Rebuilding Communities Through Therapeutic Interventions – Interview With Dr Janet Williams

Dr Janet Williams lives in Northern Ireland, working at home and internationally with clients who are seeking support to heal historical trauma. Her doctoral research “What Happens When the Abused Child Becomes a Mother?” took a close look at the psychosocial impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) over generations. She also works with single event traumas as occurring in military, police and medical services, as well as personal events such as attacks, accidents and loss.

Dr Williams shares how she naturally fell into trauma work and what motivates her to help clients who are debilitated by the devastating effects of heightened physical, emotional and psychological distress. Her trauma programme has had amazing success over the past four years as part of the local authority services in Bath, UK. She has now moved back to her place of origin, the north of Ireland, to support the community local to Belfast heal transgenerational trauma as a result of The Troubles, and in particular to support women with ACEs to heal their trauma before entering motherhood, thus helping to break the cycle of generational trauma.

Dr Janet Williams, Malone Trauma Therapy

Can you tell the readers a little about your background?

Dr Williams: I grew up in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 80s in the midst of The Troubles. Although I did not experience any of the devastating effects directly, I don’t feel anyone escaped the collective impact of living through ongoing conflict and unrest on your doorstep. While life-threatening danger was not so close to home as, for example, what has been happening for a long time in places like Palestine, the news headlines were always reporting the next bombing, shooting, etc, in areas known to us all, so the danger was never far away. 

To be honest, I left Northern Ireland as soon as I could, and went to university amidst the bright lights of London to escape it all. Fast forward through my early adult life with marriage, children, training to be a psychotherapist and eventually running a family business, I found myself in my early forties wanting to go deeper and expand my career. I completed a MSc in Psychology and embarked on my doctorate studies. 

In my clinical work, which was mainly with teenagers at that time in local schools and colleges, there was a nagging feeling of not being as effective as I could be, a sense of administering band-aids rather than addressing the causal factors behind the high levels of mental distress constantly presenting in front of me. 

It occurred to me that the most effective way to reduce mental anguish in society was to get in there early, before patterns and defences take hold, ultimately to prevent harm being caused in the first place. But how early…? This led me to the examination of what happens to us in childhood – how developmental, attachment and relational traumas create a legacy of physical and psychological ill health that limits us in adult life. To me, it makes sense to focus therapeutic manpower and financial resources on creating interventions that support parents in dealing with their own historical wounds before they have children so as to not pass on the effects of their trauma to the next generation, thereby reducing the mental health burden on society in the future. 

Is this what gets you out of bed in the morning and motivates you?

Dr Williams: Indeed, it does! This work is so deeply personal, but at the same time has wide systemic implications. Since having this penny drop about five years ago, a significant amount of my time and energy has gone into working to establish and develop preventative measures to reduce mental illness overall, by creating a trauma programme for expectant mums and additional group interventions for these women and their families in preparation for parenthood. So much from past experiences can be triggered for women in pregnancy, and so it is a very powerful time to offer support. It is also a key time for their foetus, who is absorbing the mother’s emotions within the uterine environment. By supporting women to address their own unresolved hurts and wounds from the past, they are able to move into their new role as parents with greater confidence in their capacity to meet the needs of their little ones.

So, trauma work has become a major focus of my work alongside my private practice. As the trauma work has developed over these years and our reputation has grown, more private clients as well as organisations now approach me for support, which has been great because the trauma work has expanded out to a wider section of the population.

Working with trauma is not a light topic…what is it like being a trauma specialist?

Dr Williams: It is an absolute joy to work with someone who has experienced trauma in their life because the work is quite simple and yet transformational. I see so many amazing, accomplished people who know they have been debilitated by something that holds them back and keeps them from reaching their full potential. This can be from a one-off distressing event or any recurring trauma, e.g., a lack of attunement from caregivers, which can lead to a form of emotional neglect that is imperceptible to others but equally as devastating. Once they start to see how safe and effective the exercises are, that their body knows how and when to release packages of trauma, they feel empowered, and things feel more positive quite quickly.

Can you give us a brief summary of your work?

Dr Williams: A good summary is shared in the series of ‘Truly Healing Trauma’ articles written for BRAINZ viewers under my profile, but in short, the work draws upon the great contributions of trauma pioneers such as Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk and Stephen Porges (amongst many others). The clinical programme offers individuals a safe space to locate where in their body they are still holding packages of trauma from the past. Once identified, these packages can be released. 

The process involves identifying and sitting with sensations that still get triggered in the body as a result of unresolved trauma responses, as I like to phrase it, “you have to feel it, to heal it”. This is carried out in a respectful, gentle way so that the client never feels overstimulated, which would be counterproductive as the body must feel safe enough to be ready to let go. Because the body is truly listened to, at a certain point, it will release what it has been holding onto. This is a powerful moment for the client because there is no denying that trauma can, in fact, leave the body once and for all, creating a sense of space and settlement inside.

Sound remarkably simple…is it really possible to heal trauma in a short space of time?

Dr Williams: Yes, indeed it is. All the talking in the world cannot clear something that is locked In the body as an imprint of trauma. But once it is located and felt, the body wants to let it go. It knows the healing process best, and so we are very much guided by its inherent wisdom. Of course, some clients may have more complex trauma that may take longer to work through, as there may be more packages to release, but nonetheless the process can be just as simple. What I find surprising is that trauma work is not a foundational module of every counselling, psychotherapy and psychology training, given that some form of trauma is the root of most ill health.

How many clients have come through your doors and what kind of feedback have you received?

Dr Williams: With the trauma programme for perinatal women in Bath we have had around 200 clients come through our doors so far, and I am hoping this work will continue in Belfast now that I am relocated there. The data evidencing the efficacy of the programme is excellent, using a measurement tool called the DASS (Depression, Anxiety & Stress Scale, Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) before and after the intervention. That is on top of the private work as well.

Can your trauma programme be accessed by our international community online?

Dr Williams: Yes, of course. During COVID we ran the programme entirely online. I generally prefer to work with clients face-to-face, but some people are more likely to engage with the work and feel safe enough to do so in their own homes if it is a safe environment, so whatever works best for the client. And offering the programme online opens it up to a much wider audience, so I am delighted with that.

Is there a particular legacy you would like to leave behind professionally?

Dr Williams: I guess an amazing legacy would be if our government bodies and policymakers were to acknowledge that the best investment of time and money to address our overwhelming mental health crisis, would be to provide universal interventions (such as our programme) which support expectant mothers to heal their past traumas prior to becoming parents, so that cycle of intergenerational trauma comes to an end with them. This simple programme could be replicated across local authority services or incorporated as part of statutory maternity care. Such preventative measures benefit the whole community as it helps to alleviate the financial burden of ill mental health in this and future generations, reducing government costs related to perinatal mental health and subsequent mental health trajectories for their offspring. And of course, the most important community benefit is more content and empowered mothers and more harmonious families which is a win for all. 

It's inspiring that you have such a big-picture systemic perspective on things, and it does make sense to get in there early to prevent any harm occuring…very thought-provoking, thank you for your time today Dr Williams and all the best with your expanding business.

Dr Williams: Many thanks for the opportunity to share my passion for healing trauma…for anyone interested in finding out more about the trauma work, please do get in touch.

Visit my website for more info!

Read more from Dr Janet Williams