Dr. Sian Williams is an award-winning broadcast journalist whose warmth and presentation skills have made her one of the best known and most versatile broadcasters on British television and radio. She is also a Chartered Counselling Psychologist working for both the NHS and in private practise, helping people manage anxiety, stress and trauma.
Sian’s career in broadcasting spans nearly forty years. She spent over a decade anchoring ‘BBC Breakfast’. During that time, audiences more than doubled. Sian also presented all the BBC’s main news bulletins and hosted major events for BBC One, including the London 2012 Olympics, the Royal Weddings of Charles and Camilla and William and Kate, numerous General Elections and the commemorations marking the anniversaries of the two World Wars. Sian’s presented many prime-time TV shows, including ‘Crimewatch’ and ‘National Treasures Live’ for BBC One and numerous series of ‘Save Money, Good Health’, which ran on ITV1 over several years.
In her radio work, as BBC Radio 4’s co-presenter of ‘Saturday Live’, Sian helped attract more than a quarter of a million new listeners. She was also the co-host of a unique programme, in which she was joined in the BBC studios by The Queen, to broadcast live.
Sian is now the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Life Changing’, a series focusing on moments in people’s lives which transform everything. To date, ‘Life Changing’ has had more than seven million downloads, is one of BBC Sounds most listened-to podcasts and consistently ranks in Radio 4’s Top 5 programmes. Sian is known for her interviewing ability and was listed in the Radio Times Top 10 broadcast interviewers of all time and awarded the Television and Radio Industries Club Best Newsreader/Reporter twice in successive years.
Sian is proud to be able to bring stories of mental well-being to a mass audience, using her journalistic and psychological skills. During her time as Channel 5’s main news anchor, she introduced the UK’s first dedicated mental health slot on a TV news bulletin. Called ‘Mind Matters with Dr Sian’, it covered issues ranging from ADHD, addiction, anxiety, eating disorders, OCD and PTSD.
In her work as a psychologist, Sian has a thriving private practice, where she offers consultancy, workshops, group and individual therapy. She is a Senior Specialist Psychological Therapist at the Centre for Anxiety, Stress and Trauma at the NHS, where she primarily helps emergency service staff recover from work-related traumatic events. In 2023, Sian hosted an event for HRH Prince William, meeting first responders and listening to their mental health concerns. She is a regular host of the annual Emergency Services Mental Health Symposium, which is supported by the Royal Foundation.
Sian has been a key-note speaker or hosted major events for Google, the British Psychological Society, the BBC, ITV, ITN, King’s College, London and more. She has written on mental health issues for newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, Good Housekeeping and The Psychologist.
Sian’s first book Rise: Surviving and Thriving after Trauma was published in June 2016 and she is working on her second, about managing anxiety.