New book by a local psychologist combines memoir, neuroscience, psychology and spirituality

August 19, 2026 - 02:11

Williams, a resident of Sebastopol for 20 years and a mother, acknowledges the skepticism her book's title might provoke. She addresses this directly in the opening pages, noting that she was raised by scientists who would view her admission of communicating with spirits as more damning than confessing to a life of crime. Despite this, she chooses to honor her own understanding of the world, a perspective she did not arrive at easily.

The narrative begins with a near-fatal bicycle accident that left her injured on the pavement. Williams describes gargling a prayer through broken teeth. While her spiritual journey had started before this event, she credits the accident with leading her to commune with a spirit guide. The book initially started as her mediation of the guide's voice, but at a certain point, the guide stopped speaking and pointed at Williams, urging her to tell her own story.

At its heart, the book is a memoir of a woman navigating addiction, severe traumatic injury, and the spiritual and relational disconnection common in modern society. She weaves these experiences together through her personal process of understanding a universal human tie: a sense of connection to oneself, to others, and possibly to a higher power. This triad forms her definition of spirituality.

Williams was not raised with any belief in a higher power. Her parents, both successful in the medical and pharmacological fields, were analytical and driven. Growing up in San Francisco in the 1970s, she found alternative ways of thinking through neighbors at a Zen Monastery in Muir Beach. As a teenager, she explored spirituality but also fell into drug and alcohol use.

Addiction ran in her family, and Williams eventually found herself in a pattern of getting high every day by her sophomore year of college. She entered treatment at 19, where she developed a mentoring relationship with a woman named Teri who taught her about a close, loving relationship with spirit. Williams credits relationships as essential to the healing process, especially when cut off from self-love.

After earning a degree in psychology and a PhD, Williams focused her research on the correlation between spirituality and substance abuse in adolescents. Her book highlights the reconvergence of Western science with non-Western medicine and spiritual practice, noting the renewed therapeutic study of psychedelics. She is fascinated by the states of "spiritual emergency" these substances can induce, where the sense of self falls away.

Williams stresses that intense events are not the only path to deep connection. She practices different methods over time, from ecstatic dance to prayer and meaningful relationships. She is wary of anyone offering a single way, emphasizing that the path is personal and daunting.

In her practice as a psychotherapist, Williams says she is fluent in both spiritual and scientific languages. She can discuss twin flames and astral bodies as well as attachment theory and brain circuitry. She believes in both/and healing, combining Western medicine with indigenous wisdom, plant medicine, and energetic practices.

Williams is excited to share her book with the Sebastopol community, calling it a Sebastopol story. She credits the volunteer firefighters who helped her after the accident and the friends and family who supported her recovery from a brain injury. The book is available at Copperfield's Books on Main Street, with an audiobook version expected soon.