A. Lynn Williams and James Bitter, who have been married for 38 years and have worked at ETSU for 25 years, released the newest editions of their textbooks in fall 2020.

Williams, who is the associate dean of the ETSU College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences, published the second edition of her textbook “Interventions for Speech and Sound Disorders in Children” in November 2020.

Bitter, a professor in the ETSU Department of Counseling and Human Services with a specialty in couples and family counseling, released the third edition of his textbook “Theory and Practice of Couples and Family Counseling” in October 2020.

“It’s probably the culmination of my life’s work,” said Bitter.

Authoring a textbook is no easy task. Writing can take up to two years to complete, which does not include time spent researching and editing. Bitter compared it to writing 18 to 20 30-page term papers.

ETSU’s A. Lynn Williams and James Bitter publish new editions of their textbooks. (Photograph by Nyah Bass/East Tennessean)

Each affirmed the importance of supporting one another through this taxing endeavor.

“You know what the experience is like when you write a paper, and you’re sitting in front of a white screen, and you’re still trying to think of what the heck the title is,” said Bitter.

Williams and Bitter are teachers and therapists. They melded these aspects by creating textbooks that go beyond educating students, by showing them how to implement the theories and interventions in their books. 

“How do we teach students to do these things,” said Willaims. “And not to understand them, but to do them.”

Each textbook includes video demonstrations of material produced by ETSU’s Department of Media and Communication in the broadcast studio. The video sets were therapy rooms to help students understand how the content can be applied to their professions.

“There are like maybe four textbooks on couples and family counseling that everybody uses and mine is now one of them,” said Bitter.

Williams was recognized by a professor from the University of Geneva at a conference in Crete for her work.

“You don’t have movie stars in academia, but it is kind of interesting to go to a conference and people will recognize you from your book and videos,” said Williams.

Williams and Bitter spent parts of their marriage long distance. On their drives to Williams’ parents’ home, the couple would see signs advertising ETSU and thought that they should look into applying here. A former colleague of Williams recruited her to ETSU and Bitter found an open position in the counseling department. The two were hired the same year.

“I thought when we came here, five years, five at most,” said Bitter. “Turn around and 25 years later we’re still here.”

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