Dr Hadyn Williams, former CEO of BACP, names Carmel Mullan-Hartley as one of his counselling heroines

Dr Hadyn Williams is a respected integrative psychotherapist and former CEO of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the UK’s largest therapy organisation. He was interviewed recently for Therapy Today, the leading specialist magazine for counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK.

In the interview, Hadyn talks about how an interest in counselling first developed when he was studying English at university and was trying to understand meanings in medieval texts, thinking about the psychological motivations behind what was being said. This prompted him to contact a local counselling charity in Birmingham and find out whether he could train to be a counsellor.

That charity was Open Door Counselling, where he received training in the person centred model of counselling and worked for many years as a volunteer counsellor with children and young people.

Hadyn says: "Working with Open Door was phenomenal. It so opened my eyes to different ways of looking at yourself and others. It just became the matrix moment, when you wake up and find the world is very different to the one you thought you were inhabiting. It had that impact on me."

This experience prompted him to pursue a career as a therapist, completing core training in psychodynamic counselling at Birmingham University, but always continuing to use what he'd learned at Open Door, under the guidance of our chief executive, Carmel Mullan-Hartley.

"The Rogerian work that I did with Open Door gave me a core of stability in what it is to be a therapist."

Later in the article Hadyn names Carmel as one of his counselling heroines. He says:

"The Chief Executive of Open Door, Carmel Mullan-Hartley, was the first person who demonstrated to me a different way of being, a different way of thinking about myself and a different way of relating with others."

Hadyn's experience at Open Door Counselling was just the start of a long and established career in the counselling world. He went on to run the counselling service at Birmingham City Council, and later joined the staff at BACP as Head of Professional Conduct in 2010. He was made CEO of BACP in 2015, only stepping down last year in 2022.

Read Hadyn's full interview in the September 2023 issue of Therapy Today (online access for members only).