My Books

978-1-64158-280-3

Release Date: April 9, 2024

You Are Safe Now

A Survivor’s Guide to Listening to Your Gut, Healing from Abuse, and Living in Freedom

I didn’t know I was being manipulated. I didn’t know the signs. “I didn’t know the cycle of abuse, or that it’s normal to feel guilt for something that’s not your fault, to have complex emotions about your abuser as you heal. I learned that I could set boundaries, choose not to reconcile, and still pursue the internal freedom of forgiveness.” – Tricia Lott Williford

A seasoned author and masterful storyteller, Tricia Lott Williford encountered the public trauma of the death of her husband, but she held quietly the private trauma that happened at the same time: grooming, manipulation, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse by a person of trust. Tricia and her therapist, Jana Richardson, LPC, have written a resource to help others recognize the veiled dynamics of abuse, where it starts, how it escalates, and how survivors can break free and find freedom. Peer-reviewed by mental health therapists, You Are Safe Now offers a survivor’s firsthand story of abuse in the church including

  • an explanation of the nature of abusers and their common tactics;

  • compassionate, nuanced discussion of trauma responses;

  • research, examples, and statistics to identify abusive dynamics, predation, grooming, and psychological manipulation; and

  • practical tools and resources to facilitate recovery.

For survivors of abuse, counselors, therapists, pastors who treat survivors, and those who support survivors in their healing, You Are Safe Now is an indispensable resource.

This Book Is For You

Loving God’s Words in Your Actual Life

We don’t understand it. Or we’ve been hurt by people who use it. Or we want to love it, but we don’t know how. Most of us feel like we’re reading something written to somebody else.

If you’re in that place, this book is for you.

Tricia Lott Williford isn’t an Old Testament scholar, a pastor, or a Bible professor. She is a lover of messy people, a mom of two teenage boys who are perpetually hungry and often late for school; she has battled depression and anxiety to degrees that have nearly drowned her; she has begged the Lord for miracles that only he could provide; and along the path, she fell in love with God’s words. With slice-of-life stories, humor, and charm, Tricia Lott Williford will help you discover that the Bible can be your lifeline, too.

This is a book about falling in love with the Bible... that feels nothing like reading a book about the Bible. When you finish this book, you just might say, “I didn’t realize it, but I was learning while I was laughing. She stirred within me a love for the Bible, but it didn’t hurt at all.”

This Book Is for You will help you engage the Bible as a living thing that meets you where you are, in your actual life.

Just. You. Wait.

Here we are, you and me. All geared up to wait. I chose the title of this book for three reasons. (And you know I love a good list.) First, just you wait, because everyone takes their turn in the waiting room. If you’re waiting, it’s because we all do. It’s your turn. I’m sorry about this long and painful fact of life, but shortcuts and microwaves don’t work for everything. Just You Wait.

Second, just you wait and see what God is doing. There is so much happening underground, long before we see the first bud break through the spring soil. And there is so much happening within a new mom, long before she knows she is pregnant. Before new parents see a flickering white light on an ultrasound screen, the baby has already begun to develop a heart, brain, spinal cord, muscles, and bones. God is at work behind the scenes, so many layers deep, in invisible ways you cannot see… yet. Just You Wait.

Third, just you wait and see how ready you’ll be if you spend your waiting well. Waiting is not wasted time, but rather a chance for you to study and prepare, to practice and learn, to find a mentor and hone your skill. When you feel like you’ve been stuck in first gear, waiting in the long lines of the carpool lane of life, and then your opportunity comes and it’s finally your turn to hop out and join the day, you don’t want to spend any more time stuck in the minivan. When you wait well, you can say, “Look out, world. I am ready to shine. Just You Wait.”

I have poured myself into these pages, asking God to join me in the writing and to meet you on the page. Will you join me in the journey? As I love to say with each of my books: let’s write this together. The black parts are what I have to say, and the white space is for you and your thoughts. I don’t know what your waiting looks like, but I do know that a person doesn’t decide to read a book about waiting without feeling the realities of the battle with patience. Be gentle with yourself on this journey. You may even begin to feel excited about what God is going to do.

For many years now, my favorite conversations have unfolded when readers have stopped me in the grocery store, on the baseball field, at a bookstore, or at the airport to tell me about the journey we shared on the page. You’ve told me your stories of grief you thought would swallow you whole, of sadness that has torn you in half, of beauty from ashes, and joy in the morning. You’ve shared with me the stories of your hard-won confidence, how you’ve learned to dance in the skin you’re in, and how you’ve begun to like the person in your bathroom mirror. I look forward to the day when you will tell me about the journey in these pages, how we waited together for what God wanted to give you, life had to show you, and the person you will become.

So buckle up, my friend. Waiting can be one wild ride.

Let’s go.

“There is always work to be done in the waiting. Sometimes the work is hands on and physical, and other times it is a solitary journey of soul searching. Sometimes the work is a discipline of noticing, a practice of being alert and aware; sometimes it is about being patient, loving, and present.  But when we choose to surrender to the moment, when we seek to believe this moment is part of a larger story, and when we embrace the ache of the longing, the wait is never wasted.”  

~ Tricia Lott Williford

You Can Do This

I’m inviting you into the confidence conversation. It’s time to stop being unhappy with yourself. You can choose to stop second-guessing all of your decisions and commitment and wondering whether your life would be better if only you had chosen differently. I invite you to be present where you are—where God is!—and to embrace your life and live out your God-given gift of confidence.

Come join me in the pages, my friend. Let’s talk about who you are. Let’s hold hands and run hard into the glorious mess of it all. I don’t know what challenges wait for you, but this I know for sure: You Can Do This.

Praise for You Can Do This:

You Can Do This is so refreshing. With inspiring and funny stories, Tricia helps you exchange fear for faith. She leads you to a place where you can deal with the bullies who have tried to steal your confidence―the ones around you and the ones inside you. Read this book and live as the confident girl and mighty warrior who God intended you to be.

– Jennifer Dukes Lee, Author of The Happiness Dare and Love Idol

They say life doesn’t come with an instruction manual, but I think “they”―the authors of such platitudes―have yet to read You Can Do This. The wise, quirky voice of Tricia Lott Williford is the one I want to hear. I want to hear it when I don’t feel as though I’m good enough. I want to hear it when I feel afraid of what the future might hold. I want her voice in my ear when I meet someone who’s unkind. As you read You Can Do This, listen for the gentle voice of God’s life-giving Spirit breathing through the words on each page.

– Margot Starbuck, Author of Small Things with Great Love

And Life Comes Back

“Now I know that every single day, the best and the worst, only lasts for twenty-four hours.” —Tricia Lott Williford, And Life Comes Back

When your life falls apart—through a death, a lost relationship, a diagnosis—you want more than anything to know that your pain has a purpose. And that beyond your pain, a new day awaits.

Tricia Lott Williford discovered this in a few tragic hours when her thirty-five-year-old husband died unexpectedly. In And Life Comes Back, she writes with soaring prose about her tender, brave journey as a widow with two young boys in the agonizing days and months that followed his death.

And Life Comes Back documents the tenacity of love, the exquisite transience of each moment, and the laughter that comes even in loss. This traveler’s guide to finding new life after setbacks offers no easy answers or glib spiritual maxims but instead draws you into your own story and the hope that waits for you even now.

Praise for And Life Comes Back:

“Tricia Lott Williford’s book reminds us it often takes a thick darkness to make known the light. And Life Comes Back is a candle that will light your path.”
— Donald Miller, New York Times best-selling author of Blue Like Jazz
“Tricia Williford’s brave, exquisitely wrought book is an act of stunning generosity. It is a story of grief, yes, but also of how love, language, and work can give us back to ourselves, even after enormous loss, and can push us out of brutal darkness into the glorious, ordinary light of every day.”
— Marisa de los Santos, New York Times best-selling author of Belong to Me and Falling Together

Let's Pretend We're Normal

In the course of twelve hours, our family of four became a trio, and since that day my boys and I have been creating a new life in an upside-down world.

I wrote this book, which in a lot of ways is a sequel to And Life Comes Back, to answer the question so many have asked: “And then what happened—after the crisis became reality and your life began again?” I’ve leaned into honest storytelling to offer a look into the chaos and beauty of who we have become.

Sometimes, you just have to pretend you know what you’re doing, pretend you’re brave enough, and pretend you can do this. Sometimes you just have to pretend you’re normal until the new normal finds you.

Praise for Let’s Pretend We’re Normal:

“I once complained I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” Tricia Lott Williford’s story certainly helps to put my woes in perspective. A thirty-one widow with two preschoolers, she bravely tackles life’s everyday battles with God as her only Teammate. Near the beginning of this book, she states her modest goal for it: to tell some stories from her jouney as a mom. This is not a parenting book; it is a collection of survival tales. Like a young Chonda Pierce, Tricia shares her simple stories with a delightful sense of humor and keen observation. She says things like, “Preschool soccer teams look a whole lot like a litter of puppies toppling over one another to be the first one out of the cardboard box.” And, about firemen and paramedics, “I am seriously pretty sure handsome is in the job description.” Because of her mommy courage and determination to press on, the reader can’t help but to root for Tricia and her earnest faith.
- Peter Travis, Amazon review

You Are Safe Now

Available April 9, 2024

This Book Is for You

Now Available
A book about falling in love with the Bible

Just. You. Wait.

Now Available
#1 New Title on Amazon in Christian Inspiration

You Can Do This

Now Available
#1 New Title on Amazon in Women's Issues!

Let's Pretend We're Normal

Now Available
#1 Bestseller on Amazon in Single Parenting

And Life Comes Back

Now Available
#1 in Denver Post: Nonfiction Paperback and Finalist for 2015 Christian Book Award
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