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Claire Fitzsimmons x Amanda Sheeren

We launched our company If Lost, Start Here in 2019 to help people get to a better place with their mental and emotional well-being.

Neither of us recognized ourselves entirely in a wellness world that sold one version of how to be and didn’t reflect how we were just trying to get through life. And though we loved the science of well-being, we wondered how we could apply all that we were learning to our everyday lives when the laundry was toppling and the yoga mats were serving as forts.

We couldn’t find what we were looking for. We needed something more realistic, more attainable, and even kinder: a place where we could find what we needed, and help others find their way too.

This is that place.

Because the self in help isn’t working and no one should struggle alone.

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Claire Fitzsimmons is a coach, writer, podcaster and co-founder of If Lost Start Here. Her work is centred on a simple belief: we don't need to fix ourselves to move forwards. Through coaching, writing, workshops and her podcast A Thought I Kept, Claire helps people understand their emotions, reconnect with themselves and navigate life's more challenging moments with greater self-trust and clarity.

Much of this work began with her own experience. Growing up, Claire became very good at not feeling things. "I'm fine" was both a shield and a strategy. Years later, after navigating anxiety, overwhelm, burnout and periods of disconnection, she began to understand that emotions weren't the problem. They were information. Learning how to listen to them changed her relationship with herself, and eventually the direction of her work.

Today, Claire works with people who are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, disconnected, uncertain or simply aware that something isn't quite right. Through emotions coaching, she helps clients make sense of what they're feeling and build a different relationship with their emotions. Clients often describe her work as grounding, compassionate and practical, a space where they can stop holding everything together for a while, understand themselves more deeply, and leave with greater self-trust and self-compassion.

Claire is a certified Emotions Coaching Practitioner, an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and holds a Certificate in Counselling and Psychotherapy from CCPE London. Her approach draws on emotions coaching, positive psychology, neuroscience, somatics, Transactional Analysis and the science of wellbeing, while remaining grounded in curiosity, compassion and the realities of everyday life.

Alongside her coaching practice, Claire co-created If Lost Start Here with designer Amanda Sheeren. What began as a guide to places, people and ideas that helped them feel better has grown into a wellbeing company, community, book, workshops and coaching practice. Together they are the co-authors of If Lost, Start Here: Wellbeing for the Anxious, Disconnected or Uncertain.

Before moving into wellbeing, Claire spent more than a decade working in the arts. A former curator and exhibition maker, she developed exhibitions and programmes with organisations including Tate Modern, the ICA, Serpentine Gallery and the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco. That creative background continues to shape her work today, bringing together storytelling, curiosity and a deep belief in the power of culture, creativity and connection to support wellbeing.

Claire is also the host of A Thought I Kept, a weekly podcast exploring the ideas that stay with us. Each episode begins with a guest sharing one thought they've kept, and together they explore what it might have to offer the rest of us as we navigate work, relationships, identity, wellbeing and everyday life.

Whether through coaching, writing, workshops or conversation, Claire's work is ultimately about helping people find a steadier relationship with themselves, especially during the moments when life feels uncertain, overwhelming or difficult to navigate.

Claire's writing on emotions, mental health and everyday wellbeing has appeared in publications including Happiful, Breathe and The Simple Things, and she has been featured in Stylist, Red and Psychologies. Browse Press.

Claire was a Regional Finalist for Best Wellbeing Specialist in Dorset, Somerset & Bristol for The Muddy Stilettos Awards 2025. Claire has also participated in events such as The Verve Festival, The Re:Balance Wellness Festival in Bath and The Kindness Festival in Frome. To invite Claire to host a workshop at your event, contact her here.

Subscribe to Claire’s Substack More Good Days for more ways to well. | Connect on LinkedIn | | Listen to Claire on the podcasts: Half-Betty, Human Design in Real Life, Space to Think, Another Door Stories, How To Be A Healer and The Tea Mind

While formally educated in Psychology, Amanda Sheeren went on to build upon her academic career, developing an interest in human-machine interaction and eventually going on to publish research in the field of Biomedical Informatics.

Having her first child shortly after college, Amanda’s career shifted from intensive research to projects that could be done from home, or in odd hours, projects that could co-exist with constant nursing and near-constant crying (from all parties). From her vegan crochet company (My Hooker Friend) to her position as a birth doula and Lactation Specialist to freelance writing and graphic design gigs, Amanda has consistently found a way to keep generating creative and purposeful projects. 

It wasn’t until running her own company that she realized business and philanthropy could (and should) exist hand-in-hand. Amanda is one of those rare people that aligns her life, her values and her creative endeavors. She currently works with major and indie record labels designing lyric-based merch with messaging around suicide prevention and sobriety.

With Claire, she is a co-founder of Northern California co-working space The Indie Alley, and collaboration-focused creative agency, The Collective Together. If Lost brings together Amanda’s searching approach to her own life and her shifting relationship with her own mental health.

Also Amanda designed this website and all the graphic touches.

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