Hello, I’m Clare – life and business coach, mother of three (plus four inherited, thank you second marriage), dog wrangler, bread-baking obsessive, and occasional guerrilla knitter. I live in Dorking with my husband and two very spoiled dogs. I swim in open water, sing a bit, crochet when the mood strikes, and once saved 1,000 tonnes of surplus food from landfill. I’ve also had more than one reinvention. Midlife will do that to a woman.

I’m post-menopausal, still navigating brain fog, and was genuinely stunned to learn that anxiety is one of menopause’s biggest symptoms – who knew? I’ve been through divorce (mine and my parents’), run a CIC for six years, raised children, let go of children, burnt out, lost myself, found myself again, and now… here we are.

In 2017, a single hypnotherapy session changed everything. Not all at once, but slowly, quietly, I began responding differently, standing up for myself, saying the thing I never thought I could: this isn't good enough. It led to the end of my marriage and the beginning of everything new. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but step by step, I got through it. If you're standing in that place – lost, exhausted, unsure where to even start – I see you. And you will get through.

I believe midlife isn’t a crisis; it’s a doorway. A strange, squeaky, emotional doorway full of questions you didn’t think you’d be asking. What now? Who even am I anymore? Is this it?

Here’s what I’ve learned: this is not it. You are not finished. There is so much more waiting for you, but it starts by pressing pause on the noise, saying no to the “shoulds”, and beginning to ask, “What do I want?”

I also love a bit of magic. In my 20s, I learned Shiatsu massage. In my 30s, it was Reiki and energy healing. In my 40s, I leaned deeper into spiritual practices that help shift mental and emotional blocks. I’ve always straddled the line between the material and the mystical. Shamanic traditions believe everything is alive – everything holds energy – and our job is to bring it back into balance. That makes sense to me. Science is even catching up, showing how positive thought and self-talk can literally change your brain. I believe in that alchemy, I believe we can send energy to heal, and call energy into ourselves to shift what feels stuck. I believe we can change.

That’s why I created The Midlife Edit – a membership for women ready to rewrite the rules. It’s the kind of space I longed for. A space where we talk about the real stuff – grief, rage, reinvention, sleep (or lack of it), identity, desire, rest, work, weird dreams, what’s next. A space where we laugh and swear and cry and learn.....together.

I’m still figuring things out, still learning to rest, still battling the inner critic who tells me I should be doing more. But I’m not doing it alone anymore. And neither should you.