About Me
Claire Richardson
Dip.Hyp, NLP Pract, HPD, MUKHC
What do I do?
Hi, I’m Claire – founder of Anxiety Performance Coach – and I help people who feel stuck, anxious or overwhelmed to regain a sense of balance and transform stress and self-doubt into calm, confidence and focus.
I trained and qualified with the Anglo European College of Therapeutic Hypnosis and gained the Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Practitioner Certification and I bring evidence-based strategies to help you overcome anxiety and perform under pressure. I am fully insured and a member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy.
I believe passionately in the power of the mind - both in its ability to hold us back if unchecked and in its infinite ability to drive change.
I’ve seen time and again how anxiety holds people back — whether it’s freezing in an exam, stumbling in a presentation, or crumbling under sporting pressure. The truth is, nerves are natural — but with the right approach, they can be managed and even channelled into performance energy.
My mission is to give you the tools to regain control, build resilience, and unlock your potential when it matters most.
About me
When I’m not coaching, you’ll usually find me travelling the country taking my children to their sailing events! When not rigging and launching their boats I enjoy cycling, walking and being on the water myself in any capacity.
I haven’t always been a coach and hypnotherapist. My background is wide-ranging – I began my career as a solicitor in a leading London law firm, working long hours and under pressure. I made the decision to leave the corporate world when I was 30 and then spent a few years sailing from the UK to New Zealand before moving ashore to the south of France to work in superyacht management. After a couple of years my husband and I moved back to the UK to set up our own company and spent the next decade juggling running several businesses with bringing up two busy little boys.
I decided a few years ago though that I wanted to do something more fulfilling with the next stage of my career. Having dealt with anxiety myself and seen so many friends and their children struggling with anxiety fuelled by stressful jobs, elite sports, academic pressure, parenthood, menopause or other health issues, I wanted to be able to help people navigate these challenging times and find a powerful approach to change lives.
Starting a new career in mid-life is challenging, and I am using all of my techniques on myself to help drive the change, motivate me, reduce my anxiety and boost my confidence - so I know they work!
If you want to know how they could work for you then contact me for a free chat!
My approach
The model that I use is an evidence-based combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnosis or guided visualisation using elements of sports and performance psychology . This approach is founded in science and is not at all ‘woo woo’. It is simple but powerful.
This work is not about fixing you – because you’re not broken. It’s about helping you uncover the strengths that were always there, but perhaps got buried under stress, fear or unhelpful beliefs.
This isn’t about quick fixes or generic advice. Every coaching plan is personalised to your needs ensuring you feel supported and equipped to thrive. I’ll meet you exactly where you are and help you to move on in the direction in which you want to go. If you need help to identify that direction we can work with values, motivation and goal-setting to help you to know exactly where you are going. This is a collaborative approach - we work together to decide on the best approaches for you and the plan will be personalised to your needs and can be changed according to your needs.
If you’d like to take that next step, I offer a 30 minute free initial chat via zoom or on the phone where we can talk through what’s going on for you and see whether anxiety and performance coaching would be a good fit for you.
“Your life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by change”
Contact
If you are interested in finding out more please fill out the contact form and I will be in touch shortly. I look forward to hearing from you.