Claire Standen: Rising Strong

Claire Standen

Rising Strong

In 2017, Claire had been married for seven years; she had two children, a dog, a house, a part-time job, and a husband. The children were perfect; the house was chocolate-box pretty and the dog was her dream pet. She was on maternity leave and considering her options: while she felt she had reached the pinnacle of the early thirties achievements with her husband, he seemed permanently discontentED.

‘When I got married, I assumed it was forever. Except gradually, I lost myself to the process. I made some choices early on that changed the dynamic of the marriage, re-training in a lower paid job. When babies came along, it was yet another shift in the money-power dynamic that was to sound the death knell for our 12 year relationship.’

‘I didn’t for a minute think I’d end up divorcing and a single mother to two small children at 34.’

‘I am an educated woman, I have a degree, further qualifications and many diverse skills under my belt, but there’s nothing quite like emotional abuse to strip you of your power. It’s like a gradual war of attrition of your self-worth. It is necessarily gradual, because if your relationship looked that way at the start, you certainly wouldn’t stick around. I actually have Donald Trump to thank for my emancipation to some degree, because it was an article about how he was ‘gas-lighting’ America that switched me on to the situation I was in. If you haven’t heard the term, look it up. This, combined with connecting with a young woman who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has since become a very great friend, changed my outlook. It made me ponder how much of my life I was prepared to waste sitting around waiting for things to get better. It made me wonder how many more years I was going to pander to a man who was ultimately impossible to please. How much of myself was I prepared to lose doing that? It felt like I was making the choice between living and dying—it was that stark.

I decided that it was my time to break free, and despite anger and consternation from many sources, I have done that. I have also helped many other women to do the same. To release their beautiful powerful selves from abusive situations that do not serve them.’

Claire now runs a coaching business, Rising Strong, where she helps women worldwide find their power and start living their true potential. She sees opportunities for growth every step of the way and knows there is nothing better than helping a woman enjoy life again after many years having been suppressed and miserable. She helps women regain their confidence and reconnect with their sense of self: as Claire says, ‘beautiful things happen when you’re being you!’