About Claire

Thank you for visiting my website! I hope you will find the information here useful. As I am offering to help others with their spiritual journeys, I thought I would tell you a bit about my own, not that I am not offering myself as a model, only as a helpful fellow traveller…!

My personal journey has been life-long, involving a lot of personal transformation work, years of study and exposure to many world religions. I was born into a traditional Jewish family, where studying Hebrew and Jewish religious texts and commentaries was very much a part of life, and I went to Jewish kindergarten and primary school. But from eleven years old, I was sent to a Catholic convent school and learned all about the New Testament, sang hymns about Jesus and so on, while I maintained my identity by continuing to participate in and contribute to Jewish community and spiritual life. This was a challenging interfaith ‘feat’ at such a tender age! But when I look back on my upbringing I feel gratitude for all that I have learnt. It gave me a strong belief in God and instilled strong values, which I have carried with me throughout my life.

Through my twenties and thirties I began to connect to God in different ways and started to explore different paths, including Buddhism, Sufism, and Shamanism, spiritual healing, primal sound meditation, visualisations and affirmations.  These subjects fascinated me.  They offered an experience that was deeply satisfying, in a way that touched my soul and spirit.  I felt deeply nourished. I started to become aware of coincidences, the way my life started to move in a certain direction.  I began to feel guided by a loving presence. It was during this time that I also discovered the Sufi mystic and poet Rumi, a source of great inspiration to me. Rumi’s poetry celebrates the sacred in everyday existence and transcends boundaries of time, place, and religion to speak to all people.

I went on to spend five years studying Psychosynthesis psychotherapy which has a psychospiritual approach; it is often described as ‘psychology with a soul’. Through deep exploration and recovery, I was able to reclaim my authentic self. This was the greatest gift I could ever have given myself. I discovered my sense of joy and learned to trust in the goodness of life. The profound nature of my experience and deep understanding of the process naturally led me to want to offer this to others. So, after extensive experience and training (over 12 years in all), I qualified as a Psychotherapeutic Counsellor at the Institute of Psychosynthesis and started running my private counselling practice, offering both open-ended and short-term therapy. While doing this, I gave birth to a beautiful daughter and passed through the life changing rite of passage into motherhood.  My daughter has helped to further open my heart and has brought a lot of joy and added greater depth to my life and work.

So how did I find my way into ministry? I had been helping people my whole working life, initially in the personnel departments of major corporations and subsequently through a number of approaches to personal development including Reflexology, Reiki healing and counselling. But when I heard about the Interfaith Seminary training programme, it touched a chord deep within my soul – one that longed to bring reconciliation and unity between peoples, peace within the individual and the honouring of the sacred in everyday life. I spent two years training and, in August 2004, I was ordained as an Interfaith Minister. I now offer personalised services, ceremonies and Spiritual Life Counselling as well as Psychosynthesis Therapeutic Counselling. It is my greatest privilege to be able to use the love, gifts and spiritual talents now available to me to help inspire and guide others in their journeys.

In conclusion, my counselling practice and the work I do as a minister is informed by a deep faith in God. It has been this faith in God that has enabled me to face some very difficult things in my life.  It is these blessings and experience of God’s love; light and grace that I wish to extend to you through either counselling or special life occasions or ceremony.

Blessings and love

Rev. Claire Hannah Marcus