Resiliency Within

In a time of deep division, uncertainty, and crisis, Finding Light in the Darkness will explore how we can maintain our well-being, integrity, and hope.

Hosted by Elaine Miller-Karas, an internationally recognized trauma expert and resiliency advocate, she will illuminate practical strategies for navigating today's complex social and political landscape.

Elaine hopes this episode will provide a beacon of light—insights on staying grounded, fostering compassion, and building resilience in the face of adversity.

Elaine is dedicated to empowering listeners to cultivate inner strength and create ripples of change for themselves, their families and their communities.

Join Resiliency Within as Elaine uncovers pathways to healing, unity, and action—because light can be found even in the darkest times.

___________________________________

About Elaine

Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW, is a social worker, trauma therapist, author, lecturer, consultant, VoiceAmerica podcast host, Psychology Today blogger, and social entrepreneur.

She has been called an "ambassador of hope" in the fields of trauma therapy and community resiliency.

As a co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute, Elaine serves as the Director of Innovation. She has led the development of the Trauma and Community Resiliency Models, which have left an indelible global footprint, impacting over 75 countries.

Her book, "Building Resiliency to Trauma: The Trauma and Community Resiliency Model, Second Edition (2023)," has been recognized by the United Nations and Taylor and Francis. She is a regular contributor to Psychology Today.

She has presented internationally at Oxford University's Skoll World Forum, the United Nations, Resiliency 2024, Medscape, Psychotherapy Networker, the Global Fund, the Carter Center, and the Centers for Disease Control.

Elaine believes in a world where every person is treated with dignity and our differences are acknowledged and respected.

What does it take to challenge a system that was never designed to include you? How do courage, determination, and resilience transform resistance into lasting change? In this inspiring episode of Resiliency Within, host Elaine Miller-Karas welcomes Eileen Isola to explore Necessary Turbulence, the extraordinary story of the pioneering women who shattered barriers at the United States Air Force Academy and helped redefine what it means to lead.

In 1976, 157 courageous young women marched beneath the words "Bring Me Men" as they entered an institution that had never welcomed women. They encountered fierce opposition, inadequate facilities, entrenched traditions, and predictions that they would never succeed. Yet they persevered, opening doors for generations of women who would follow.Drawing upon the voices of 108 contributors spanning five decades, Necessary Turbulence reveals powerful stories of sacrifice, sisterhood, determination, and hard-won belonging. From the challenges of Basic Cadet Training to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, these trailblazers challenged exclusionary policies, rose to positions of extraordinary leadership, and transformed the possibilities for women in military and civilian life.

Together, Elaine and Eileen will explore the deeper meaning of resilience—not simply as the ability to endure adversity, but as the capacity to transform it into purpose, possibility, and meaningful change. Their conversation will illuminate the power of collective courage, the importance of belonging, and the extraordinary impact of women who refused to allow others to define their limitations.

At its heart, Necessary Turbulence reminds us that progress rarely comes without disruption. Sometimes the turbulence we fear is precisely what makes transformation possible.Join us for a compelling conversation about courage in the face of resistance, the resilience of women across generations, and the enduring legacy of those who dared to walk through doors that had never been opened to them.Because the turbulence is not over—and neither is the courage of women determined to change the world.

The Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® contains powerful skills for nervous system regulation that can be used anywhere and anytime.

CRM in Schools is a strengths-based, compassionate approach that is helping school staff and students re-connect to their bodies and understand new ways to support their well-being through nervous system regulation.

Since 2019, the Community Resiliency Model has been shared with thousands of educators and students, world-wide. Pro-active and preventative skills like resourcing, grounding, and the Help Now! strategies can be practiced daily as classroom routines, during class meetings and brain breaks, or at crucial moments like before a test or during conflict resolution.

Feedback from educators and students suggests that the CRM skills can improve students body literacy, self-compassion and sense of empathy towards others. Educators report feeling more resourced to manage the physical and emotional demands of their profession.

How can CRM be brought into schools in a way that supports teachers and students, rather than burdening them with "one more thing" to do.

How can CRM be integrated systemically so that the climate of school becomes a place that is welcoming to the educators and students "whole selves"?

Can schools truly become places where trauma-and-resiliency informed practices are understood and applied by everyone from the support staff, to the principal?

This episode with Lindy Settevendemie and Christa Tinari explores the use of CRM in school contexts and their insights about how CRM can support individuals and transform the learning environment.

What happens when a simple belief in the human capacity for healing grows into a worldwide movement? In this special 20th anniversary episode of Resiliency Within, host Elaine Miller-Karas reflects on the remarkable journey of the Trauma Resource Institute, the nonprofit she co-founded two decades ago, and on the evolution of the Trauma Resiliency Model (TRM)® and Community Resiliency Model (CRM)®, for which she has been a key developer. Elaine shares the story of how a commitment to making the science of the nervous system understandable, practical, and accessible has expanded across cultures, professions, and communities around the world— Elaine speaks with a deep sense of gratitude and awe at how far the work has traveled and how many lives have been touched. She also looks toward the future, asking what may become possible when we understand resilience not simply as enduring hardship, but as the growing capacity for well-being, connection, agency, meaning, and hope. This is a celebration of an extraordinary milestone, but even more, it is a tribute to the people and communities who have made TRI's work their own—and an invitation to continue building a world in which the biology of resilience, human dignity, and our capacity to care for one another are understood as essential resources for healing and flourishing.

My guest is Dr. Samah Jabr, a Palestinian psychiatrist, psychotherapist, writer, educator, and one of the most important contemporary voices addressing the psychological consequences of occupation, violence, displacement, and historical trauma.

Dr. Jabr joins us to discuss her book, Radiance in Pain and Resilience: The Global Reverberation of Palestinian Historical Trauma.

Her work challenges us to expand the way we understand trauma. Western approaches to trauma have often focused primarily on what happens within an individual—the symptoms a person experiences and the treatment that may help that person recover. But what happens when trauma is shared across families, communities, and generations? What happens when the source of trauma is not entirely in the past?

And perhaps most importantly, how do we talk about resilience without romanticizing suffering or placing the burden of adaptation solely upon those who have been harmed?

Today, we will explore these questions and consider what the Palestinian experience can teach the global community about historical trauma, collective resilience, dignity, and our shared humanity.

Food is something we encounter every day, yet for many of us, nourishment can involve a great deal of thought, effort, emotion, and complexity.

In this conversation, registered dietitian and co-creator of Trauma-Informed Mindful Eating (TIME), Kristen Zappone, explores how our relationships with food and our bodies are shaped by far more than nutrition knowledge or willpower. Our lived experiences, nervous systems, relationships, environments, cultural messages, diet culture, and ability to connect with internal body cues can all influence how we experience nourishment.

Kristen introduces the role of interoception—our ability to notice and make sense of what is happening within the body—and explores how learning to "listen to your body" can be more challenging than it sounds, particularly when our connection with internal cues has been shaped by our experiences.

Through the lens of TIME, the conversation reframes many food-related struggles with greater context and curiosity, asking what may become possible when we move away from judgment and expectations about how we "should" eat.

Kristen explores how cultivating awareness, compassion, agency, and greater connection with our bodies can help us build resilience in our relationship with nourishment—not by finding a perfect way to eat, but by expanding our capacity for choice, flexibility, and self-trust.

Leading from Abundance (LFA) is an invitation to help humanitarian providers use the skills of the Community Resiliency Model to shift from survival mode and a scarcity mindset to one of resilience. Compassion fatigue is a real thing; our programming helps humanitarian providers understand that their well-being is not a luxury; it is a best practice. We help providers understand that sustainable leadership doesn't come from a place of burnout—it grows from a place of abundance.

Patrisse Cullors joins Elaine Miller-Karas on Resiliency Within for a conversation about the transformative power of art, imagination, spirituality, and community in creating pathways toward healing and social change.

Cullors believes that art can do more than reflect the world as it is—it can help us imagine and build the world as it could be. Drawing upon more than two decades as a visual and performing artist, author, educator, and community organizer, she will explore how creativity can become a source of resilience, cultural memory, spiritual connection, and collective transformation.

Elaine and Patrisse will discuss Cullors' concept of "abolitionist aesthetics"—the idea that meaningful social transformation requires not only dismantling systems that cause harm, but also creating new images, practices, spaces, and ways of being that embody liberation and community care. They will explore her view of artworks as more than visual objects: they can serve as spiritual guardians, cultural commentary, and what she describes as "spiritual armor."

The conversation will also explore the influence of the Black Arts Movement on Cullors' creative practice, the relationship between art and activism, and themes from her forthcoming book, We Make the World, in which she invites readers to consider aesthetic activism and the essential role of art in movements for social change.

At the heart of the conversation is a question central to Resiliency Within: How can creativity help us move beyond surviving what has happened to us and toward imagining, creating, and participating in what is possible?

This conversation will explore the potential of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM)® to support lawyers and others working in civil legal services (or "legal aid") nonprofits. It will begin by introducing legal services - what the work is, who it serves, and the role nonprofit legal aid organizations play in helping people address legal problems affecting basic life necessities.

Drawing on Julia Wilson's path from practicing as a legal aid attorney to coaching lawyers and nonprofit leaders, the conversation will explore how she found CRM and came to recognize its value for this sector.

The discussion will examine why CRM is so needed in legal services: the unique stressors of the legal profession; the additional demands of legal aid work in nonprofit settings; and the relevance of nervous system awareness and resiliency skills both for the professionals doing the work and in providing direct legal services to clients experiencing legal problems. It will also consider what makes CRM uniquely useful in this context, including its accessible, biology-based framework and practical skills.

Finally, the conversation will look toward future opportunities to use CRM to bring greater resiliency awareness and resources to the legal profession and legal services sector.