Clinical psychologybeyond the consulting room
The app and the worksheets below are live today, with more added over time. The book series is still on its way — join the waiting list for updates on its progress.
Reflective tools for curious minds, not a replacement for therapy — and reference materials for clinicians to use alongside their own practice.
Resources
Clinical psychology beyond the consulting room. The app and the worksheets below are live today, with more added over time. The book series is still on its way — join the waiting list for updates on its progress.
Portion Perception
An exploratory prototype: a short, photo-based calibration exercise for gauging meal and drink portion size. There's no perfect portion — people eat different amounts — but this helps build a wider, steadier sense of size using reference photographs across breakfast, lunch, dinner, takeaway and drinks. Choose the everyday version, or a version for people with diabetes.
Choose a versionDear Hedgehog
The first in the Dear Animal series is Dear Hedgehog — therapist letters to a well-armoured heart, for anyone who has ever felt the need to protect themselves from the world. Structured as a series of gentle letters to the many aspects of those who build up walls to protect their soft insides — addressed, for example, to the Tired Hedgehog, the Angry Hedgehog, the Playful Hedgehog, the Lonely Hedgehog — each one exploring a different quill grown for a different kind of protection, and each closing with a small, optional reflection: a place "to wander" if you care to, and a "berry to carry" back with you.
Also in the series: Dear Hawk · Dear Bear · Dear Chameleon · Dear Owl
Want to know when it's ready? Join the list.
You're on the list — I'll let you know as soon as it's ready.
The Dear Animal Reflective Deck
Sometimes a picture says it better than words can. Five animals across the Dear Animal books, in a Warm Edition (67 cards) and a Shadow Edition (59 cards) — useful when someone's stuck for words, or as a different way into a familiar theme. A free sixteen-card starter set is ready to explore and download now. A reflective resource for creative expression, not therapy in itself.
Preview the deckWant to know when it's ready? Join the list.
You're on the list — I'll let you know as soon as it's ready.
The Body Bias Corrector
An app addressing body image size bias. If we don't experience enough body diversity, we can become biased in the way we categorise bodies, and this can make it harder to see our own bodies accurately. This app, rooted in errorful learning and cultural feedback, aims to recalibrate that. No toxic positivity. Just a better signal.
Currently offline while in development.
Letters to a well-armoured heart
Each letter in Dear Hedgehog closes with two small invitations — a moment "to wander" if you care to, and a "berry to carry" back with you. Here are two, ahead of the book's release.
Dear Hedgehog
On why you grew your spikes — the biology and psychology of defence.
You might find a quiet moment to place a hand gently on your heart or your belly, a gesture of warmth and understanding for the body that has carried this history. Just breathing into that space, acknowledge the profound commitment it has made to your protection. You may even like to thank your body for its commitment to your care and protection.
With gentle curiosity, you could wonder: what is one of the earliest "safety rules" you can remember learning? Not necessarily as a dramatic story, but as a simple, childhood conclusion about how the world works. There is no need to judge it, just identify it with the wisdom of your present self.
A hedgehog does not curse its quills; it learns the gentle art of when to raise them, and when they are not needed, and trusts its ability to cope and replenish in its own burrow.
Want this reflection as a printable page?
Thank you. Your printable page is ready: Download the PDF
Dear Playful Hedgehog
The guilt of unproductive joy.
If you'd like to calm the guilt of joy, consciously schedule a five-minute "irresponsible" act. Do something with no purpose other than mild, personal joy: perhaps you blow bubbles, doodle nonsense, or lie in the grass and find shapes in the clouds. The goal is to feel the guilt and do it anyway, gathering evidence that the world does not end when you take moments for joy.
Think back to what you loved to do as a very young child, before the world asked you to be serious. See if you can engage in a "grown-up" version of that activity, not to create a masterpiece, but to reconnect with that innocent, pre-responsibility part of yourself.
The burrow was not built only for safety; it was built for rest, for storing nuts, for the quiet, unobserved joy of simply being home. Your spirit needs to play in its own home. After all, it was made for the innocence of the soft inner belly.
Want this reflection as a printable page?
Thank you. Your printable page is ready: Download the PDF
The priced resource library
Session worksheets and reference materials to use alongside your own practice.
These are reflective tools and materials for creative expression, not therapy in themselves and not designed to replace it.
Tell me a little about yourself to continue
These worksheets and reference materials are for clinicians, trainees and students to use alongside their own work. Enter your details once to unlock the priced library below — your access is remembered on this device, and the same details unlock the clinician toolkit on the For Clinicians page too.
- Session worksheets (formulation, distress tolerance, trauma, and more)
- Values, safety planning and psychoeducation handouts
- Reference sheets to support your own client work
Access is self-declared and remembered on this device only. Supervisees: once unlocked, log in separately below for free access to items included in your supervision.
Supervisee? Log in for free access to everything below.
Facing Fears: Building an Exposure Hierarchy
A structured way to plan graded exposure — from mildest to most difficult — for anxiety that's being avoided rather than faced.
A Safety Plan for Difficult Moments
A personal safety plan template — best completed together in session, not filled in alone.
Chain Analysis
An eight-step breakdown of a difficult moment, to find where it could have gone differently.
Mapping Your Lifeline
An introduction to the lifeline exercise used in Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) — a first step before the detailed work begins.
Relaxation & Grounding Techniques
Slow breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, with space to note what works for you.
Supporting a Loved One Through Eating Disorder Recovery
For family, partners, and friends — caregiving styles, readiness for change, and looking after yourself too.
Helping Others Advocate for Their Thoughts and Feelings
For carers and family — Socratic questioning, modelling, affirmations, and externalising, as practical ways to help someone find and use their own voice.
Problem-Solving Worksheet
A structured way to weigh up your options before you act, name the problem, generate possible solutions before judging any of them, then rate each one on how easy and how effective they are likely to be.
Cognitive Analytic Therapy Overview for Patient Consent 3pg
A three-page information sheet to give clients at the start of CAT: what it is and what to expect — session structure, the reformulation letter, the Psychotherapy File, and the three common patterns of traps, dilemmas and snags.
Book reviews
A few books I've found genuinely useful — for colleagues, for parents, and for anyone curious about this work. Personal recommendations, not a comprehensive reading list.
For clinicians & general readers
The Culture Map
Erin Meyer (2016), PublicAffairs
I was recommended this by a client, and I've since recommended it to almost everyone I know. It describes so much of what we were both learning as foreigners navigating a new culture — confused when our "normal" was perceived as unfamiliar. Grounded in recent research, it gave me the words to talk about cultural difference without judgement, and a real appreciation for the nuance in different communication styles. I'd recommend this to anyone working with people from a different cultural background.
The Skilled Helper
Gerard Egan & Robert J. Reese (2019, 11th ed.), Cengage Learning
Providing help to someone in distress is easier said than done, and it's easy to feel out of your depth. This is a fantastic resource for anyone new to counselling and therapy, offering practical techniques for holding space in a way that lets people explore their own distress and find their own way through it. I recommend this to all trainees.
Asperger's Syndrome and Anxiety
Alis Rowe (2014), The Visual Guides, Lonely Mind Books
As a clinician working with neurodivergence, I've hunted high and low for a consolidated, practical explanation of ASD-related anxiety — despite the flood of books and websites, it's genuinely hard to find. This one is a gem. Written from personal experience, it describes the unique experience of ASD-related anxiety and the foundational strategies that help ease it. A great resource for autistic people, carers, and clinicians alike, and there's a full series worth exploring beyond this one.
For parents
Helping Your Child with Fears and Worries
Cathy Creswell & Lucy Willetts (2019, 2nd ed.), Robinson
A real gem for parents of children under 12 with anxiety. It explains clearly how anxiety works and what tends to keep it going, then offers a stepped plan for tackling it together. It's an evidence-based intervention in its own right, built on the simple truth that parents know their children better than anyone — with a little guidance, they can support their child through difficult times, and through the lapses that come and go as life does.
Talking Back to OCD
John S. March (2007), The Guilford Press
An invaluable book for parents of children aged 4–12 with OCD. It builds understanding of the condition, supports parents in helping their child notice their own habits and rituals, and lays out an eight-step plan for working through OCD. It's also genuinely useful on the distinction between reassurance and support, and how to respond in a way that nurtures a child out of OCD rather than feeding it.
For adults with emotional eating
The DBT Solution for Emotional Eating
Debra L. Safer, Sarah Adler & Philip C. Masson (2018), Guilford Press
Another evidence-based guided self-help resource, and a genuinely good one. I've supported people through this programme myself, and together we've been amazed at how valuable it is — a life without binge eating can be much more within reach than it first seems.
From the Lumis journal
Lumis articles for a thoughtful exploration of topical dilemmas, insights into therapies and challenges.
Is exchanging your attention and data for entertainment too high a price?
What social media companies actually do with your attention and data, and why it matters more than the ads suggest.
Read the article → For everyone — Attachment & anxietyIs the phone the comfort blanket we hope for?
Why social media mimics the form of a secure base without delivering its substance.
Read the article → For everyone — Digital wellbeingHow social media stoked the QAnon fire, and what it did to families
How algorithm design and pandemic uncertainty combined to fracture families over conspiracy belief.
Read the article → For clients — Eating difficultiesUnderstanding ARFID
What Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder actually is, why it develops, and how a gentle, step-by-step approach can help someone widen the range of foods they feel able to eat.
Read on Us Therapy → For clients — Body imageAI influencers and the new unrealistic beauty standard
Digital avatars can look convincingly real, and that's exactly the problem for teenagers still forming their sense of self. On self-objectification, media literacy, and building self-worth that doesn't depend on comparison.
Read on Us Therapy → For clients — Masculinity & identityNavigating gender stereotypes
Prompted by Netflix's Adolescence, on the pressure boys and young men feel to meet rigid ideals of masculinity, and what healthier paths to self-worth can look like.
Read on Us Therapy → For clients — Masculinity & identityNavigating Adolescent Boyhood: Insights from an Expert
A video interview for SSEW (Seasoned Singapore Expat Women), prompted by the same themes in Netflix's Adolescence — supporting the teenage boys in our lives.
Watch the interview → For clients — ParentingParenting and adverse childhood experiences
We rarely train for the most important job we do. On breaking cycles we didn't choose, and why evidence-based parenting programmes can help rewrite an inherited script.
Read on Us Therapy →
Start a conversation
Whether you're looking for therapy, supervision, or simply want to find out more — get in touch and I'll respond within two working days.
marie-claire.psychology@outlook.com