Mary Beth Williams Books
Mary Beth Williams, PhD, LCSW, CTS, is a psychotherapist specializing in trauma recovery and co-founder of the Trauma Recovery Education and Counseling Center.
Known for: The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Books by Mary Beth Williams
The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Trauma can leave people feeling trapped in patterns they do not fully understand: hypervigilance, nightmares, emotional numbness, shame, panic, and a constant sense that danger is still present. The PTSD Workbook by Mary Beth Williams and Soili Poijula offers a practical path through that confusion. Rather than treating post-traumatic stress as a vague or mysterious condition, the book breaks it down into understandable symptoms, explains why those reactions occur, and provides structured exercises to help readers regain stability, safety, and control. Its value lies in its balance of compassion and practicality. The authors do not minimize the pain of trauma, but they also refuse to frame survivors as helpless. Instead, they present recovery as a gradual, skill-based process that can be supported through reflection, grounding, emotional regulation, and therapeutic self-work. Drawing on deep clinical experience in trauma treatment, Williams and Poijula create a workbook that is useful both for individuals and for therapists seeking structured tools. This is a guide for anyone ready to understand traumatic stress more clearly and begin the steady work of healing.
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Trauma Responses Are Adaptations, Not Weakness
One of the most liberating insights in trauma recovery is this: the symptoms that feel irrational often began as intelligent survival responses. The PTSD Workbook helps readers reframe post-traumatic stress not as proof of damage or personal failure, but as the nervous system’s attempt to protect a ...
From The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Safety Must Come Before Deep Processing
Healing does not begin with reliving the worst moment; it begins with restoring enough safety for the mind and body to stay present. A central message of The PTSD Workbook is that trauma recovery requires pacing. Many survivors, and sometimes even those trying to help them, assume that progress mean...
From The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
The Body Carries Trauma’s Ongoing Alarm
Trauma is not stored only as a story in the mind; it is also held as activation in the body. The PTSD Workbook repeatedly highlights the physical dimension of traumatic stress, helping readers understand why symptoms can erupt before conscious thought catches up. Tight muscles, racing heart, gastroi...
From The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Triggers Can Be Mapped And Managed
A trigger is often less about the present event itself and more about what the nervous system believes that event means. The PTSD Workbook helps readers understand that trauma reactions are frequently activated by reminders that resemble some aspect of the original trauma, even when the connection i...
From The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Thought Patterns Sustain Post-Traumatic Distress
Trauma does not only change how people feel; it can also reshape how they interpret themselves, others, and the world. The PTSD Workbook shows that traumatic stress often feeds on distorted beliefs such as “I am never safe,” “It was my fault,” “People will always hurt me,” or “If I let my guard down...
From The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
Avoidance Protects And Prolongs Suffering
The cruel paradox of trauma is that the strategies used to reduce pain in the short term often keep it alive in the long term. The PTSD Workbook gives special attention to avoidance, one of the core mechanisms that maintains post-traumatic stress. Avoidance can be obvious, such as refusing to discus...
From The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms
About Mary Beth Williams
Mary Beth Williams, PhD, LCSW, CTS, is a psychotherapist specializing in trauma recovery and co-founder of the Trauma Recovery Education and Counseling Center.
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Mary Beth Williams, PhD, LCSW, CTS, is a psychotherapist specializing in trauma recovery and co-founder of the Trauma Recovery Education and Counseling Center.
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