Clare Ward
Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Practitioner
Clare is a founding member of Special Networks. She originally trained as a Speech and Language Therapist and spent over twenty years working in the NHS, Social Services and Education with adults, children, schools and families. Her practice now combines her SLT experience with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (third wave Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) to offer flexible solutions to a wide variety of life challenges.
Clare developed an interest in autism early on in her career and spent many years developing alternative communication systems for people who are minimally verbal, whilst supporting them to connect with others through touch and sound.
Once working in mainstream schools, she began to explore the use of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, initially to support people experiencing situational mutism, which in turn brought a shift in the way she approaches communication difficulties. She no longer teaches ‘social skills’ as a matter of course, although she uses elements of Speech and Language Therapy approaches to help people prepare for interviews and other situations where they are meeting people for the first time.
In collaboration with the lived experience consultants at Special Networks, she takes a more progressive, neuroaffirmative perspective and helps children and young people develop greater self understanding and self compassion, as they manage the difficult thoughts and feelings that show up for us all, particularly when when we feel excluded or rejected. Alongside this, she hopes to help parents, carers and professionals to understand the power of ‘belonging’ and how, by building more universally inclusive environments we can create a place for children and young people where they can feel psychologically safe, learn and connect with others.
With Jamie Galpin she has co-authored (and illustrated) The Anxiety Workbook for Supporting Teens Who Learn Differently (Jessica Kingsley Publishing 2021), which applies current psychological theory to challenges many young people face in secondary school. Their second book with Special Networks’ OT Judy Courtney (‘My Senses are Like Cups’ due out June 2024) is written for children and young people aged 7+ in an attempt to explain sensory uncertainty in a fun, meaningful and accessible way.
Clare is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and is also a member of the Association of Behavioural and Contextual Science. She has completed British Psychological Society approved training certificates in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Children and Adolescents and Acceptance and Committment Therapy training for all. She continually strives to improve her practice and has most recently completed her Level 1 training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for working with children and adolescents.
