Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing

Send us a textAthena Dixon joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss the multiple facets of loneliness, how to decide what is for you and what is for the public, and how to create your own definition of success. Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: How do you define loneliness? How did the pandemic impact the way that you define and experienced it? What does success look like for you? What is one positive association you have with being alone?Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of The Loneliness Files (Tin House 2023) and The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Split/Lip Press 2020). Her work is also included in the anthology The Breakbeat Poets Vol.2: Black Girl Magic and her craft work appears in Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. Athena is an alumni of V.O.N.A., Callaloo, and Tin House and has received a prose fellowship from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and a Second Book Residency from Tin House.Episode Highlights: 4:00 The problem of loneliness8:00 Establishing intimacy between writer and reader11:00 The skills of being honest16:00 Finding the vessel for your story 20:00 Defining success for yourself 27:00 Digital loneliness 35:49 Intentional isolation 42:00 The relationship between loneliness and hyper-independence Essay mentioned during this episode: https://gay.medium.com/the-incredible-shrinking-woman-997f50b9e63bConnect with Athena Website: https://athenadixon.com/Instagram: the_muse_paperTwitter/X: AthenaDDixonFacebook: AthenaDevonDixonConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/ Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColPDzpoQlVktIv7-f7ObRgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisacooperellison/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-ellison-b5483840/Sign up for Create Your Memoir’s Beat Sheet: https://janefriedman.com/craft-your-memoirs-beat-sheet-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/Produced by Espresso Podcast Production: https://www.espressopodcastproduction.comConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textSarah Perry joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to talk about the choices they  made while writing their award-winning memoir, After the Eclipse, and how each decision helped them build a book about their mother’s murder that was more than a true crime story. In this conversation, they explore the structure of Sarah’s book, how to build a character based on research, navigating the challenges of memory, and why closure isn’t what some of us are looking for.Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: What’s the toughest experience you’ve been through? If you wrote about it, what would you like readers to focus on? How might you need to structure this book in order to make that happen? How would you take care of yourself while dealing with the toughest parts of your story, especially if that meant researching police reports or interviewing other people to bring a character to life? What would you do with all that research? Sarah Perry (she/they) is a memoirist and essayist who writes about love, trauma, gender-based violence, queerness, and the power dynamics that influence those concerns. She is the author of the memoir After the Eclipse, which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Poets & Writers Notable Nonfiction Debut, and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Her second book, a memoir-in-essays called Sweet Nothings, is forthcoming from Mariner in 2024. Shorter work has appeared in the Huffington Post, Off Assignment, Elle magazine, The Guardian, and other outlets. A former Tulsa Artist Fellow and recipient of fellowships from the Edward F. Albee Foundation, VCCA, Playa, and The Studios of Key West, she holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.Episode Highlights 2:00 Framing a tough story8:00 Building a character you can’t interview12:00 Finding a resolution when closure isn’t possible 20:00 Navigating the challenges of memory31:00 Structuring a dual timeline narrative 45:00 Navigating research and coping with tough material Sarah’s essays: To the Man I made Into a Stranger A Young Girl Searches for Truth After Her Mother’s MurderConnect with Sarah Website: sarahperryauthor.netInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahperry100X: https://twitter.com/trickylarougeConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/ Website: https://lisacooperellison.coConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textTW: Mention of SuicideEileen Vorbach Collins joins the Writing Your Resilience podcast to talk about living with and writing about grief, breaking free of stigma and shame, how your structure serves your readers, and the importance of humor, even when writing about unimaginable pain. Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: Have you experienced a profound loss like death, divorce, or something else? What helped you make sense of it? What helped you learn to live with this experience? What are your thoughts on Prolonged Grief Disorder? How do you find the light in the darkest of moments? Eileen Vorbach Collins, a Baltimore native, has a BS degree in nursing and an MA in pastoral care. She has written extensively about child loss since her 15-year-old daughter's suicide. Eileen’s writing has received several literary awards and two Pushcart Prize nominations. Her micro essay, “Howl and Whisper,” was nominated for Best Microfiction 2024, and her award-winning essay collection, Love in the Archives, A Patchwork of True Stories About Suicide Loss, was published in 2023 by Apprentice House Press.Episode Highlights:2:00: How structure serves your readers10:00 Roadblocks to write the unimaginable 15:30 The importance of including humor  17:00 The problem with Prolonged Grief Disorder 25::00 Living with grief and dealing with sibling loss 33:30 Battling the stigma of suicide loss 39:00 Writing as a way to combat shame Resources for this episode: To learn more about the history of homosexuality and the DSM, click hereTo read about Prolonged Grief Disorder, click here; to read about the criticisms of it, click hereEssays by Eileen:Howl and WhisperA Publishing Contract: When Jupiter Aligns with MarsGive Sorrow Words  Connect with Eileen: Website: https://www.loveinthearchives.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vorbachcollins/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evorbachcollinsConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/ Website: https://lisacooperellison.comConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textLet’s Talk Memoir host Ronit Plank joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss writing about abandonment, the importance of understanding the context of your story, the challenges around writing about family, publishing with small presses and much more. Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: Have you ever written about someone who's abandoned you? What kind of feedback did you get? Do you wonder how to do this without making them a monster or abandoning yourself? Ever wonder what it might be like to publish this work, or where you might publish it?Ronit Plank’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.Episode Highlights:8:00 Lessons on writing about abandonment14:00 The power of context20:30 The challenges of publishing stories about complex characters 29:15: How to tell if your project is complete35:01 Finding your story’s emotional truth 40: Publishing with small presses Resources mentioned in this episode:Courtney Maum post on hiring a publicist. Hot Sheet Article on Books Being Sold by Word of MouthRonit’s essay “How to Approach Family and Friends About Your MemoirRonit’s essay “I want to heal my son so badly” Connect with Ronit:Website: https://ronitplank.comInstagram: @ronitplankSign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKdConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textLaura Davis joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss the healing power of writing, the difference between writing to heal and writing for a public audience, and  the challenges she faced while writing her memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars.Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: What role has writing played in your life? If you have been writing for a while, which piece has healed you the most? Have you ever received feedback that something should be taken out of a piece of writing only to have a burning desire to keep it around? How do you know if a piece of writing is really ready to be published?Laura Davis is the author of The Burning Light of Two Stars, The Courage to Heal, and five other groundbreaking books. In addition to writing books that inspire, the work of Laura’s heart is to teach. For more than twenty-five years, she’s helped people find their voices, tell their stories, and hone their craft. Laura has been published in Publisher's Weekly, Writer's Digest, CrimeReads, Brevity, and The New York Times, featured in Los Angeles Review of Books, and on QWERTY, Write-Minded, The Only One in the Room, and dozens of other podcasts. She's a featured speaker for The National Association of Memoir Writers and a popular teacher at The San Miguel Writers’ Conference and at Esalen in Big Sur. Learn about her workshops, classes and international retreats, and read the first five chapters of her memoir at www.lauradavis.net.Episode Highlights 8:25 Dealing with the emotional rigors of memoir writing12:45: Writing to heal 21:00 Writing for yourself versus an audience34:45 Beginning your book 46:50 Structuring your book and including primary sources Connect with Laura Davis:Website: www.lauradavis.net Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurasaridavisFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewritersjourneyFree Ebook: Writing Toward Courage: A 30-Day Practice. Click here to receive this beautiful, thought-provoking creative gift. FEATURED RETREAT: Writing as a Pathway Through Grief, Uncertainty and Change - May 7-13 - Northern California.THROUGH FEBRUARY 2024: Purchase The Burning Light of Two Stars for 70% off here. Insert the code BURNINGLIGHT70 when you get to the final step on the shopping cart.Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textZebib Abraham joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss why she writes fiction, the relationship between writing and mental health, and tools writers can use to cultivate resilience, self-compassion, and radical acceptance of themselves and their work. Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: Have you ever considered whether something should be written as fiction or nonfiction? Do you wonder which genre might be the most compassionate to you and allow you the freedom to explore your emotional truth? Do you know what self-compassion actually means and what it takes to cultivate it? Zebib K. Abraham (she/her) is a writer and psychiatrist. She is a graduate of Cornell medical school and completed a Master’s in Creative Writing with distinction from the University of Edinburgh. Zebib has been published in FANTASY Magazine, The Rumpus, The Chestnut Review, Podcastle, and Necessary Fiction, among others. She is a full member of the Science Fiction and Writers Association and has been a commissioned storyteller for the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Zebib publishes under the name Z. K. Abraham, and writes film criticism in addition to her work in fiction and creative nonfiction. She is represented by C. L. Geisler at ArtHouse Literary Agency.Episode Highlights:10:00: Choosing Fiction Versus Nonfiction 20:30 Writing and Mental Health 30:00 The Inner Work of Your Writing Life 35:00 Understanding Radical Acceptance  39:30  The Challenge of Oral Storytelling 49:00 Tools for Being a Resilient Writer Resources mentioned during this episode: Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff“How Can You Tell If You’re Starting Your Story in the Right Place?” by Susan DeFreitas: https://janefriedman.com/how-can-you-tell-if-youre-starting-your-story-in-the-right-place/“What Is Wise Mind” by Dr. Paul Green: https://www.manhattancbt.com/wise-mind-dbt/Connect with Zebib:Twitter - https://twitter.com/pegasusunder1Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/pegasusunder.bsky.socialInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/pegasusunderWebsite: https://zkabraham.com/Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColPDzpoQlVktIv7-f7ObRgConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textMelanie Brooks joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to speak about her book, A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All. This is the book she once struggled to write about her father's death.  In today's episode, we'll explore the powerful impact silence has on you and how to break through it. Before we get to this conversation, I have a few questions for you. What role has silence played in your writing and in your life? Has it ever been helpful? Has it ever held you back? If you could learn one thing about it, what would that be? How could learning this help you become more resilient? Melanie Brooks is the author of A Hard Silence: One Daughter Remaps Family, Grief, and Faith When HIV/AIDS Changes It All (Vine Leaves Press, September 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017). She teaches professional writing at Northeastern University and creative nonfiction in the MFA program at Bay Path University in Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program. She recently completed a Certificate of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Psychology Today, the HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, the Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and two Labs.Episode Highlights2:55: The pain of living with secrets5:54: Navigating anticipatory grief 15:45: The transformative power of finishing your story 20:00 The magic of timing and the stories we tell ourselves 26:00 The influence of narrative medicine on Melanie’s story30:00 Marrying two stories into one 37:00 Melanie’s best writing advice Connect with Melanie:Website: melaniebrooks.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.brooks.1690Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniejmbrookswriterX: https://twitter.com/MelanieJMBrooksLinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/melanie-brooks-504826121Get Melanie’s book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-hard-silence-one-daughter-remaps-family-grief-and-faith-when-hiv-aids-changes-it-all-melanie-brooks/20151761?ean=9783988320209Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/Website: Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textTW: Mention of Suicide Get to know your host Lisa Cooper Ellison. Whether she was working to stay safe in an abusive home, running away from it, or navigating her brother’s suicide, Lisa has always turned to the page. She had no idea that losing everything while Battling Lyme disease would transform a hobby into an essential tool that helped her reignite her resilience and rewire her nervous system. Resilience has always played a huge role in Lisa’s life, and through this podcast she wants to help you learn how to become a resilient writer. She’ll help you do this by teaching you the concepts that can help you flourish, sharing stories from writers and mental health professionals who’ve done this work, and inviting you to flip the script on the stories that no longer serve you. This season on the podcast we're going to look at how silence, loneliness, self gaslighting, and trauma impact the stories we tell ourselves. You're going to learn how self-compassion, seeing the big picture, and claiming your neurodiversity can help you become more resilient and a better writer. Plus, we're going to look at how to navigate difficult research when you're working on a trauma-filled story, how to portray difficult characters, and how to care for yourself when you are writing the toughest of stories. Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach with an Ed.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. She has spent the last two decades helping clients and students turn difficult experiences into art, and the past seven specifically teaching people how to write their resilience. She currently teaches courses in memoir, the psychology of writing, and the book proposal. Her essays have appeared in Huffington Post, Hippocampus Literary Magazine, and Kenyon Review Online, among others. She’s represented by The Bindery and recently completed her memoir Please Stage Dive Carefully: How I Survived My Brother’s Suicide and Forgave MyselfConnect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less: https://lisacooperellison.com/newsletter-subscribe/Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColPDzpoQlVktIv7-f7ObRgFacebook: Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

Send us a textThe 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.comSign 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/Connect with your host, Lisa:Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret LessWebsite | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Free Your Writing Voice, Fuel Your Motivation is a 12-week course designed to help you reconnect with the creative spark that brought you to the page in the first place. https://lisacooperellison.com/free-your-writing-voice-find-your-motivation/ Produced by Espresso Podcast Production