Dr Bill Saunders is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of PsyQuest; a boutique psychotherapy practice based in West Perth, Western Australia.
Bill is also an educator and author and has recently published What Happened? (KMD Books, 2021). In this book Bill sets out his stall about what mental health is really about and argues that the quality of your childhood nurturance is a critical factor in determining your capacity to emotionally self-regulate as an adult and thereby be mentally healthy. Bill’s clinical practice is based on what has become known as trauma informed psychotherapy.
Bill has a BA (Hons) degree and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Keele (UK) and a Master’s degree in Psychological Medicine from The University of Glasgow.
Prior to becoming involved in private practice in Perth, Bill was an academic working as a Lecturer in Psychological Medicine at the University of Glasgow, a Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Studies and Director of the Alcohol Studies Centre at the University of Paisley (Scotland) and then an Associate Professor and Head of Addictions Studies at Curtin University (Perth, WA).
Bill was also a Professor of Psychology and Head of the Clinical Psychology program at Curtin University. As an academic Bill published extensively and has also consulted for a wide range of agencies including the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.
Bill has extensive clinical experience. He has been a Senior Psychologist in an Alcohol and Drug unit in Glasgow, a consulting Clinical Psychologist to a private hospital in Perth, the Director of an Alcohol and Drug treatment agency in the Channel Islands (UK) and the Clinical Director of a co-occurring drug and mental health disorders unit at Graylands Hospital, Perth.
For a decade from 2008 Bill was a Director and Head of Psychotherapy at Abbotsford Private Hospital before ‘retiring’ to write ‘What Happened?’ and then establishing with two colleagues the PsyQuest psychotherapy practice. Bill specialises in the management of adult psychopathology and the impact of childhood trauma (neglect and abuse) on adult psychological functioning. In effect ‘What Happened to You?’ Bill is also an experienced group psychotherapist who ran his first ever group in an Alcohol and Drug Treatment Unit in Glasgow over 45 years ago.
Dr Bill Saunders