A Therapist Who’s Also an Author: What Claire’s Writing on Leadership Reveals About Resilience & Recovery
When you’re carrying stress, burnout, trauma, grief, or the quiet weight of “having to hold it all together,” it can feel like you’re failing at life.
But often, what’s really happening is this: your nervous system has been doing its best to protect you.
Claire Skillen, Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) & Author
At Strength in Heart Counselling, we’re excited to welcome Claire Skillen (MBA, MACP, B.Sc., CHR, PROSCI), Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), a therapist whose background is uniquely positioned to support people navigating both personal healing and high-responsibility lives.
Claire brings a rare blend of experience:
EMDR Therapy (Standard & GAP Protocols) for trauma processing
Training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Over 20 years across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors (including healthcare, Coast Guard, BC Wildfire Management, frontline community work, and tech/consulting)
And a powerful differentiator: Claire is also a published author writing about leadership, especially women catalyzing change in science and technology.
This matters more than you might think!
Leadership & healing have more in common than we realize
Leadership isn’t just a job title. It’s often a lived reality:
Being the one others rely on
Making decisions under pressure
Managing conflict and uncertainty
Holding emotional weight you don’t always get to put down
Over time, that can create patterns like:
Chronic over-functioning
Hyper-vigilance
Emotional shutdown
Anxiety, irritability, or numbness
Difficulty resting without guilt
In therapy, we often discover that what looks like “stress” is actually a nervous system that has learned to stay on high alert.
Claire’s work as an author and leadership advocate gives her a deep understanding of how systems, culture, and identity-based stress shape our inner world, especially for people working in high-demand environments.
What Claire’s writing on leadership reveals about resilience
Resilience is often misunderstood as “pushing through.”
But real resilience looks more like:
Knowing when something is too much
Being able to regulate your body when stress spikes
Repairing after hard experiences instead of pretending they didn’t impact you
Rebuilding boundaries that protect your energy
Letting support in, without shame
Claire’s leadership lens brings a grounded, human-centered perspective to therapy: you are not broken—your system adapted.
And the goal isn’t to “toughen up.” It’s to help you carry your life with greater ease.
Recovery isn’t only personal—it’s relational & systemic
One of the most validating shifts in therapy is realizing:
Your struggles are not be a personal flaw. They may be a normal response to abnormal demands.
Claire’s background in organizational change and decades of cross-sector work means she can support clients who are navigating:
Burnout and compassion fatigue
Workplace stress and identity strain
Leadership pressure and loneliness
Life transitions (career shifts, relocations, role changes)
Emotional abuse and boundary repair
Trauma and post-trauma healing
This is especially helpful for clients who feel like they’ve tried everything—books, podcasts, productivity hacks—and still can’t “think” their way out of dysregulation.
A practical, research-backed path: EMDR + skills + compassion
Claire’s approach is holistic and collaborative, with an emphasis on creating psychological and felt safety.
Depending on your needs, therapy with Claire may include:
EMDR therapy to process past and present adverse experiences
DBT-based tools for distress tolerance and emotional regulation
IFS-informed work to reduce inner conflict and self-criticism
Support for boundaries, identity, and values-based decision-making
Her style is often described as intuitive, grounding, and collaborative—a “co-pilot” presence as you move through healing and rediscovery.
If you’re a high-capacity person who feels like you’re running on empty
You don’t need to wait until you crash.
Therapy can help you:
Feel calmer in your body
Reduce anxiety and overwhelm
Heal from trauma and emotional injury
Build boundaries that actually stick
Move through grief and loss with support
Reconnect with meaning, purpose, and self-trust
Book with Claire (Victoria, BC + Online across BC)
Claire is currently accepting new individual clients in Victoria, BC and online across the province of BC.
If you’re curious whether she’s the right fit, you can start with a free consultation.
If you’re ready for therapy that’s transformational, research-backed, and deeply human, Claire would be honoured to support you.
