About
Marilyn Wooley, PhD is the author of How Heroes Heal: Stories of First Responders and the Journey from Posttraumatic Stress Injury to Posttraumatic Growth (WildWooleyPublishers, 2022). Wooley is a police and public safety psychologist and traumatologist who has provided treatment to cops, firefighters, communications dispatchers, medical personnel, other first responders, and veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress injuries for the past forty years. She completed her PhD in 1977 from the University of Arizona and performed her postdoctoral training at the Long Beach Veterans Medical Center treating young veterans injured and traumatized during the Vietnam War. Her experiences spurred her interest in the development and treatment of posttraumatic stress.
Marilyn’s passion became even more deeply rooted when, in 1992, she discovered a trunk filled with her grandfather’s effects from WWII. By exploring hundreds of his letters and photographs, she discovered that her grandfather had served in the 7th Army and was a liberator of Dachau Prison Camp. Suddenly, she realized that her grandfather’s gruesome experiences had left him suffering from untreated posttraumatic stress disorder and her interest in PTSD became an obsession. The diaries illuminated Wooley’s troubled family history and she was struck with fresh clarity how her clients’ individual experiences with posttraumatic stress not only shaped their lives but influenced and shaped the lives of their families and children. Her therapeutic goal of reducing the effects of PTSD eventually led her to devote her energy to helping first responders embark on a journey from posttraumatic stress to recovery to posttraumatic growth that would ultimately reclaim and enrich their lives.
Wooley began private practice in Redding, California in 1979. Over the years she sought opportunities to gain experience in the treatment of posttraumatic stress and related disorders. She became an instructor in Critical Incident Stress Management education and provided services to numerous law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services, government agencies, private companies, and medical facilities.
In her work, she witnessed the positive changes associated with posttraumatic growth in hundreds of first responders. Over time, she recognized a pattern similar to the Hero’s Journey archetype in classic mythology described by Joseph Campbell, and she took classes detailing the Writer’s Journey developed by screen writer/author Chris Vogler. Her conceptualization of the “hero’s story” helped her understand her clients’ struggles. When she began to share this story with the first responders she treated, they began to see their recovery as an adventure, not the one they experience in their daily life, but a journey inside, both terrifying and inspirational. posttraumatic growth, when described as a series of challenges, becomes normalized and helps the first responder negotiate the path to recovery in a more understandable way.
Wooley has published articles in professional journals and presented papers at conferences describing critical incidents, including her own, and the coping/recovery process. She is an expert witness in several areas relating to trauma. She volunteered for the American Red Cross to help victims of 9/11. She has also volunteered as a clinician for the West Coast Posttrauma Retreat since 2001 and served on the board of the First Responders Support Network.
Writing about public safety is not Wooley’s only genre. She won the 2000 St. Martin’s Press Malice Domestic award for Jackpot Justice, a novel about psychologist Cassie Ringwald who lives amid colorful characters and solves mysteries to save the lives of her clients.
Wooley lives in rural Northern California with her husband and clowder of shameless cats. She enjoys an adrenaline rush and has survived skydiving over power lines, flying a small plane crippled by engine icing, scuba diving with sharks, kayaking 100 miles on Idaho’s wild River of No Return, and belly dancing on stage. She also tends to her rose garden and attends opera whenever she can. She is hooked on murder mysteries and world travel.
Featured Work
How Heroes Heal: Stories of First Responders and the Journey from Posttraumatic Stress to Posttraumatic Growth
First responders are the action heroes of our time. Every workday, they risk their lives by confronting, and overcoming dangers that are inconceivable to the rest of us. They are highly trained and accept responsibility to be first on scene to emergencies, accidents, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks. They protect us from horror and devastation. And if their lives are going well, they feel passionate about what they do and love the action. Firefighters run into a burning building, rather than away; cops engage a shooter rather than hide. They don’t imagine that they could be vulnerable physically or emotionally. After all, if heroes fall apart, who is there to save the victims?
But what happens when extraordinary events shatter a first responder’s sense of mastery? How do they cope when they are overwhelmed? How do they heal when their worldview spins out of control? Thirty percent of the approximately one million law enforcement officers, one million firefighters, 900,000 EMTs, and 100,000 dispatchers in the United States may be expected to develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress, which affects not only their careers and professional lives, but their families and even the community at large. First responders who recover from traumatic stress must reestablish their confidence, learn to control emotional responses to triggers, and re-discover their passion for their work.
The first responders I treat invariably ask me is, “Am I normal for feeling this way?” and “Will I ever get better?” They are usually shy about admitting vulnerability to their colleagues, which impedes their recovery. The purpose of How Heroes Heal is to address these questions in a manner accessible to first responders. How Heroes Heal will guide first responders by explaining in plain terms what happens physically and psychologically to them during critical incidents, normalizing their reactions, and providing a map toward, not only recovery, but posttraumatic growth. Readers will learn that they are not alone, how can they grow from traumatic experiences to become stronger and better and develop a positive sense of purpose.
How Heroes Heal has been written in collaboration with first responders I’ve treated and interviewed. They have been encouraging, eager to share their stories, and generous with ideas and critiques. Their stories are moving, funny, and inspirational.
How Heroes Heal is not an academic exercise, but a combination of science-based explanations of posttraumatic stress injuries paired with stories of first responders who have survived posttraumatic stress and subsequently thrived. In my practice and through teaching about critical incidents and stress management, I find that first responders are greatly relieved when their symptoms are normalized, and the quickest way for that to happen is when they learn that other first responders experience the same thing.
First responders don’t have time or motivation to focus on long winded tomes. They want concise, practical explanations and reassurances to incorporate into their lives. They are always curious about colleagues’ experiences and the stories will hold their interest. How Heroes Heal will be user-friendly.
How Heroes Heal compels readers to embark on a journey to an inner world where they face their vulnerabilities, transform their ingrained beliefs, and free their souls. The journey results in a deeper understanding of the self, improved relationships, and spiritual development. They are more than “back to normal.” With posttraumatic growth, the first responder becomes insightful, wise, emotionally stronger, and more alive than before.
