Tony Williams
Every professional displayed on Counselling Directory has been independently verified by our team to ensure they have suitable credentials to practise.
This professional is available for new clients.
This professional is available for new clients.
About me
Accessible Psychotherapy in Kingston Upon Thames
So you’re looking for a counsellor
Maybe you’re thinking and feeling things you don’t want to think or feel. Or maybe feeling nothing at all. Perhaps things keep going wrong; or perhaps nothing changes. It could be you feel you can’t cope. Or something has just come and hit you for six. Counselling is a safe place to explore things like that. It’s a place with the potential for personal change.
Who am I?
My name is Tony Williams, and I am a counsellor working in central and North Kingston Upon Thames.
How does counselling work?
Fortunately, we humans can change our minds. Literally. A fancy word for this is plasticity. Even more, we are designed to change in each other’s company. It’s how humans learn to fit in. So we make a new relationship, you and I. In doing that, we are already making a vehicle for change. What’s the fuel for that vehicle? Well, you bring that. It’s your experiences, your thoughts, your feelings. And as we move along together, change can start to happen.
How do we work together?
Everything we do is a collaboration. Everything we do is for your benefit. We make choices; where you want to go; how fast; how much challenge do you want? How much support? When do you feel the work is done?
What do you pay me for?
My job is to hear you; not judge you; and to try to understand your experience, perhaps in great detail; to help you to reflect; to help you shape your journey; and to be available for you, throughout, with a safe place. Especially when it is most difficult.
Why me?
I’m a fully qualified Integrative-Relational counsellor; and an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP(Accred)). That means I can draw on a mixture of theory and practice developed over the last 150 years or so; and that I am bound by a code of ethics in how I work with you. It means I meet the right standards in competence and integrity. More than that, though, I am committed to making the extra step to meet you in the way you want to be met; where, when and recognising your individual needs.
What is Integrative-Relational Counselling?
Integrative-Relational Counselling integrates various theories and practices in counselling and psychotherapy to give a holistic approach to helping people. Principally it includes:
Psychodynamic counselling: how our early lives affect us, how we learn to be in relationship to other people and how we view the world; and how those early experiences determine our way of being in later life.
Humanistic counselling: how we all have inbuilt drives to grow and achieve our potential; and how obstructions to these drives can cause us unhappiness and distress.
It also includes an understanding of Transpersonal (spiritual) and Cognitive-Behavioural (how our behaviours shape our thinking).
These theories and practices are combined with a focus on the relationship between counsellor and client and how this can mirror the client’s experiences in the world outside the counselling room.
So an Integrative-Relational Counsellor is equipped with a full set of tools to help you, whether your issues stem from the past, frustration with the future, or are in the now.
Training, qualifications & experience
BA (Hons) Integrative-Relational Counselling, Middlesex University
Director, Recovery Initiative Social Enterprise (RISE CIC) 2011-2015
(Read about RISE here - https://drinkanddrugsnews.com/doing-it-for-ourselves/ )
Chair, Mental Health Task Group, HealthWatch Kingston Upon Thames 2016-present
(Read about HealthWatch Kingston here - https://www.healthwatchkingston.org.uk/)
Co-production Lead, Thrive Kingston (Kingston's Mental Health Strategy), 2016
(See Thrive Kingston here - https://moderngov.kingston.gov.uk/documents/s72791/Annex%202%20-%20Mental%20Health%20Stategy.pdf )
Member organisations
school Registered / Accredited
Being registered/accredited with a professional body means an individual must have achieved a substantial level of training and experience approved by their member organisation.
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred). Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision. Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training. All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Therapies offered
Fees
£50.00 - £70.00
Health Insurance/EAP
Additional information
Accessibility means meeting your needs
I offer 1-2-1 counselling for adults; long (open ended) and short term (as little as 6 weeks).
My counselling offer is to meet you for 1 x 50 minute session per week at the following locations:-
- Siddeley House, 50, Canbury Park Road, KT2 6LX – fully accessible - £60/session
- Kingston Quaker Centre – Fairfield East, KT1 2PT – fully accessible – £70/session
- Your home £Neg;
- The internet via Zoom £50/session;
I do not provide low cost counselling; but I do volunteer 1 day per week with RELEASE at the YMCA in Surbiton, which provides negotiable rates starting from £25 based on means. The YMCA is wheelchair accessible.
I also lead therapeutic walks in Richmond Park. Put the cost of your first session against a pair of walking boots instead of paying me.
I am recognised by BUPA, No. 30060917. You should obtain a pre-authorisation code to ensure BUPA will pay for your treatment.
When I work
Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Morning | |||||||
Afternoon | |||||||
Evening | |||||||
Night |
Siddeley House Mon, Weds
Kingston Quaker Centre Fri (am)
Zoom and home visits by negotiation.
Further information
In addition to my work as a counsellor I have worked extensively with people suffering with serious mental illness, people with neurodiverse conditions, and people in recovery from substance misuse and the effects of homelessness.
I am a Time to Change Champion (Time to Change seeks to address stigma and discrimination in relation to mental health).
I am a Connected Kingston Champion (Connected Kingston is Kingston's social prescribing initiative. Social prescribing involves using social solutions, such as walking groups, sport, and the creative arts, to complement other clinical forms of prescribing, such as prescription drugs).
I have lived in Kingston all my life and I am very connected to it as a place.