Thrive with Claire Leahy

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Thrive with Claire Leahy

Empowering adults, teens and children to overcome emetophobia and anxiety
Licenced Thrive Programme Coach
From Fear - calm - Confident ♥️

06/04/2026

Hi everyone 😊

I wanted to reintroduce myself. I specialise in an area I know many people silently struggle with and one which has a significant impact on people's lives.

I work specifically with clients living with emetophobia.

In simple terms, I help people overcome the fear of being sick by changing the beliefs and thinking patterns that are maintaining it.

Because emetophobia isn’t random, and it isn’t something you’re stuck with.

It’s driven by very specific habits of thinking, things like:
• catastrophising
• hypervigilance to your body
• the need for certainty and control
• overthinking and mental checking

Left unchallenged, those patterns keep the brain in a constant state of perceived threat, which is why the fear feels so real and so persistent.

What I do is structured, fully researched, practical coaching with a predictable outcome that teaches you how to recognise and change those patterns.

Not manage them. Not distract from them.
Change them.

That’s why my work isn’t about talking through the past or relying on coping strategies, it’s about giving you the tools to retrain your thinking, so the fear no longer has a reason to stay.

If you’re someone who feels like this has taken over more of your life than you’d like to admit, there is a way out of it.

Feel free to message me if you want to understand how this works

11/03/2026

Isn’t it funny how easy it is to forget the progress we’ve made?

I was thinking about this today with my own business. Social media is part of what I do, but life gets busy and sometimes I’m a bit sporadic with it. When I come back to it, I realise how easy it is to forget how much progress has actually happened over time.

And it’s exactly the same with emetophobia and anxiety.
So many people focus on the things that didn’t go well today…
The moment you avoided something.
The time you felt anxious.
The situation that felt hard.

But what about the things you did do?
• You showed up.
• You tolerated the feeling.
• You stayed in a situation a bit longer.
• You got through something that once felt impossible.

Those things count. They matter. And they are progress.

So if today felt like a bit of a struggle but you still showed up in some way, well done. 👏
Sometimes the biggest wins are the ones we forget to give ourselves credit for.

✨ What’s one small thing you did today that deserves recognition?

23/02/2026

Hi 👋 I’ve had a few new followers, so I wanted to introduce myself properly.

I'm Claire, I specialise in working with emetophobia (fear of vomiting). I’ve seen first-hand how much it can take over life, my daughter struggled with it.

I watched the avoidance.
The scanning.
The “what if” spirals.
The food worries.
The anxiety when bugs were going around.

It’s not dramatic, it’s not attention seeking and it’s not “just being sensitive”.... It’s a brain stuck in a catastrophic thinking loop.

Here’s what most people don’t realise: Emetophobia isn’t actually about being sick!

It’s about control.
It’s about overestimating danger.
It’s about believing “I wouldn’t cope.”

For years, people try to manage it:-
Avoid more
Reassure more
Plan more
Control more.

But that quietly makes it stronger.

What changes everything is addressing the thinking patterns that maintain the fear.

When we reduce catastrophising, stop reinforcing avoidance, and rebuild genuine resilience and an ability to cope with uncertainty, the fear reduces.

Not by forcing exposure.
Not by digging up trauma for years.
But by changing the way the brain interprets threat.

The shifts I see in clients are honestly incredible ❤️
This work doesn’t teach coping, it builds emotional strength.

If you’re new here and this resonates, you are not alone and this is absolutely changeable. ⭐

You can follow my page or message me privately if you’d like to understand how it works.

17/02/2026

Anxiety isn’t random!

It feels random, it feels unpredictable, it feels like it hijacks you out of nowhere, But it doesn’t!

Anxiety is a pattern, it’s your brain trying to protect you from something it has decided is a threat, even when that threat isn’t actually dangerous.

Once your brain labels something as “important” or “risky”, it starts:-
• Scanning
• Overthinking
• Replaying
• Catastrophising
• Seeking reassurance
• Avoiding

Most people try to cope with anxiety, very few people are shown how to actually interrupt the pattern that’s creating it.

Here are 3 micro-shifts to start taking back control:
1️⃣ Name it accurately.
Instead of “Something bad is going to happen”, try “My brain is predicting.” Prediction is not fact.
2️⃣ Stop adding fuel.
Notice when you’re rehearsing worst-case scenarios.
Gently interrupt it with: “This is unhelpful thinking.”
You don’t need to follow every thought.
3️⃣ Shift from outcome to behaviour.
Ask: “What would I do right now if I wasn’t listening to anxiety?” Then take one small action in that direction.

You are not wired this way forever, your brain learned this response. It can learn something different.

If anxiety has been louder than you lately, what’s it been trying to convince you of?

02/02/2026

I came across this visual recently and it explains emetophobia better than most definitions ever could.

At its core, emetophobia isn’t really about sickness.
It’s about control.

Trying to control:
– outcomes
– other people
– your body
– uncertainty
– “what if” scenarios

And the more we try to control what sits outside of us… the more anxious and powerless we feel.

Overcoming emetophobia happens when we bring our focus back to what is in our control: our thinking, our responses, our self-talk, our perspective.

That’s part of the work I do.

I’m Claire, a licensed Thrive Programme coach, and I help people rebuild calm and confidence by strengthening psychological resilience, not through exposure or coping strategies, but by changing the thinking patterns driving the fear.

If anxiety or emetophobia has been shrinking your world, please know this:

You are not broken.
You are not “just an anxious person.”
You are not destined to live this way.

You’ve learned a pattern, and patterns can be changed.
If this resonates, I’m always happy to chat. Just send me a message.

And I’d love to know, when you look at that control circle, what do you notice you’ve been putting in the wrong column lately? 💛

26/01/2026

Trying to “fix” behaviour without understanding the pattern is exhausting!

*You can stop procrastinating… without addressing avoidance.

*You can stop micromanaging… without addressing fear.

*You can stop reassurance-seeking… without building emotional safety.

But it rarely lasts!

Patterns don’t dissolve through willpower. They change through understanding.

Understanding gives people something far more sustainable than coping strategies: CHOICE ☺️

Once you see the pattern, where do you see it showing up?

04/08/2025

Sharing this podcast from Rob and Joe about the importance of building coping skills. This is such an important foundation in overcoming not only emetophobia but also school avoidance and other mental health challenges. ❤️
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM5vM1hML25/?igsh=MWttYTMxczkyemgzcA==

Address

Carluke

Website

https://www.thriveprogramme.org/

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