway is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Advanced Schema Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer, certified with the International Society of Schema Therapy. She is a Practitioner Psychologist, registered with the HCPC - a statutory regulator of healthcare professionals in the UK.  She is also an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, with over 15 years experience to Consultant level across NHS and private settings.  She began her professional journey through a BSc in Experimental Psychology; completing her undergraduate thesis in developmental-genetic models of alcohol addiction. She went on to complete her doctoral training in clinical psychology, which included a clinical placement in the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, London where she conducted pre and post surgical assessments of neuropsychological functioning in epilepsy. Her doctoral thesis was in psychological well-being and future-directed thinking in parasuicide.

She subsequently worked in NHS adult forensic mental health services in North London Forensic Service where she conducted detailed assessments of risk in severe violence and homicide and provided long-term therapy interventions. She also held a role as clinical lead for the NW London MBT project site for a personality disorder treatment trial in collaboration with the Portman Clinic, London.

Working with highly interrupted attachment histories in forensic and personality disorder NHS services, Dr Conway developed an expertise in integrative relational therapies, most notably Schema Therapy, and further developed a specialism in attachment trauma by integrating attachment-focused EMDR.  She has co-authored research in peer reviewed journals and presented at international conferences, with an established expertise in Schema Therapy and narcissism; having also attended and contributed to numerous workshops on complex trauma, narcissism and schema therapy in London, Vienna and New York.

Dr Conway is committed to the development of others. She has held a long-term visiting clinical lecturer position at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, Kings College, London, and contributed to teaching and supervision of clinical psychology trainees across the London-based doctoral training courses. She continues to provide training and supervision to professionals working with clinical complexity and currently provides schema-informed supervision to the National Stalking Clinic, London.

Within her private practice, Dr Conway provides both consulting and psychological therapy services. She also provides specialist entrepreneurial and creative mental health consultancy through Startup HEALTHY and Founder BALANCE®, and concierge clinical psychology services for high profile clients in the UK and internationally.

A Collaborative Process

We will work together to disentangle your past from your present, to process the life experiences that sit harmfully within you, uncover meaning, deepen your connections, and enhance your personal growth.

I look forward to hearing your story

Qualifications & Credentials

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy)

BSc (Hons) Experimental Psychology

Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) verified by the BPS Register of Chartered Psychologists

Registered Clinical Psychologist with the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC; Ref: PYLO4872)

Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS; Membership No: 165307)

ISST Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor & Trainer

Registered Member of the International Society of Schema Therapy (Membership No: UK000888)

Registered Member of EMDR UK and qualified to Level 4 in EMDR UK Accredited Training

Visiting Lecturer in Clinical Psychology & invited peer-reviewer for the Journal of Clinical Psychology