Martin H. Williams

Who is Martin H. Williams?

Martin H. Williams is an American forensic psychologist. Williams completed his doctorate in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and practices in San Jose and Los Angeles, California as part of Williams Psychological Services. Williams is known for his published articles on therapist-patient sex and psychotherapeutic boundaries, including:

“Exploitation and Inference: Mapping the Damage From Therapist-Patient Sexual Involvement” American Psychologist, 1992, 47, 412-421.

“Victimized by 'Victims:' A Taxonomy of Antecedents of False Complaints Against Psychotherapists” Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31, 75-81, February 2000.

“Boundary Violations: Do Some Contended Standards of Care Fail to Encompass Commonplace Procedures of Humanistic, Behavioral and Eclectic Psychotherapies?”, Psychotherapy, 1997, vol. 34, number 3, pp. 238–249.

Williams is also known for his contributions to the forensic use of the diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress DisorderPTSD. Williams has argued that the PTSD diagnosis has been over utilized by mental health experts seeking to support a plaintiff's emotional damage claim. Williams notes that many plaintiffs do not meet the criteria for PTSD, and he has also observed that individuals with a grievance will experience many of the same subjective psychological events as someone who actually suffers from PTSD