Frances Williams

I like to enable you to put words to your inner chaos and distress, to put theories behind the words to give you a framework for understanding what you’re experiencing, and to use evidence based therapy approaches to move you towards being the person and living the life that you want…

Areas of Special Interest

• Trauma
• Anxiety (including GAD, OCD, Panic Disorder, Phobias, & PTSD)
• Depression
• Bipolar Disorder
• Grief & Loss
• Emotional regulation difficulties, stress & burnout, adjustment to difficulties, including health conditions.

Counselling/Therapy Services

My experience has shown me that the best therapy outcomes are achieved when I work with my clients in a partnership, combining your lived experience with my therapeutic knowledge, skills and experience My first task will be to check out what you’re wanting from coming to see me. My standard approach would be to then spend a bit of time gathering information about what is happening for you, and when I’ve done that to let you know my understanding of your difficulties and what I think could be helpful. We may then work together to develop a treatment plan which would ideally incorporate your g oals and evidence based treatment strategies which I think will help you to achieve them. If you feel it would be useful, I’ll then work with you to help you learn and start to use the treatment strategies as you work towards your goals.

Counselling/Therapy Approach

I’m an empathetic and supportive listener but I will also be direct if I feel that we’re not making any progress. My experience has shown me that different people want different things at different times and stages of their life. Because of that, I’ve trained in a number of different evidence based (ie. shown by research to be effective) approaches, including:

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
• Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)

Background and Experience

I’ve been working as a registered psychologist since 2005. The first seven years of my career I worked in public mental health services both in NZ and the UK. In the public sector I’ve worked across a wide range of settings and age groups, including physical health, rehabilitation, child, adolescent, adult and older adult outpatient and inpatient mental health, obesity and intellectual disability. Since 2012 I’ve focused more on the specialist areas mentioned above and have prioritised continuing to train in different therapy modalities. My breadth of experience allows me to be able to be flexible with my approach if something isn’t working for you.