Michelle Williams

I help people with anxiety, burnout, redundancy, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety,  phobias, or low self-confidence to get back on their feet and start thriving.  I have been a Counselling Psychologist for over 20 years. My clients tell me that they get the most out of our sessions because 
·      I’m straight-forward, 
·      I use evidence-based techniques, and 
·      I collaborate with them on practical interventions. 
There is a mutual pleasure in finishing therapy and seeing people flourish. 
 
I don’t want a stuffy patient-doctor relationship. My clients are bright, vibrant, capable people – even if they’re not at their best at the moment. They need the benefit of my experience and book-learning in psychology, but they don’t need somebody to talk down to them.

I want to get into the trenches with you to improve what is going on in your life. I don’t want you to be in therapy forever. I want to conduct a very thorough assessment and to build a robust treatment plan so that we have a clear pathway out of the current situation.

I’ve mentioned that I favour evidence-based approaches. What that means is: therapeutic approaches that have been studied and proven to provide results. I’m often able to get really pleasing results with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).  I provide LGBTQ+ and neurodiversity inclusive counselling.

I deliberately create a warm, discreet, confidential, non-judgemental space for you to explore your concerns. Through our work, I want you to gain perspective on where this problem came from, but also to deepen your understanding of yourself, what you value and want from the future, and to develop stronger relationships and connections. I don’t want coming to our sessions to feel like a drag for you. Instead, I want you to enjoy them – even the difficult ones.

A recent client said, "I’m incredibly glad I found Michelle at the time in my life that I did. I’d previously engaged with various therapists and different types of therapy, but never felt I’d reached a particularly satisfactory conclusion.

I started working with Michelle during a particularly difficult period and a new chapter of change for me. I’d found myself caught in a lifelong cycle of some pretty deep negative dives, many of them career-related and rooted in self-belief and self-worth.

Michelle has an incredible ability to listen, understand and gently but expertly steer. Over our time together, she helped me better understand some of those patterns, build new tools – rooted in my core values – to challenge them and, importantly, navigate a difficult chapter in my life towards some genuinely positive outcomes.

I’ve found our sessions incredibly beneficial – not just in getting me through a period when I really needed support, but in helping me build greater self-awareness and a much stronger toolkit for the future. I’m hugely grateful for Michelle’s ears, steers and expertise, as well as the warmth and humanity she brought to every session.

Although I’m concluding this particular wave of therapy, I don’t see it as the end of my work with Michelle. I fully expect I’ll engage her again – hopefully next time from a place of being less in crisis, and more as an opportunity to refresh, reflect and continue to build.

I couldn’t recommend Michelle and The Blackbird Clinic more highly."

• Burnout prevention and recovery
• Workplace stress
• Bereavement and grief
• Developing self-compassion
• Establishing personal boundaries
• Assertiveness
• Healthy relationship building
• Self-esteem and self-development
• Stress management
• Work stress
• Workplace bullying
• Coping
• Life transitions
• Peer relationships
• Stress
• Sleep and insomnia

When you choose a Psychologist, the most important factor is that you find one that you are comfortable with and want to work with. Please visit my website to see videos and blogs, or email me for a free telephone consultation to make sure we can build a positive relationship.