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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, author of the stunning micro memoir Here After, as we tackle these questions head-on. Together, we’ll explore the raw realities of grief, how Amy’s memoir acts as a powerful container for this universal experience, the magic of the micro-form, and what it takes to create something experimental. Plus, I’ll share a transformative tool to expand how you see your stories—and uncover the truths hiding within them.

Amy’s Bio: Amy Lin lives in Calgary, Canada where there are two seasons: winter and road construction. She completed her MFA at Warren Wilson College and holds BAs in English Literature and Education. Her work has been published in places such as Ploughshares and she has been awarded residencies from Yaddo and Casa Comala. Here After is her first book.

Resources Mentioned During This Episode:

• The Unseen Shore (Part One) by Amy Lin
• Yi Shun Lai’s Post “People’s Names Are Important”
• Lily Be “The Donas of Humbolt Park” 
• More about Lily Be
• It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People with Dr. Ramani Durvasula

Episode Highlights

• The Container of Grief 
• The “Good Signs” of Grief
• Performative Grief versus the Reality of Grief 
• The Five Stages of Grief Debunked
• The Power of Micro Memoir 
• The Story Neighborhood Exercise 
• The Marrow of Living 
• Amy’s Best Writing Advice 

Connect with Amy: 

• Substack: https://atthebottomofeverything.substack.com/
• Website: amydawnlin.com
• Instagram: @literaryamy
• TikTok: @literaryamy

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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 Cathcart Robbins is the best-selling author of the Atria/Simon & Schuster memoir, Stash, My Life In Hiding, and host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room. She has been active for many years as a speaker and school trustee and is credited for creating The Buckley School’s nationally recognized committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice. Her recent articles on the subjects of race, recovery, and divorce have garnered her worldwide acclaim. She is a 2022 TEDx Speaker, and LA Moth StorySlam winner. Currently, she sits on the advisory boards of the San Diego Writer’s Festival and the Outliers HQ podcast Festival. 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• I Was the Only Black Person at Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed’s ‘Brave’ Magic Retreat by Laura Cathcart Robbins
• “A White Woman Told Me She Doesn’t Think of Me as Black. Here’s How I Reacted.” by Laura Cathcart Robbins
• Book Review for Stash: My Life in Hiding by Lisa Cooper Ellison
• Author Platform Is Not a Requirement to Sell Your Novel or Children’s Book by Jane Friedman
• Official Transcript

Episode Highlights

• The Response to Stash
• The Power of Honesty
• The Link Between Recovery and Honesty
• Channeling Your Energy in a Specific Direction
• Marketing Your Book and Yourself
• Caring For Yourself As You Market Your Book
• Year Two and Working with Book Clubs
• How Honesty Builds Resilience

Connect with Laura

• Website: https://lauracathcartrobbins.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lauracathcartrobbins
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauracathcartrobbins
• Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mscathcartrobbins
• X: https://twitter.com/lauracrobbins

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
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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 Kirby Moore as we explore how the nervous system works and how to care for it and your writing life. Plus, Kirby will teach you a powerful tool you can use right now to calm your nervous system. While you can listen to this on any platform, if you’re a visual learner, this is a great episode to watch on YouTube. Now, let’s get to my conversation with Kirby Moore.

Kirby’s bio: Kirby brings a unique and potent blend of modalities to his healing facilitation sessions. He has been very fortunate to study with some masterful SE faculty members, with Tibetan Buddhist heart teachers, and one of the pioneers in the field of Birth Process Work. All this training, plus 20 years as a practicing Astrologer, means that Kirby offers exceptional somatic process work – both in-person and online.

In 2019, Kirby developed Trauma Informed Astrology, which is a very ambitious blend of Western Astrology, nervous system repair and theory, and embodiment tools. He loves offering courses, mentoring students, and offering clients rare insights into their process.

Resources Mentioned During This Episode:

• Kirby’s Course: Liberating the Space Element
• Use the Code Podcast30 to save 30% off this course
• Souls of the Feet Meditation
• Heart Coherence Meditation
• Dr. Kay Tye: The Biology of Social Interactions and Emotions

Episode Highlights

• Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy
• What is Somatic Experiencing
• Healthy and Unhealthy Checking Out
• The Consequences of Dissociation
• Reciprocals: A Powerful Somatic Tool
• Why Meditation Can Harm Trauma Survivors
• Dealing with Writing Triggers
• Somatic Advice on Writing

Connect with Kirby

• Website: www.traumainformedastrology.com
• Website: www.mkirbymoore.com
• Website: https://astrodharma.me
• Instagram: @traumainformedastrology
• Email: [email protected]

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. http

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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 your voice through poetry, storytelling, and advocacy.

Today, I have the honor of speaking with Samman Akbarzada—a poet, novelist, refugee, and fierce advocate for human rights. Her novel, Life is a Movie, tells the story of a working child in Afghanistan, while her poetry collection, A Glimmer in the Dark, captures the heartbreak of exile and the enduring hope of survival. Join us as we discuss the power of storytelling, the resilience of the human spirit, and how writing can bear witness to both personal and collective grief.

Episode Highlights

• Publishing in a War Zone
• The Impact of Crisis and Loss on Our Writing Lives
• Giving a Voice to Someone Who’s Gone
• How Helping Others Empowers You
• Listening to the Howl
• Writing as an Act of Service
• Samman’s Best Writing Advice

Resources for this Episode: 

• Afghan refugees head to Washington asking special visas be issued for families
• Afghan refugee pleads for resettlement support on Capitol Hill
• Volunteer Information: https://www.volunteermatch.org/
• Volunteer Organizations in Charlottesville: 
  • https://soundjusticelab.org/cville-tulips
  • https://www.charlottesvilleunited.org/
  • https://www.virginiaequitycenter.org/
• Watch the Trailer for Limbo

Samman Akbarzada is an Afghan refugee and the author of two books: A Glimmer in the Dark, her poetry collection, and Life is a Movie, her debut novel. A second-year student at the University of Virginia, she is committed to working with NGOs and advocating for the rights of underserved communities. Her words capture the suffering, heartbreak, gratitude, and redemption that mark a life lived on the blade of conflict, with love and empathy as her constant guiding light.

Connect with Samman

• Website: https://www.amazon.com/author/samman-akbarzada
• Instagram.com/sammanwrites
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samman-akbarzada-9359792a0
• Samman’s books: https://bookshop.org/p/books/life-is-a-movie-samman-akbar

Connect with your host, Lisa:
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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 writing to build your resilience. 

Lennie’s Bio: Lennie Echterling, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus at James Madison University with more than 40 years of experience in promoting resilience, particularly during crises and disasters. He has served as crisis counselor, consultant, and trainer following many traumatic stress events, including tornadoes and floods throughout the United States, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the tsunami in India, the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, the shootings at Virginia Tech, and landmine explosions in the Middle East. His awards include JMU’s Distinguished Faculty Award, Virginia Counselors Association’s Humanitarian Award, Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award, Virginia Counselors Career Service Award among many others. 

Resources mentioned during this episode: 

The Paradox of Empathy: When Empathy Hurts

Thriving in a Time of Crisis

The Book of Forgiving: The Four-Fold Path Four Healing Ourselves and Our World by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu

Writing to Heal with Laura Davis

Good Night Jung by Lennie Echterling 

Episode Highlights

• Lessons from Landmine Survivors  
• Triggers for Resilience
• Defining Posttraumatic Growth
• The Problem of Toxic Positivity
• The Power of Being with Another Person’s Story
• The Struggle to Trust
• Embracing and Exploring the Chaos Story
• The Role of Neuroplasticity in Storytelling
• Lessons Learned from Final Conversations
• Making Every Day Valentine’s Day
• The Power of Expressing Gratitude  
• Lennie’s Best Writing Advice
• Lennie’s Resilience Practice

Connect with Lennie: 

Email: [email protected]

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
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Sign up for The Art of Reflection in Memoir: https://janefriedman.com/the-art-of-reflection-in-memoir-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

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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 Girlish, Mama, Mama, Only Mama, and The Truth of Unringing Phones, as we explore the impact of estrangement on the memoir writing process, how to protect your heart as you write about painful experiences, the power of publishing your story, as well as the a-ha Lara had about which part of the writing process actually heals you.

Lara’s Bio: Lara Lillibridge (she/they) is the author of The Truth About Unringing Phones: Essays on Yearning; Mama, Mama, Only Mama: An Irreverent Guide for the Newly Single Parent, and Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home,. Lara is a Creative Nonfiction Editor for HeartWood Literary Magazine. She holds an MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College and is a mentor for AWP’s Writer to Writer.

In this episode: 

• When can non-linear storytelling play a role in writing about fragmented relationships?
• Advice for balancing dark and light moments in memoir writing to present a full picture of the relationship.
• The importance of audience connection and feedback as a source of resilience during the book launch period.
• The healing power of revision.
• Tips for organizing and structuring non-linear memoirs.

Resources Mentioned During This Episode:

The True Meaning of Success with Courtney Maum

Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother’s Life by Kao Kalia Yang

New York Times article on Consent by Jill Cement

Episode Highlights

• COVID’s Impact on Our Creativity
• Structuring an Estrangement Story
• Crafting a Nonlinear Memoir
• Protecting Your Heart as You Write
• How Estrangement Impacts Us
• The Healing Power of Publishing Your Story
• Lara’s Best Writing Advice

Connect with Lara

Website: http://laralillibridge.com/

Twitter: https://x.com/Only_Mama

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lara.lillibridge

Instagram/Threads: https://www.instagram.com/LaraLillibridge

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
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Sign up for The Art of Reflection in Memoir: https://janefriedman.com/the-art-of-reflection-in-memoir-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

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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 educate others with your writing.

As you listen to this episode, consider the following questions:  What would you need to do to claim your story? What would tell you it has legs? What would you need to do to see it from a wider lens? If it is a really tough story, how would you care for yourself as you work on it?

Tia is an author and guest expert who exposes the abuses in Christian Fundamentalism. She’s been quoted in Salon, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times and appeared in the hit Amazon docu-series, Shiny Happy People. Her memoir, A Well-Trained Wife, will be published August, 6, 2024 by St. Martin's Press. Online, Tia connects our current news headlines with high-control religious roots.

Episode Highlights:

• Signals Your Project Has Legs
• How Writing Heals
• Gaslighting and Religion
• Finding the Wider Lens
• Understanding Your Boundaries
• Writing Without Retraumatizing Yourself
• Claiming Your Story
• Caring for the Soft Animal of Your Body

Items mentioned in this episode: 

The  Best Way to Deal with End-of_year Angst  (Blog post on writing in a vacuum) 

Welcome to The Anti-Fundamentalist

Shiny Happy People where to find it

Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott

Dr. Ramani On Gaslighting

Plotting Your Novel with The Plot Clock

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Connect with Tia: 

Website: https://tialevings.com

Tia’s Book: https://tialevings.com/book

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TiaLevingsWriter

Facebook: https://facebook.com/TiaLevingsWriter

Substack: https://tialevings.substack.com

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
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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 neurodiversity? Do you consider yourself to be neurodivergent? If you are, how does that impact the way you set up your writing life, what you write about, and how you see the world?

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is a bipolar-autistic author, keynote speaker, law professor, and expert in mental health and neurodiversity. Her books include Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education, the IPPY-Gold-winning Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health, and A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education. She writes frequently for national magazines and speaks around the country about mental health and neurodiversity. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Episode Highlights

• Defining Neurodiversity
• The Power of a Diagnosis
• The Problem of Overwhelm
• Reclaiming the Word Selfish
• Learn to Cope
• Fitting into the Narrow Band of “Normal”
• Writing and Neurodiversity 

Items mentioned during this episode: 
Katie’s post about overwhelm: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzbTVgJgc5L/
Compton Cowboys: https://www.instagram.com/comptoncowboys/

Contact Katie: 
Substack: https://krgpryal.substack.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krgpryal/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krgpryal/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/krgpryal

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
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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 writing and promoting a book on tough topics.

Dr. Ramani’s Bio: Ramani Durvasula, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in California, the founder and CEO of LUNA Education, Training and Consulting, and professor emerita of psychology at California State University Los Angeles. She is the New York Times bestselling author of It’s Not You: Identifying and Healing from Narcissistic People. She is also the author of multiple other books including Don’t You Know Who I Am: How to Stay Sane in the Era of Narcissism, Entitlement and Incivility and Should I Stay or Should I Go: Surviving a Relationship with a Narcissist. She has lectured and trained therapists around the world on best practices on working with clients experiencing narcissistic abuse and has developed a 36-hour virtual training and certification program in conjunction with PESI to train clinicians on how to use an Antagonism-Informed approach with clients experiencing narcissistic relationships. Dr. Durvasula hosts a popular YouTube channel with over 1.6 million subscribers, hosted the critically acclaimed podcast Navigating Narcissism, and is a featured expert on the digital media platform MedCircle. She has also been widely involved in the governance of the American Psychological Association, including the APA Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology and the APA Minority Fellowship Program. 

Resources Mentioned During This Episode:

Dr. Ramani’s Healing Program

Healing from Gaslighting Course

Course on Narcissistic Abuse for Therapists

Dr. Ramani Network

Connect with Dr. Ramani

Website: https://doctor-ramani.com/ 

YouTube: @DoctorRamani

Instagram: @DoctorRamani

X@DoctorRamani

TikTok: @DoctorRamani

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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 educator, musician, and emerging memoirist—as she shares her journey from research chemist to advocate for safer, more compassionate care. Together, we dive into one of the most important questions memoirists ask: How do we write about hard truths in ways that are honest, responsible, and healing? Get your notebook, open your heart, and get ready to explore nervous system regulation while writing, what your readers really need from you, and how to know when your story is ready for the world.

Episode Highlights

• 2:19: Balancing Truth and Care for the Reader
• 4:45: Understanding Your Window of Tolerance
• 8:31: Attending to Your Audience’s Needs 
• 16:06: Making Sense of Your Story
• 18:00: Preventing Overexposure
• 20:46: Author and Speaker Self-Care

Resources Mentioned During this Episode:

• Beth's Essay: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doctor-trauma-informed-health-care-septic_n_686af8dde4b0762f74e11c1e?eyo#
• The Moth
• The Power of Writing Rituals | Building a Resilient Writing Practice (Pt 1)
• Managing Your Creative Energy | How to Write What Matters Every Day (Pt 2)
• Working with Your Inner Critic | How to Make It Your Creative Ally (Pt 3)
• Finish Strong & Plan Your Next Writing Session | Building a Resilient Writing Practice (Pt 4)

Beth’s Bio: Beth Docherty is a chemist, musician, writer, and a passionate advocate. She is the Principal of The TRUST Project, a research and outreach initiative dedicated to educating medical professionals and students about the connections between trauma, health, and well-being. Beth lectures nationally at universities, conferences, medical facilities and public events, speaking on the importance of trauma-informed care. She is an active member of the Physical and Behavioral Health Action Team of the HEAL PA initiative, which aims to implement trauma-informed practices across Pennsylvania. Beth has also testified in legislative hearings to advocate for the rights of sexual assault and cri

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