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
94 episodes
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
Encore: How Recovery Supports Memoir Writing and Book Marketing Tips with Laura Cathcart Robbins
Author Laura Cathcart Robbins shares book marketing tips she learned while promoting her memoir Stash: My Life in Hiding, and how recovery helped her cultivate the honesty needed to write her memoir. Laura’s Bio: Laura Cath...
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58:12
Encore: Caring for Your Nervous System and Creativity with Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Kirby Moore
Writing can be a powerful tool for healing, but when writing the tough stuff, it’s easy to get triggered and relive the experiences you’re writing about. If you’re wondering what to do about this, join me and somatic experiencing practitioner K...
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48:26
Encore: The Power of Words: Samman Akbarzada on Finding Her Voice After Fleeing Afghanistan
Imagine working tirelessly for years to publish your first novel—only to have the moment of celebration collide with the collapse of your country. Imagine being forced to flee, leaving behind everything you’ve ever known, and yet… still finding...
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44:35
Encore: Making Meaning and Writing Toward Posttraumatic Growth with Lennie Echterling
Lennie Echterling joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about the lessons he learned from landmine survivors, the difference between empathy and toxic positivity, the importance of fostering your posttraumatic growth, and how to use...
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1:04:57
Encore: Navigating Complex Relationships and Writing Through Trauma with Lara Lillibridge
If you have a complicated relationship with someone, how do you write about them? Should you craft a linear memoir that reads more like a journey or write something that mirrors your experience? Join me and Lara Lillibridge, author of
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38:39
Encore: Recovering from Cults and Religious Trauma Through Writing with Tia Levings
Tia Levings joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss her experience as a debut author, writing to heal without retraumatizing yourself, the gaslighting that happens in religion, and getting things off your chest and onto the page to...
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54:37
Encore: Understanding Neurodivergence with Katie Rose Guest Pryal
Katie Rose Guest Pryal joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to take a deep dive into what neurodiversity is and how it impacts writers.Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: What do you know about neurodivers...
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50:05
Encore: It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic Abuse with Dr. Ramani Durvasula
Dr. Ramani Durvasula, author of It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People, shares her insights into narcissism, how narcissistic abuse survivors can heal, how to get support, and how to care for yourself when writi...
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1:11:06
Writing for an Audience Without Losing Yourself: Trauma-Informed Storytelling with Beth Docherty
What does it mean to write the truth when your story includes trauma—and how do you do it without retraumatizing yourself or your readers?That’s what I’ll explore with this week’s guest, Beth Docherty—a trauma-informed healthcare educato...
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28:32
Disrupting the Inner Critic: Dr. Risa Ryger on Writing, Change, and the Self-Owned Mindset
This is the 75th episode of the Writing and Resilience Podcast, and I would not have made it this far without your generous support of this podcast and my work. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.Now, about today’...
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35:40
Unlock Creative Flow with Qigong: Somatic Practices for Writers with Jay DeMaio
Have you ever felt like your creativity is blocked—but you know the problem isn’t your ideas, your schedule, or even your writing practice? What if your nervous system holds the key to unlocking the stories inside you?In this episode, I’...
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52:12
Why Writing Is Still Worth It: Sean Murphy on Endurance, Inspiration, and Literary Citizenship
In this episode, I reconnect with the brilliant and multifaceted Sean Murphy—poet, fiction writer, founder of 1455 Literary Arts, director of the Center for Story at Shenandoah University, and host of the podcast Some Things Considered...
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46:06
Using Human Design to Break Through Writing Blocks and Find Flow with Maha Mamish
Have you ever wondered what truly drives you? Are there parts of your personality that leave you puzzled, making you ask, "Why do I do that?" Have you been trying to improve an aspect of your life—especially your writing life—but it feels li...
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49:59
Bringing Light to History: Amy Fish and the Journey of One in Six Million
Six years ago, Amy Fish and I sat at a table in a hotel ballroom during the HippoCamp Writing Conference when she told me about her latest book idea. As soon as I heard about it, I said, go write that book. In this episode, we celebrate both th...
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37:26
Building a Writing Career Without Social Media: Amelia Hruby on Creative Independence
When was the last time you examined your relationship to social media? During this week’s episode, I speak with Amelia Hruby, host of the Off the Grid podcast, a show that helps business owners and creatives leave social media without ...
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53:11