Relational Best with Amanda Williamson

Are You Ready to Embrace Meaningful Change in Your Life? I offer sessions both online and face-to-face from my dedicated premises on Southernhay East in the center of Exeter, Devon. In this professional and confidential space, you are warmly invited to offload, explore, develop, and discover.  I specialise in working with individuals and relationships  -be they life partners or business partners - who understand the transformative power of structured, meaningful conversations. Together, we will: - Expand your thinking - Clarify your professional and personal goals - Overcome personal obstacles - Explore and realise your full potential Life often presents profound challenges; be it loss, illness, relationship upheavals, career transitions, or episodes of depression and anxiety. Such events compel us to re-examine our ways of being. I invite you to seize these moments as opportunities to embrace change and become the best version of yourself. Alternatively, you might feel the ne...

a sanity saving swim at Glencoe I know I am not alone in sitting with a sense of heaviness and unease. Not just anger at a political moment, but something deeper: a global relational rupture.  The death of Renee Nicole Good who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, has become a flashpoint not just because of what happened, but because of how people are talking about it.  Thousands have protested her death, not because they all agree on every detail, but because of the sense that something profoundly human has been lost and demeaned. Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, that she was part of a “ leftwing network ” of paid agitators; a tactic that shifts attention from the human being who lived, loved, and was killed to a political caricature. This pattern; of reducing a person to a political problem, a threat, a label, is itself a form of dehumanisation. It is not only what was said in the aftermath about Renee; it is what has more broadly bec...

I’ve been approved for (the new) Senior Accredited Registrant membership (SNCPS Acc.). After effectively losing Senior Accreditation with the BACP, along with many other Senior practitioners ahead of the SCoPEd changes, the process with the NCPS was very hard work but fair. I joined the NCPS in April this year, as an existing Senior Accredited member of the BACP, one week before the BACP demoted me to Accredited member status at my membership renewal date. I value that the NCPS gave existing Senior Accredited members the opportunity to reapply for this new "Column C" aligned Senior Accreditation, free of charge, before the SCoPEd transition period ended. It was incredibly hard work and I spent somewhere around 150 hours on it. It was an application that had to demonstrate robust, Masters-level academic rigour.  I didn't go to University. At 17 I bailed out of first year A levels feeling utterly rudderless. I was studying Biology, Chemistry and Sociology (which on reflecti...

I’ve seen BC Camplight live three times now. First in 2021, then in 2023. His music and lyrics are richly layered in nuance with a deep undertone of poignant misery. Brian Cristinzio is charismatic, if somewhat self-deprecating, with a vivid sense of dark humour.  This time, I'm going with the intention of writing a review afterwards. It’s the first time I’m doing anything like this, informed by my interest in people and my years of experience working with addiction and trauma. I’ve worked therapeutically with many incredibly creative individuals over the years.   The book  Touched with Fire  explores the link between creativity and mental health suffering and its artistic expression: the anguish, agony, and emotional depth associated with bipolar disorder often finds expression in the art of those who suffer from it. For artists, the illness can be a source of both torment and inspiration. Brian has openly discussed his own struggles with severe depression, anxiety,...

(This article first appeared in the October 2025 issue of Coaching Today , published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. www.bacp.co.uk/bacp-journals/coaching-today/ ©BACP 2025)

I previously wrote about losing my Senior Accreditation with the BACP following the forthcoming implementation of the SCoPEd framework. That experience raised questions about fairness, accessibility and how our professional bodies treat long-serving practitioners. Glencoe last week, having completed my application Last night I handed in my application to upgrade to Senior Accreditation with the NCPS. It's a rigorous process, and the equivalent of a Level 7; seven sections across 8,250 words evidencing my work in the professional community, my understanding of unconscious processes, my experience working with psychopathy, and an academic research proposal. It’s been intense and demanding, and deeply reflective. The process hasn’t been without its challenges. My supervisor of eleven years recently had a stroke and has been unable to provide a written report. Thankfully, my new supervisor is someone who has known me since 2007, and whom I have had peer supervision since I moved into ...

Hello there... I’m Amanda Williamson, and my work sits in that fertile space between therapy and coaching. I very much value seeing how the blended approach is especially helpful in  relationship work . Working with relationships is not the same as working with individuals. It requires specialist training, different skills, and a particular mindset. And for those of us who are dual-qualified; weaving coaching and therapy together in this space, it can  feel like we’re practising at the edges, without much of a community. I’d love that to change. Why Relationship Work Needs Its Own Conversation It’s a different discipline.  Holding two realities in the room and working with the relationship itself (rather than just the individuals) requires additional training and supervision. Too often, people without that grounding “have a go” at couples work, and the results can be unsafe or unhelpful. It requires high standards.  I’ve long campaigned for regulation and accountabil...

I write out of deep concern for the way artificial intelligence is heading and what it might mean for us all as human beings. For many years I have worked as a counsellor and coach and campaigned for regulation in my profession. I know what it means when systems fail to protect the vulnerable and when human dignity is ignored. Today I see a greater and more far reaching risk with AI. If we are not careful, this technology could erode what makes us truly human; our kindness, our ability to connect, our very sense of choice. In 1739,  David Hume , in his Treatise of Human Nature, argued that morality arises from human feeling, particularly sympathy, which he saw as the foundation of our ethical responses to others. His recognition that partiality limits sympathy laid early groundwork for understanding how excluding others from our moral concern enables dehumanisation.  In 2011 I saw an episode of SouthPark entitled Funnybot. Funnybot was created to be funnier than anyone on eart...

I provide therapeutic coaching for individuals who identify as neurodivergent, including those with ADHD, autism spectrum differences, or other forms of neurodiversity. My work is grounded in a relational and pluralistic approach that respects the uniqueness of each person's experience. Coaching can be beneficial to those who are wired to think outside of the box. There are many benefits to thinking differently but there can also be challenges that can be explored and navigated within a structured coaching conversation.  There are often two interwoven aspects of neurodivergence that we might explore together: The functional aspect : how a differently wired brain can lead to challenges in a world largely designed for more typical ways of thinking and behaving. The emotional impact : the experience of being different can sometimes bring feelings of guilt, shame, or a sense of "not being good enough" or wondering "what's wrong with me". I don’t follow a formula...

[UPDATE: I have submitted my application for NCPS Senior Accredited Status and write about it here ] "A profession rooted in compassion, nuance, and relational understanding should reflect those values in how it treats its own members." On April 18th 2025, I will lose the “Senior” part of my BACP Senior Accreditation. * I earned my Senior Accreditation with the BACP in 2019 after submitting extensive written work, supervisor reports, and paying the necessary fees. It marked a meaningful milestone in my professional journey. It recognised not only my experience and capability but my commitment to the therapeutic field over many years. Now, in the wake of the BACP’s adoption of the SCoPEd framework, that recognition is being stripped away. A Shifting Landscape The BACP’s new SCoPEd-aligned system changes what it means to be a Senior Accredited therapist. Despite the BACP having a dedicated Coaching Division, and despite the fact that my Level 7 qualification is in coaching, spe...

In my work as a therapeutic coach , it is vital to hold space for the complexity of being human. No single model or theory ever feels enough because the human psyche just isn’t that tidy. I often reflect on the interplay between the frameworks I use professionally, and the philosophies that shape me personally. This piece brings some of those threads together, mapping the three gunas from yogic philosophy (a lens that shapes how I understand energy and states of being), alongside  Bowlby’s attachment theory   and Pete Walker’s 4 F trauma responses , which form key parts of my professional framework, particularly in terms of the therapeutic aspect.   I have been exploring aspects of yogic philosophy with my friend, also a therapist. We have been away twice to immerse ourselves in yoga practice and discussion, using the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as a guide. On our last trip, a few weeks ago, we leant into the concepts of  Vairagya  (non-attachment) and the  G...