Claire Payne, NCPS

Claire Payne is a trauma-informed NCPS-registered counsellor and qualified trainer based in private practice in Torbay, Devon. She brings an integrative approach to therapy that weaves together Person Centred, Gestalt, and cognitive behavioral techniques to meet each person's needs in a way that feels right for them. Her NCPS registration indicates professional recognition with a counselling body and reflects a commitment to ongoing professional standards.

Claire works with people who have experienced a range of difficulties including trauma and abuse, attachment and early years issues, and the strains that come with caregiving and workplace stress. She has practical experience from work in social care settings and has substantial face-to-face experience with traumatised individuals, so she is familiar with how early life experiences and trauma can shape daily life and relationships.

Sessions are delivered with flexibility to match a client’s pace and style of healing; Claire uses creative options such as Sand Tray work when words are harder to find, and she supports both short-term and longer-term work. Areas of speciality include workplace stress, burnout and compassion fatigue, domestic and sexual abuse, early years trauma, and attachment difficulties, alongside related concerns such as abandonment, communication problems, guilt and shame, and life purpose. Her practice emphasises a calm, person-focused way of working that aims to help people rebuild resilience and clarity.