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

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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 Writing Your Resilience, I’m joined by Stacey Simmons, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Certified Psychedelic Therapist, and author of The Queen’s Path. Together, we explore sovereignty, archetypes, and why so many women’s stories end before they ever claim their full power.

Episode Highlights

• 4:35: Understanding Sovereignty
• 9:25: The Hero’s and Heroine’s Journey
• 15:30: Blindness and Entering the Divide
• 22:05: Our Curses and Marks
• 25:15: The Dangers of the Queen’s Path
• 31:20: Exercise: MIPEs, MISORs, and Our Commitments
• 38:33: Sovereignty Is for Everyone
• 41:52: Psychedelics and Sovereignty

Resources for this Episode: 

• The 5 Elements of Dramatic Structure: Understanding Freytag’s Pyramid
• Definition of an Archetype

Stacey’s  Bio: Stacey Simmons is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Psychedelic Therapist. She is a clinical supervisor at Hope Therapy Center in Burbank, California. Her practice focuses on creative professionals, where she works primarily with writers, directors, actors, and musicians. Her research focuses on creativity, archetypes, psychedelic psychotherapy, neuroscience and consciousness research. She is a volunteer researcher with the Semel Institute of Neuroscience at UCLA, as well as a researcher with the Trance Science Research Institute in Paris, France. She holds a PhD from the University of New Orleans, and a Masters degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

Connect with Stacey: 

• Website: https://staceysimmonsphd.com/
• Facebook: @staceysimmonsphd
• Instagram: @staceysimmonsphd
• TikTok: @staceysimmonsphd

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

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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 from our own truth. Together, we explore what real resilience looks like, why honesty must come before hope, and how trusting your capacity to be with discomfort can transform the way you meet your life.

Episode Highlights

• 2:13: The Self-Owned Mindset
• 3:50: The Problem with Silver Linings
• 7:44: The Fallacy that Everything Happens for a Reason
• 12:15: Building Self-Literacy
• 19:11: The Unsustainability of Bouncing Back
• 26:10: Cultivating Self-Trust 

Resources for this Episode: 

• Disruptive Conversation with Acamea Deadwiler 
• Disruptive Conversation with Dana Cohen M.D. 
• Disrupting the Inner Critic: Writing Change and the Self-Owned Mindset with Dr. Risa Ryger
• Writing to Heal with Laura Davis
• Sign Up for Revise Your Memoir 

Dr. Ryger’s Bio: Dr. Risa Ryger is a Clinical Psychologist, International Speaker, Author, Founder of 93% Consulting, and the Creator of The Self-Owned Mindset(TM). As an Expert in Change, she knows that positive change can happen at any point. Her goal is to help women build confidence and self-trust to powerfully step forward into their lives through developing their Self-Owned Mindset.” Dr. Ryger has held clinical appointments including Professional Associate of Psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Clinical Instructor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College. She has served as a Consulting Psychologist for Victim Services NYC and on the Advisory Council of Mindfulness Without Borders. She has presented to Microsoft, Mastercard, CitiBank, United Bonds UAE, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and Her Justice. She is a contributing author for Mind Body Green, Thrive Global, and The Female Quotient. She hosts a weekly Instagram Live Series, Disruptive Conversations with Dr. Risa Ryger, to highlight female disruptors in their fields. Her debut book on The Disruptive Self-Ownership Process(TM) is set to launch in early 2026. Dr. Ryger earned her Master of Science, Master of Philosophy, and Doctorate from Columbia University. She is the proud mother of two amazing daughters and lives in NY with her husband and two dogs, Penelope and Sammy – the dog who smiles.

Connect with Dr. Ryger:  

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/dr.risaryger
• Website: https://www.drrisaryger.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-risa-ryger-69a47a21/

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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 weave the spiritual, the uncanny, and the beyond-belief into memoir with clarity, groundedness, and literary intention. From magical realism to lyric memoir, we explore the craft choices that honor your truth while still guiding your readers. 

Episode Highlights

• 2:24: Writing About the Spiritual and Mystical
• 6:12: Magical Realism in Memoir
• 11:11: Tackling the Mystical Through the Lyric Memoir

Resources for this Episode: 

• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now
• Telling the Truth: Memoir, Myth and Magical Realism
• 10 Lyrical Memoirs That Will Enchant You
• Beloved by Toni Morrison (novel)
• The Warrior Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston (memoir)
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (autofiction)
• Craving Spring by Anne Batchelder (memoir)
• We The Animals by Justin Torres (autofiction)
• Be with Me Always by Randon Billings Noble (lyric memoir/essay collection)
• The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (lyric memoir)
• The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (lyric memoir)
• My Name Means Fire by Atash Yaghmaian (memoir)
• The Queen’s Path by Stacey Simmons

Linda McKittrick’s bio: Linda is an avid rancher and gardener, former HIV/AIDS, and hospice social worker, living in the Sonoran Desert. She is currently working on a memoir. When she is not writing she enjoys seed saving, creating in the kitchen, and participating in citizen science projects for bats and fireflies.

Connect with Linda: 

Email: [email protected]

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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 whatever you’re feeling today—gratitude, grief, or something in between—it’s all welcome. Together, we’ll explore how art can help us hold the complexity of the season, find meaning in the dark, and transform our experiences into something beautiful.

Episode Highlights

• 1:30: Thanksgiving Reflections: The Highs and Lows
• 04:15: Embracing Your Feelings
• 5:10: The Power of Art: Frida Kahlo's Inspiration
• 7:00: Practical Advice for a Challenging Thanksgiving
• 8:14: Gratitude and Resilience

Resources for this Episode: 

• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now
• Frida Kahlo’s Artwork

Lisa’s Bio: Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. Working at the powerful intersection of storytelling and healing, she blends her writing expertise, clinical training, and soul-centered practices—including Akashic Records work and Human Design—to help writers turn their hardest experiences into art. Her essays—on sibling loss, grief, trauma healing, and the craft of writing—have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, among others.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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-doubts and even shame a big rejection can create. In this week’s episode, Lynn Shattuck, Kristin Sancken and I share our personal rejection experiences, how to reframe the “no’s” you’ve received, and how to pick yourself back up when the writing life feels tough.

Episode Highlights:

• 3:12: Writing Rejection Stories
• 12:06: Understanding the Tier of Rejection
• 19:53: Capturing the Joy of Writing
• 22:09: Navigating Our Disappointments
• 36:11 What If The Work That’s Been Rejected Is Still a Yes for You

Resources:

• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now
• The Art of Intimacy: Crafting Connection in Memoir and Essay with Lilly Dancyger 
• Giving Up on Giving Up
• How To Read Between The Lines of Your Rejections
• What Is Polyvagal Theory
• The Emotional Freedom Technique
• The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, edited by Lynn Shattuck and Alyson Shelton
• “Half-Life” by Lisa Cooper Ellison, published in The Kenyon Review

Kristin’s Bio: Kristin Thomas Sancken was born in Panama, raised in Mexico, and came of age in Minnesota before settling in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, two children, and an exuberant Golden Retriever. Her writing has earned numerous awards and appeared in publications including The Guardian, HuffPost, and Columbia Journal. 

Lynn’s Bio: Lynn Shattuck writes on topics like grief, parenting and mental health. She was a columnist at Elephant Journal for ten years, where several of her essays on the topic of grief and sibling loss and parenting went viral. Lynn co-founded the website lossofalifetime.com, a hub of resources and community for those who’ve experienced sibling loss. She co-edited the essay collection, The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, which was released in June of 2025.

Connect with Kristin: http://www.sancken.com/

• Instagram & Threads: @ktsancken_writer

Connect with Lynn: www.lossofalifetime.com, www.lynnlshattuck.com 

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064888772287
• Instagram: @lynn_shattuck

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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, ashamed, or “bad” at being still. From the belief that you must stop thinking to the idea that meditation has to happen on a cushion with your eyes closed, I gently dismantle the misconceptions keeping you from finding your calm–including the fact that sometimes meditation isn’t good for you. 

Episode Highlights

• 3:15: What Meditation Really Is
• 6:54: Why You’ve Been Told to Meditate
• 8:48: Two Reasons We Believe We Suck at Meditation
• 9:14: Myth One: The Goal of Meditation is to Stop Thinking
• 13:12: Myth Two: Meditation Takes a Long Time
• 16:36: Myth Three: I Have to Do Something Special
• 17:51: Myth Four: You Have to Sit to Mediate
• 20:24: Myth Five: Meditation is Always Good for You

Resources for this Episode: 

• The Power of Writing Rituals
• Soles of the Feet Meditation
• Vipassana meditation
• Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Insight Timer

Lisa’s Bio: Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, trauma-informed writing coach, and host of the Writing Your Resilience podcast. Working at the powerful intersection of storytelling and healing, she blends her writing expertise, clinical training, and soul-centered practices—including Akashic Records work and Human Design—to help writers turn their hardest experiences into art. Her essays—on sibling loss, grief, trauma healing, and the craft of writing—have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, among others.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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, a memoir in essays that uses the body as both structure and storyteller. Together, Nina and I explore how writing through the body can deepen our understanding of self, belonging, and resilience. As we prepare for this enlivening conversation, I invite you to take a deep breath, wiggle your toes and get ready for a conversation about what it means to write—and live—in a body. Let’s jump in.

Episode Highlights

• 2:00: The Power of Writing in Response to Body Parts
• 8:15: Tips for Crafting a Strong Live Reading
• 9:53: The Skin We Have in Our Stories
• 13:48: Navigating Time and Revelation in Essay Writing
• 21:29: Dealing with Tender Material
• 28:25: Navigating a Book Launch

Resources for this Episode: 

• Lucille Clifton’s poem “Homage to My Hips”
• “On Blurbs That Matter and How I Did It.” by Nina Lichtenstein
• “Skin in the Game” by Nina Lichtenstein

Nina’s Bio: Nina is a native of Oslo, Norway, now living in Maine. She holds a PhD in French literature from UCONN, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine, and is a “recovering academic.” Her writing has appeared in Tablet Magazine, Kveller, Brevity Blog, Lilith Magazine, The Washington Post, HuffPost, and AARP, among other places. She has blogged as The Viking Jewess (since 2014) now on Substack. Her work has been anthologized and her book, Sephardic Women's Voices: Out of North Africa was published in 2017. Nina is the founder and director of Maine Writers Studio and co-founder/co-editor of In a Flash Literary Magazine. She has three grown Viking Jew sons, all over 6'4" tall with the middle names Thor, Balder, and Odin. She has gleefully discovered pickleball, loves to kayak and hike, and does yoga to calm her monkey mind.

Connect with Nina: 

• https://www.mainewritersstudio.com/
• https://www.ninalichtenstein.com/
• https://ninablichtenstein.substack.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/vikingjewess/
• https://www.facebook.com/ninalich/
• https://inaflashlitmag.substack.com/

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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? In this episode, I talk with award-winning author Sue William Silverman about her newest book, Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader. Together, we explore the art of flash nonfiction—those short, revelatory pieces that illuminate our obsessions and turn ordinary moments into profound reflections on love, loss, and self-forgiveness.

Episode Highlights

• 3:35: Why Title This Selected Misdemeanors
• 6:36:Playing with Unifying Devices in Your Books 
• 11:18: Understanding Flash Nonfiction
• 16:20: Creating Alternative Essay Constructions 
• 22:10: Finding Specificity and Moving Away from Abstraction 
• 30:43: Sue’s Writing Advice for Surviving 2025 and Beyond

Resources for this Episode: 

• About Finding Your Voice and Crafting Stories that Ignite the Soul with Sue William Silverman
• Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul by Sue William Silverman

Sue’s Bio: Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author of nine works of nonfiction and poetry. Her new book, "Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader," is a collection of flash essays. Her book on the craft of writing, "Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul," won the 2024 IPPY Silver Award. Her memoir-in-essays collection, "How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences," won the gold star in Foreword Reviews INDIE Book of the Year Award. Other works include "Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction," made into a Lifetime TV movie; "Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You," which won the AWP Award; and "The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew." She’s co-chair of the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her media appearances include The View, Anderson Cooper-360, and PBS Books.

Connect with Sue: 

• Website: www.SueWilliamSilverman.com
• Facebook: @SueWilliamSilverman
• Instagram: @suewilliamsilverman

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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 been told your story isn’t raw enough—or that it’s too raw—you’re not alone. In this episode, I’ll break down the two extremes writers fall into, share a framework for finding the right kind of vulnerability, and show you how to use uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure to create stories that feel true, resonant, and safe for both you and your readers.

Episode Highlights

• 2:32: Defining Vulnerability
• 3:54: Uncertainty, Risk and Emotional Exposure in Storytelling
• 5:24: When Your Work Isn’t Vulnerable Enough
• 7:03: Crafting Compelling Scenes 
• 8:15 When Your Writing Is Too Raw 
• 10:56: What Do Your Readers Really Want
• 15:00: The Most Important Question to Ask Yourself 
• 18:11: The Secret Reason You Think Your Writing Sucks

Resources for this Episode: 

• The Fawning Trauma Response with Ingrid Clayton 

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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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 metaphors—what they are, how to craft them, and how to recognize the ones that truly sing on the page. Let’s dive in.

Episode Highlights

• 5:23: What Is a Metaphor
• 7:15: Exercises For Creating Metaphors
• 9:40: Metaphors We Love (or Hate)
• 18:00: Our Writing Strategies
• 23:57: Discovering What Works
• 32:00 Navigating the Metaphor of Home

Resources for this Episode: 

• Sanctuary of the Holy Others Substack by Kristin Sancken
• Oxygen: A Parlor Trick by Kristin Sancken (see page 19)
• Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope edited by Lynn L. Shattuck and Alyson Shelton
• Why I Rang the Cancer Bell by Lynn Shattuck
• The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
• Group: How One Therapist and A Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate
• Our Double Time by Michael O’Siadhail
• Essay on Creating Hermit Crab Essays by Randon Billings Noble
• Ditch Your Inner Critic Now Masterclass

Kristin’s Bio: Kristin Thomas Sancken was born in Panama, raised in Mexico, and came of age in Minnesota before settling in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, two children, and an exuberant Golden Retriever. Her writing has earned numerous awards and appeared in publications including The Guardian, HuffPost, and Columbia Journal. You can find more of her writing at her Substack, Sanctuary of the Holy Others.

Lynn’s Bio: Lynn Shattuck writes on topics like grief, parenting and mental health. She was a columnist at Elephant Journal for ten years, where several of her essays on the topic of grief and sibling loss and parenting went viral. Lynn co-founded the website lossofalifetime.com, a hub of resources and community for those who’ve experienced sibling loss. She co-edited the essay collection, The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, and Hope, which was released in June of 2025.

Connect with Kristin: 

http://www.sancken.com/

Instagram: @ktsancken_writer

Threads: @ktsancken_writer

Connect with Lynn: 

www.lossofalifetime.com

www.lynnlshattuck.com 

Facebook

Instagram: @lynn_shattuck

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Visit https://lisacooperellison.com/yourdesign/ and use promo code RESILIENCE to get 30% off your foundational report.

Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production