Billy Hardy

Billy began his career as a mental health nurse in Glasgow. He moved to Guernsey in 1982 where he worked as a mental health nurse before he came to live in Wales in 1984. He trained at the Family Institute in the 1990s, he joined The Family Institute team in 1999 and played a key role in negotiating the successful move from being a Bernardo’s project to becoming part of The University of Glamorgan in 2000 (later to become the University of South Wales). Consultant Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor and Senior Lecturer Consultant at the Family Institute, United Kingdom, external examiner at the Clanwilliam Institute in Dublin and at the King’s College in London.

John Doran: During my training I let Billy Know that I use visual imagery when working with families. For example, if I want to remember key details of the conversation, I turn the details into film posters and imagine them posted on the wall in the therapy room. The posters are then easily available to me throughout the session as an aide memoire.
I didn’t realize this process was unusual. Billy thought this was amazing and through many conversations with Billy, he encouraged me to experiment and expand my use of visual imagery in therapy. This meant a great deal to me as a trainee especially coming from Billy as I admired his use of creativity in therapy and his respectful irreverence of what is possible in therapy.
I owe Billy my heartfelt gratitude and thanks.

Anonymous storyteller: I remember Billy introducing a student conference of The Family Institute at the University of South Wales.
He stood on the edge of the stage and talked about finding himself on a threshold; both on the edge of the stage and metaphorically.
It was a warming of the context, a profound statement that set the tone for expansive ideas that had personal edges and delineated boundaries.
It had the tone of an in-joke.
He chuckled to himself and looked at his colleagues and looked a bit like The Lorax.