01 · Who William works with

William works with stress, Anxiety, grief and depression

William lists 18 specialisms and 42 further focus areas. Specialisms are the subjects William chose to list first, which is the closest a listing gets to “this is my actual practice”.

02 · In William's own words

What William says about the work

Reproduced in full and unedited - not summarised, not tightened, not rewritten in a house voice.

Hello,

I have organized INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES on various online platforms based on a topic of interest, a common need, or related to various lessons, challenges, and experiences during a lifetime.

I also manage a YouTube channel for access by clients - "journey associates" with a red sunset background. The content is not my own, but a collection from various sources related to the mind for you to find. Go to the Playlist tab, the tap "View ALL" to look around at the many folders and thousands of links.

These resources can be found at - https://www.youtube.com/@findingyourwaytoday

I also manage several groups or pages on Facebook related to navigating through the challenges of life, enjoyment, leisure, learning, and cool stuff.

One such group to provide information related to coping, caring, and community is "Outside of the Box: Coping Creatively with Whatever" found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2589259251341840 .

Several sub-groups on topics can be found via a request for a menu of titles.

Subgroups and pages on Facebook include the following topics:

> support for men, > support for women, > support for teens, (as of 07/02/25 I am not accepting teen clients) > guidance for people in their 20s, > adults who contend with ADHD + > the process of bereavement, > recovery from loss and trauma, > relationship dynamics, > parenting and family issues, > individual development by age-groups through the decades, > pretirement (preparation) and retirement (action and execution), > neurological aspects of causation and behavior, > creativity and perception, > community, coping, and self-care, > the loss of precious pets, > the need for maintaining a sense of humor, > photography and sharing videos as a hobby, > self-development and insight via writing and art, > appreciation of nature, and > inclusive spirituality and ethics.

If you'd like to learn more, you can send a specific request regarding your interests, curiosities, and related topics to: findingyourwaytoday@gmail.com.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

I am skilled at guiding individuals and couples through a review of

• thoughts and behaviors, • history and anticipation, • beliefs and misconceptions, • values and choices, and • goals and objectives

toward an increased awareness of options, needs, resources, and results.

The application of such knowledge about oneself can lead to choices that are more likely to be experienced as effective, productive, healthier, and rewarding.

To provide space for a more structured option, I have limited other descriptive information on my profile.

That information is readily shared once a client makes a decision to explore my qualifications, style, specializations, and approach before and during the first session, which, in part, is an interview by the client of myself as a professional of potential selection.

PLEASE NOTE

In addition to the next section of SPECIAL OFFERING - See the last portions of my profile

> DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE, > PERSONAL POWER, and > THE PROCESS.

A SPECIAL OFFERING of Structure and Focus for an eight-session intensive experience yielding optimized value for your investment of financial resources, of time, of effort, of energy, and of attention.

One program is called "I AM READY" for clients who want an infusion of information, activities, skills, and tools related to their given focus and needs.

One can choose to stop at the end of four sessions (Part 1), or sooner if the match of myself as a professional with a client does not feel like a good-enough fit.

The goal of the eight-session infusion is to prepare you to move forward with or without a counselor after an introduction of structured information, practiced skills, and wisdom-tips as a foundation for healthier self-care and more effective coping.

One aspect of this process is to learn how concepts and behaviors are tools to enhance a sense of self and to apply principles for change, maintenance, recovery, and gratification.

Another aspect of the process is to identify and name the critical issues that warrant attention as a pathway to:

• increase and apply awareness, • reduce personal barriers or situational roadblocks, • enhance coping and action strategies, • broaden perspectives, • deepen understanding, • emphasize strengths and assets, • develop personal confidence and efficacy, • highlight existing assets and resources,

toward the outcomes of

• increased gratification, gratitude, desired results, • an orientation of where you are at this time in your life, or regarding certain issues, • a process of defining your goals and objectives, and • a measurable clarity of options related to self-care, coping, direction, and resources.

You are not obligated to continue after the fourth session, or even the first session, if there does not seem to be a good fit of my professional style and methods with your expectations, needs and goals.

Each client’s feedback is requested during or after each session to assure that I am on course with your goals and needs. I suggest rituals that reinforce life-long learning and personal growth.

Requirements: individuals and couples who can relate to the meaning and desire to improve or integrate the concepts listed below.

The “I AM READY” timeframe of 8 weekly sessions (Parts 1 and 2) is designed for people who are ready to engage in the process and participate in what is needed for effective outcomes.

Here are some concepts that represent the acronym of I AM READY.

I – Initiative, Intelligence, Insight, Intrinsic, Interpretation, Integrity, Innovative, Investment, Intention

A – Ability, Acquisition, Attitude, Accurate, Action, Affirmation, Application M – Mindfulness, Meditation, Maturation, Meaning, Motivation, Mindset, Mentality, Method, Map

R – Real-istic, Renew, Redefine, Relevant, Review, Replace, Rethink, Reason, Resourceful, Retain E – Education, Emotion, Energy, Enough, Expression, Experience, Explanation, Expectation, Evaluation A – Assessment, Access, Accentuate, Assess, Articulate, Attribute D – Determined, Dedicated, Decisive, Development, Daily, Dignity, Deliberation, Diverse, Depth, Durable Y – Why? YOUnique, Yield, YES!, YOU can DO this!, Your Goals.

If you are ready to engage and commit and follow-through vs window shop or partially use your subscription with missed or non-scheduled appointments, then count to 10 as you assess your degree of readiness and motivation.

Then decide if you are ready or not for the Part 1 - four sessions of assessment, support, and education, as a foundation upon which the process will lead you through the subsequent four weeks and into the next chapter of your life.

DIVERSITY OF EXPERIENCE and PERSPECTIVES

• I have worked with people who struggled with an active addition or who were in recovery from one of the worst chapters of their lives.

• I have listened to and supported clients who worked in blue-collar jobs and clients who worked in white-collar positions.

• I have provided counsel and education to people who currently or had been employed on Capitol Hill, at the Pentagon, and in The White House.

• Clients have also included those who have worked at various federal agencies: FBI, NASA, US Border Patrol, and the Secret Service, law enforcement, clergy, active military personnel and veterans.

• I’ve served clients who were first-responders or first-time parents.

• I have guided teens who were in high school or transitioning to the experience of college-related demands.

• I have been a bereavement counselor to survivors who faced the death (of various causes, anticipated and unexpected, which can result in “complicated bereavement”) - of a partner or spouse, - a parent, a sibling, a grandparent, - a child or a grandchild – both under legal age and as an adult-child.

• I have supported people who have contended with invisible, chronic illness or pain, or who have had deteriorating health, and across different points in the lifespan.

• I have been a privileged witness to the sacred, private lives of many people who survived adverse childhood experiences,

• trauma as an adult, (military, domestic, and circumstantial: victimization, accidents, work-related or other accidents, hospital experiences, the death of a loved-one, witness a situation involving someone else safety, etc.),

• and persons who have contended with gradual or sudden heartbreak and grief,

• debilitating and diminishing consequential aspects of an anxiety disorder,

• the suffering inherent with mood disorders (episodic or chronic in nature),

• and the universal issues of being human combined with the developmental tasks required of continued growth and adjustment.

• During college I worked at two summer-camps for four years (in MA and NJ) with people who had developmental disabilities, the under-privileged, and the very privileged.

• And I have presented workshops at professional conferences and for agency trainings.

PERSONAL POWER includes:

1. an awareness of making a series of choices, 2. resulting in executing a decision, and a direction, and 3. the application of knowing what is required for a desired outcome, with 4. the creative process of exploring or creating options.

The PROCESS

1. MAKING A DECISION, 2. CHOOSING A HEALTHCARE PROVIDER, 3. TAKING ACTION ON YOUR DECISION and CHOICE 4. ENGAGING IN THE PROCESS of

• UNCERTAINTY, • STRUCTURE, • EDUCATION, • SUPPORT, and • ACTIVITIES for • Desired RESULTS.

If you want to interview me during a first session, I can then send you more information about how I see my style and approach (humanistic, educational, and eclectic with life-long learning).

And if you decide to continue your search for a better fit with a therapist of your choosing, I genuinely endorse and support that path, by removing your connect to me if that be the case.

If that would be your decision, I do ask that each client apply direct communication about intentions or needs so as to

• “not fill a seat in my electronic waiting room” by clients who are undecided, • as evidenced by not making appointments, or not keeping appointments, • due to not being ready to start and follow-through,

and thus, limiting access to my services of clients who are ready with a plan to begin the process.

Please be aware that for each when a client who is passive, dormant, or • inconsistent in scheduling and keeping appointments, • there is a counter-productive influence on my availability to potential clients due to a place being taken on my roster of existing clients.

You can choose to disconnect your affiliation with me in order to take action with another therapist and/or return when you are ready and able to engage consistently in the process and service for which you are paying a monthly subscription.

Sincerely,

Will Perks, MSW

LICSW in West Virginia LCSW in Virginia LISW-CP in South Carolina

William Perks, on the BetterHelp listing · read 9 Oct 2026

03 · How William works

The 7 approaches William lists, in plain English

These are the clinical methods William lists. The descriptions are Maker Therapy's, not William's - a general explanation of what each method is, so the list means something before you have spoken to anybody. They are not a claim about how William runs a session.

Acceptance and Commitment TherapyACT

Rather than trying to argue a painful thought away, ACT works on loosening its grip and getting on with what matters to you anyway. Sessions spend real time naming your values, then building action around them while difficult feelings are still present.

Client-Centred TherapyPerson-centred · Rogerian

The therapist does not steer toward a technique or a diagnosis. They offer sustained, non-judgemental attention and reflect back what they hear, on the premise that people find their own direction when they are genuinely listened to. Often what people mean by “someone who just gets it”.

Cognitive Behavioural TherapyCBT

Structured, present-focused work on the loop between what you think, how you feel and what you then do. Usually means noticing a thought pattern in the room, testing it against evidence, and practising something different between sessions. Among the most heavily researched talking therapies for depression and anxiety.

Dialectical Behaviour TherapyDBT

A structured skills-led adaptation of CBT built around holding two things at once: accepting yourself as you are and working to change. Teaches concrete skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation and relationships. Developed for people whose feelings arrive at overwhelming intensity, and strongest-evidenced there.

Mindfulness-Based TherapyMBCT

Trains attention on what is happening right now - body, breath, the thought as it arrives - so distress can be observed rather than automatically acted on. Strongest evidence is in preventing depression from recurring, and it is usually taught as a practice you keep doing outside the session.

Narrative Therapy

Treats the story you tell about your life as something that can be examined and retold rather than as the plain facts. Separates the person from the problem - “the anxiety” rather than “your anxiety” - to make room for the parts the current story leaves out.

Solution-Focused Brief TherapySFBT

Starts from where you want to end up rather than from how you got here. Sessions look for the times the problem is already smaller and work out what is different about those, so the number of sessions tends to be short and the work concrete.

Also listed

• Existential Therapy

04 · What happens next

From this page to a first session

William practises through BetterHelp, so the route in is BetterHelp's. This is that sequence, written by Maker Therapy from the platform's published process - not a description of William's own practice, and not a promise about how quickly anything happens.

1. A questionnaire, not a booking form

   BetterHelp opens with a set of questions about what you are dealing with, what you want from therapy, and any preferences on the therapist. You are not booking William at this point.

2. Naming William specifically

   BetterHelp matches algorithmically by default, so asking for William is a step you have to take. There is a field for requesting a specific therapist during sign-up, and you can switch afterwards from your account. Starting from a link on this page does not by itself assign you to William.

3. If the caseload is full

   You will be offered somebody else rather than put on a waitlist. Worth knowing, because it is easy to assume a match is the person you asked for.

4. The first conversation

   A first session is typically history and orientation: what brought you, what has been tried, what you want to be different. It is also where the questions in the next section belong.

5. If the fit is wrong

   Changing therapist on BetterHelp does not need a reason. A first session that does not click is common and is not a verdict on therapy. That option existing is the main practical difference between a platform and a private practice.

05 · Before you commit

4 questions worth asking William

Built from what William actually lists, so they are answerable and specific rather than generic. Maker Therapy's, not William's - William has not seen them and is under no obligation to answer any of them.

• “You list both Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Client-Centred Therapy. Which do you lean on with someone like me?”

  Those two point in different directions - one structured and led by the therapist, the other led by you. The answer tells you what the sessions will actually feel like.

• “How do you decide when someone is ready to work on a traumatic memory itself?”

  Pacing is the biggest safety question in trauma work. A clear, unhurried answer here matters more than any credential.

• “With 39 years in, what has changed most in how you work?”

  Long experience is only an advantage if it has been examined. This tends to surface whether it has.

• “How do you handle the gap between sessions if something comes up?”

  On BetterHelp this varies a great deal by therapist. Better to know the rhythm now than to discover it on a bad week.

06 · Practical details

Credentials and licensing

Credential

LCSW

Licensed in

South Carolina

Licence

VA LCSW 0904002503, WV LICSW DP00939555

Licence number

0904002503

Licence expires

30 Jun 2027

NPI

1043313042

Years in practice

39

Gender

Male

Languages

English

International clients

Not accepted

Listed since

15 May 2026

07 · Provenance

Where every line on this page came from

William's name, credential, state, subjects, approaches and biography are read from BetterHelp's therapist roster, which Maker Therapy re-reads once a day; this page reflects the reading taken on 9 Oct 2026. The licence number and NPI are cross-checked against public registers.

The plain-English method descriptions, the first-session walkthrough and the questions are written by Maker Therapy and labelled as such wherever they appear.

Maker Therapy is not BetterHelp, does not take bookings, and has not met William. There are no reviews or ratings on this page because we have no way to verify one. If you start therapy through a link here, we may be paid a commission - it does not change your price and it does not affect who appears here or in what order.

Something on this page wrong or out of date? Report it and it will be checked against the source.