Good advice offered so far and I agree. My wife has claustrophobia and knew she wanted to get certified after a Discover SCUBA class as well. We found a dive shop with a pool onsite that would let me work with my wife 1 on 1 so she didn’t have the pressure of other students around as she learned. She spent close to 2 months in the pool 2 nights a week until she was totally comfortable and had her skills down solid.
As we transitioned her to open water we made her first dives shallow, 15’-20’ feet max, so that she could go deeper than the pool but still see all the concepts are the same as in the pool. We are slowly increasing her depth still, not rushing anything, and she has made dives to 35’ so far and is still doing fine.
There is plenty of time for diving so take your time and don’t rush anything.
Michael