Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing
The Writing Your Resilience Podcast is for anyone who wants to use the writing process to flip the script on the stories they’ve been telling themselves, because when we tell better stories about ourselves, we live better lives.
Every Thursday, host Lisa Cooper Ellison, an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and trauma survivor diagnosed with complex PTSD, interviews writers of tough, true stories, people who've developed incredible grit, and professionals in the field of psychology and healing who've studied resilience.
Over the past 7 years Lisa has taught writers how to write their resilience. Each time her clients and students have confronted the stories that no longer serve them, they’ve felt a little safer, become a little braver, and revealed more of their true selves. Now, with this podcast, she is creating a space for you to do this work too.
Equal parts instruction, motivation, and helpful guide, Writing Your Resilience is an opportunity for you to join a community of writers and professionals doing the work that helps us cultivate our authenticity and creativity.
More about Lisa Cooper Ellison: https://lisacooperellison.com
Sign Up For My Writing Your Resilience Newsletter and Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: Five Brain Hacks that Will Supercharge Your Productivity, Creativity, and Confidence: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/
Episodes
109 episodes
How to Write About Trauma Without Traumatizing Your Reader with Melissa Fraterrigo
Writers, are you writing about trauma and wondering how detailed to get or how to connect the dots when your story feels scattered? The solution might be a memoir in essays that allows you to write about powerful discreet moments that are...
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41:14
Memoir Writing Mistakes: Why “This Happened, Then This Happened” Isn’t a Memoir with Wendy Dale
This week, I’m joined by Wendy Dale, the author of The Memoir Engineering System, for a conversation that will change the way you think about structure, scenes, and what actually makes a memoir work. We talk about why “this happened, t...
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46:40
Entering the Fire Horse Year: The 3 Things Writers Must Do to Reclaim Momentum
As we step into 2026, many writers feel ready to begin—yet remain stalled or exhausted from the year before. In this episode, I show you how to reclaim momentum through creative alignment and the one thing you must do to harness your success. W...
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34:44
Encore Episode: Breaking the Silence with Melanie Brooks
In this encore conversation, author and teacher Melanie Brooks and I explore the lifelong impact of silence—within our families, our communities, and our writing lives. Drawing from her memoir, A Hard Silence, Melanie shares how unspok...
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49:34
Encore Episode: Writing about Absent Fathers and Attachment Styles with Acamea Deadwiler
Join me and Pushcart Nominee, TedX Speaker, and multi-passionate creative, Acamea Deadwiler for this encore episode where we talk about normalized violence, how our attachment styles can influence the way we approach our memoirs, and the import...
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55:24
Encore Episode: Crafting the Personal Essay and Resilient Editing Tips with Andrea Firth
Join me and Andrea Firth for this encore episode of the writing your resilience podcast where we explore what personal essays are, how writers can uncover their essay’s aboutness, and how to develop resilient editing practices. As an added bonu...
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47:48
Encore Episode: Writing Through Shame: Hannah Sward on Memoir, Resilience, and Being Present
Join me and Hannah Sward, author of Strip: A Memoir, for an encore episode where we go behind the scenes of her writing process—how she wrote her first draft by hand, in one long, unfiltered sentence; how she found the courage to put her full t...
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46:04
100 Episodes Later: 10 Lessons Every Writer Needs
What happens when you commit to showing up—again and again—for your writing life? In this special bonus recording in celebration of my 100th episode,, I reflect on ten years of creative work and the ten lessons I learned about growth, resilienc...
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13:50
What If You're Not Meant to be the Hero of Your Memoir: How Writers Reclaim Their Sovereignty with Stacy Simmons
Have you been trying to fit your life story into the hero’s journey and find it’s just not working? What if it doesn’t fit the mold because you were never meant to be the hero, but rather you were meant to be the queen? In this 100th episode of...
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49:28
Stop Forcing the Silver Lining: Why Writers Need Real Emotional Truth with Dr. Risa Ryger
What if the pressure to “find the silver lining” is actually keeping you from healing?In this episode, Dr. Risa Riger and I unpack the subtle—and sometimes harmful—ways toxic optimism, avoidance, and “bouncing back” culture disconnect us fr...
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39:48
Your Memoir Isn’t Too Weird: How to Write the Mystical with Confidence with Linda McKittrick
Many writers find themselves wrestling with experiences that fall outside linear time, logic, or the way stories are “supposed” to unfold. In this final Ask Me Anything episode of 2025, I sit down with my student Linda to talk about how to weav...
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23:14
Gratitude, Grief, and Growth: What Frida Kahlo Taught Me About Resilience
Holidays can bring out the best—and the hardest—parts of being human. In this special Thanksgiving episode of Writing Your Resilience, I share stories from joyful celebrations and heartbreakingly difficult years to remind you that what...
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11:25
When Every Submission Feels Like a No: Reclaiming Your Writing Confidence
Listeners, have you been struggling to pick yourself up after experiencing one—or maybe many—rejections of your work? It’s an experience that can make you feel so alone, but I want to be the first to say that we’ve all experienced the self-doub...
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53:01
You Don’t Suck at Meditation: Busting 5 Myths That Keep You From Feeling Calm
If you’ve ever sat down to meditate—especially at a writing retreat—and thought, “I suck at this,” this episode is for you. In this solo conversation, I unpack five common myths about meditation that leave writers feeling frustrated, a...
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28:33
Writing Through the Body: What Our Scars, Stretch Marks, and Memories Teach Us with Nina Lichtenstein
Listeners, what role does the body play in your book? Is it something you use to show the story—or is it the portal to the story itself? In this episode, I talk with Nina Lichtenstein, author of Body, My Life in Parts...
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42:58
Selected Misdemeanors: Crafting Meaning in Flash Nonfiction with Sue William Silverman
Have you ever wondered how a single moment—a glance, a mistake, a shimmering flash of memory—can hold the power of an entire story? Or how the smallest details of an ordinary life can reveal something vast about who we are and what we long for?...
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40:19
When Your Best Writing Feels Terrible: Understanding Shame, Vulnerability, and the Creative Process
Today, we’re diving into a topic that trips up so many writers—vulnerability. How much should you share? When does honest writing become oversharing? And why does your most powerful work sometimes feel like it completely sucks? If you’ve ever b...
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26:44
Metaphors That Work: How to Make Your Writing More Vivid, Emotional, and True with Kristin Sancken and Lynn Shattuck
This week, we’re kicking off a new Editors’ Roundtable segment on the podcast, where I dig into key writing issues with the two trauma-informed editors I’m training—Kristin Sancken and Lynn Shattuck. In our first conversation, we explore metaph...
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41:47
Showing, Telling, and the Shimmer: Finding the Scenes That Bring Your Memoir to Life with Marianna Marlowe
Which memories shimmer inside you? Which ones refuse to let you go? Those luminous, haunting moments are often the raw ingredients of the story you’re truly meant to tell. In this episode of Writing Your Resilience, I sit down with new...
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38:38
Writing Grief Without Cliché: Eirinie Carson on Friendship, Loss, and The Dead Are Gods
Have you ever wondered what it really means to grieve a friend—someone dazzling, flawed, and deeply loved? Or how laughter, silence, and even text messages can become part of the story we tell about those we’ve lost?In today’s episode of...
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37:32
Write the Story That Sets You Free: A Behind-the-Scenes Pivot Toward Soul Alignment
Have you ever wondered if what you’re doing is truly aligned with your soul’s purpose? Or maybe you’ve had that nagging feeling that something’s off—that you’re not quite on the right track. How do you know when it’s time to stay the course, an...
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45:01
The Secret to Writing Your Best Work: Rest
This week, we’re talking about something our culture often dismisses but your writing life desperately needs: rest. In this episode, I’ll share why rest matters, how you can create more of it—even when life feels full—and the surprising lessons...
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27:07
The Fawning Trauma Response: Ingrid Clayton on Healing People-Pleasing and Codependency
Have you been told you’re a people pleaser or found yourself saying yes when you meant no, without even thinking about it? Have a friend who struggles to express their feelings or share their preferences? If so, you might have encountered the f...
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56:19
Encore: The Creative Cure for Writers: Trauma-Informed Approaches for Memoir and Embracing Your Creativity with Jacob Nordby
Do you struggle to see yourself as creative? Or have you ever wondered where your creativity comes from, and how to maximize it? This week, I’m joined by Jacob Nordby, founder of A Writing Room Collective and author of Blessed are the Weird...
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41:25
Encore: The Power of Micro Memoir: Grief, Storytelling, and Experimentation with Amy Lin
How do you dive into the marrow of an experience we’ll all one day share, yet so many of us struggle to talk about? And how do you write into a topic so widely covered that it feels impossible to say something new? Today, I’m joined by Amy Lin,...
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56:50