

Renowned Clinical Psychologist, Best-Selling Author, Executive Coach, Lecturer
Empowering people to create their best life
Biography
Dr. Claire Hayes’s passion is prevention. Whether as a clinical psychologist, speaker, coach, author or teacher, she equips individuals, groups and organisations to move beyond coping with stress, anxiety and depression so they can live their best life. Because that’s what we all deserve.
Claire shows you how understanding something better can bring about profound change. Audiences or participants come away from her presentations with a clear understanding of how their thoughts, beliefs and actions impact their sense of satisfaction in work but also in life. New choices open up about how to make life work for them. Well-being and productivity improve. People also learn how to better support colleagues who may be struggling.
How does she do it?
The Coping Triangle: Retrain Your Brain
Drawing on established research and 30+ years of clinical, corporate and workplace experience, Claire devised what she calls The Coping Triangle ©.
This innovative step-by-step approach helps people to understand the basic principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), a well-established clinical method that has proven highly effective in helping people to identify and move past their stressors so they can live a life of minimal anxiety and stress.
Reduce Stress, Develop Resilience
Clear and logical, the Coping Triangle helps people to literally ‘rewire’ their brains so they can change the way they think — for good. Learn how particular stressors affect you. As you understand them better, their power to affect you negatively starts to wane and you begin to think and feel in more positive ways. Quite quickly, you find yourself making better decisions that are more in line with your ‘road map’ for life. Stress and anxiety levels are reduced. Most importantly, you become more resilient, with a much improved capacity to negotiate challenges with greater ease, absorb the learnings and move on with optimism.
Background
Claire’s interest in helping people cope with stress and mental health difficulties is rooted in research she carried out in the Irish Management Institute in 1988. She expanded on this work with two Masters degrees and a PhD which further explored the areas of stress, coping, prevention and resilience.
Her focus today is on prevention — on ‘training’ yourself to become more resilient so that you experience less anxiety, stress and depression in the first place. This emphasis is reflected in her busy consultancy practice, where she helps people of all ages to understand and manage challenges including stress, anxiety, bullying and chronic illness.
Her expertise led to her appointment (2011-17 and 2020-22) as Clinical Director of Aware, Ireland’s national organisation to support people with depression and bipolar disorder. She has written widely, too, on how to cope with stress and is a regular contributor to Irish national media including television, radio and the press.
To date she has had three best-selling books published, whilst Beehive is to publish her fourth, ‘Choose Well’ in spring 2023. Her fifth book, ‘Enjoy Your Work — Enjoy Your Life!’ will be published by Orpen Press in Spring 2023.
Topics
Understanding & Managing Anxiety
Anxiety is part of the human condition and yet can be a double-edged sword. When understood and used well, it can enhance performance. On the other hand, it can paralyse and cause serious difficulties when it is misunderstood or mismanaged.
In this talk drawing on her vast experience of supporting people of all ages and all stages in their lives to ‘take their power back’ from anxiety, Claire will empower you to understand and manage your anxiety and equip you with tools to support others to manage theirs.
This can be a presentation for people at all levels and/or a workshop for Senior Managers and HR Managers. It can also be delivered as a Masterclass.
Putting the Enjoyment Back in Your Work
These past few years have been challenging. The enjoyment many people previously experienced in the workplace has decreased, lowering overall morale. Some have questioned if it is time to move jobs.
This session empowers leaders, executives or senior managers to support participants to take responsibility for their own well-being by focusing on key steps they can take to enjoy work more, so they can stay motivated, stimulated and proactive.
How to Support Your People Wherever They Are in Their Career
This presentation challenges HR Managers, Senior Managers or Senior Executives to support employees at all three key stages of their careers: beginning, middle or end. It focuses on how you can use key psychological principles to encourage, support and manage your employees at whatever stage in their work cycle they are in.
Masterclasses
You may want to go deeper with your audience. Masterclasses can be tailored and developed to suit your audience needs, be it a 90-minute Masterclass, a half-day or full-day workshop or a full online or face-to-face programme. Please contact one of our expert team to discuss.
Understand and Manage Anxiety
This in-depth workshop is an opportunity for you to consider how you are affected by your anxiety or that of others around you. It deepens your knowledge of anxiety as an important warning mechanism, introduces you to key cognitive behavioural therapy principles and equips you to proactively manage and minimise any current and future anxiety.
Achieve and Maintain a Work-Life Balance that Works for You
At some point in our lives we all wonder what we are doing, ask what it is all for or question what might have happened if we had done something different with our lives. This Masterclass helps you to look at where you are at in your life, determine where you would like to be and focus on steps you can choose to take to make your future work for you.
Resources
Books



Testimonials
“As part of our October Mental Health month celebrations, we have engaged with Dr. Claire Hayes who delivered an Expert talk on the topic Developing Resilience in challenging times. We received very positive feedback from our colleagues for sharing useful tools and techniques to develop resilience. Claire is a fantastic speaker, amazing to work with and we highly recommend her services.” Mary Joseph (MJ), Employee Experience and Engagement Lead, Bórd Na Móna
“Dr. Claire Hayes was a key speaker for Aware at Eir’s International Men’s Day event. Her insights were extremely valuable to participants and her talk contributed greatly to the day’s success. I would recommend Clare without hesitation to any organisation.” Alice M. Tolan, Account Director, Eir Business
“Claire is a wonderful practitioner who has a breadth of
knowledge and understanding which she generously shares with everyone she works with. Ibec invited Claire to give a keynote talk at a mental health and wellbeing event for employers and subsequently she has addressed smaller Ibec forums – her support has been invaluable. Each time her expertise has been welcomed and her perspective has helped shape appropriate and effective responses.” Dr. Kara McGann, Senior Labour Market Policy Executive, Ibec