Chermal Williams: ‘I want children to have the childhood I didn’t have’ | 24
How Do You Cope?
Wondery
5 • 695 Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do you escape and recover from abuse by a parent?
John talks to Chermal Williams, Head of Services for Health and Training at the charity Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse, about her difficult childhood.
Chermal was the victim of domestic abuse as a child at the hands of her stepfather, experiencing physical and psychological abuse. Later as an adult, she found herself in an abusive relationship. But through reading self-help books, working with children, and finding time for herself, she managed to escape the cycle of abuse, and forge her own identity.
You can find out more Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse on their website:
https://www.standingtogether.org.uk/
Other helpful links:
Childline: https://www.childline.org.uk/
Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline: https://dsahelpline.org/
On Thursday in our bonus episode The Gratitude List, Chermal shares the 5 things that she is currently grateful for.
You can send in your thoughts and reflections to [email protected], or follow the show on Instagram and TikTok @howdoyoucopepod.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to episodes of How Do You Cope early and ad-free? |
| 0:04.7 | Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:12.2 | Hello, I'm Marina Hyde. |
| 0:13.9 | And I'm Richard Osmond. |
| 0:15.0 | And we are the hosts of The Rest is Entertainment. |
| 0:17.5 | Now, each week, Richard and I speak about our favourite entertainment news stories and incredible behind-the-scenes facts. In the last few weeks, we've looked at the |
| 0:24.2 | wild story of Noel Edmund's new Kiwi Hideaway, the ongoing Beckham family feud, and |
| 0:29.1 | is John Robbins the greatest stand-up of his generation? Or is it Ellis James? In our Thursday |
| 0:33.7 | questions and answers episode, we tell you the secrets of showbiz, including how |
| 0:37.7 | they film race across the world, why prop mugs are always empty, and why new books smell like |
| 0:43.2 | that. You can catch the rest of entertainment wherever you get your podcast or such. The Rest |
| 0:47.7 | is Entertainment on YouTube. Back to John. |
| 1:02.7 | Just a heads up, this episode contains descriptions of child abuse and some mention of sexual and domestic abuse. |
| 1:06.7 | If you need support, you can find links to resources in the show notes. |
| 1:14.0 | Hello everyone, I'm John Robbins and welcome to How Do You Cope, the podcast where I sit down with special guests to talk about their everyday coping mechanisms. Today's guest is Shemelle Williams, |
| 1:20.2 | head of services for health and training at the charity standing together against domestic abuse. |
| 1:25.9 | Shemel has lived experience of domestic abuse as both a child and an adult, |
| 1:29.3 | so her insights both as an individual and as a professional are incredibly useful. |
| 1:34.3 | In our conversation, we spoke about her journey to break free from her past, |
| 1:38.3 | the impacts of domestic abuse, or DA, as Shemal often refers to it, |
| 1:43.3 | and how she copes by helping. We also talked about |
| 1:46.4 | her use of self-improvement books to give her a daily practice that enabled her to define her own |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.