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

Lisa Cooper Ellison
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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 Get Your Free Ditch Your Inner Critic masterclass—your shortcut to a confident, S.H.I.F.T.ed mindset: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/

  1. 18H AGO

    Why Writers Struggle to Find Flow — and the Simple Practices That Bring It Back

    Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to get into a state of creative flow and what pulls us out of it? In this Editor's Round Table episode, I’m joined by fellow editors Sarah Chauncey and Lynn Shattuck to explore the Law of Increasing Flow: a framework built on presence, strategic rest, and stopping before you hit empty. Together we dig into the problem of tech distraction, the power of the subconscious mind, and why percolation–not pushing–is where so much of the real writing happens. If you've ever wondered why flow feels so elusive, this episode will leave you with both the insight and the practical tools to invite more of it into your life. Resources for this Episode:  “The Critic, Cookies and a (Cautionary) Colonoscopy” by Lynn Shattuck“To Write More, Better and Faster, Do This One Thing” by Sarah ChaunceyCreative Intuition: The Skill That Makes Life and Work EasierIt’s not Your Money by Tosha SilverThe Walk for PeaceGet Your Free Human Design ReportDitch Your Inner Critic NowEpisode Highlights 4:54 Constricted Writing Stories6:19 Law Of Increasing Flow8:46 Productivity Versus Creativity23:35 Nervous System PracticesConnect with Lynn:  Website: www.lossofalifetime.comWebsite: www.lynnlshattuck.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064888772287Instagram: @lynn_shattuckConnect with Sarah:  Substack: https://sarahchauncey.substack.com/Counterintuitive Guide: https://counterintuitiveguide.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahkchauncey/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.k.chaunceyLynn 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 2025. Sarah Chauncey is a nonfiction writer, developmental editor, and writing coach. Over her decades of experience, she’s written more than 100 articles for a variety of outlets, including Writer's Digest, Jane Friedman, Tiny Buddha, Lion’s Roar, and Modern Loss. Sarah is the author of P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna, the first gift book for adults grieving the loss of a pet. She also writes the Substacks “Resona 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

    37 min

  2. APR 23

    How to Stop Controlling Outcomes and Start Surrendering: Tools for Writers and Creatives

    Send us Fan Mail About this episode: Have you ever come to a point in your life where giving up was the way forward? If so, how was that different from defeat?  In this episode, I unpack what healthy surrender really means, how it can actually strengthen rather than diminish your sovereignty, and how to practice it in both the big and small moments of your life. If the word "surrender" has ever felt triggering or like defeat, this episode will change the way you see it. Resources for this Episode:  Healing Ancestral Trauma: How Family Constellations Free You from Inherited StoriesGet Your Free Human Design Report Register for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative ArcDitch Your Inner Critic Now  Episode Highlights 00:00 Surrender Is Not Giving Up01:58 What It Really Means to Surrender17:10 A Daily Practice of Letting Go23:46 Holding Boundaries with Compassion 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. 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 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

    29 min

  3. APR 16

    How to Discover Your True Writing Voice with Jeannine Ouellette

    Send us Fan Mail About this episode: This week, I’m joined by Jeannine Ouellette, author of The Part that Burns and a writing instructor whose deepest passion is using writing to connect us with our humanity. She sees the craft of writing as so much more than the words on the page, and I couldn’t agree more. We talk about how writing is a practice that helps you show up more fully in your own life, and how you can do this by finding your writing voice, writing close to the lived experience, and exploring from a place of discomfort. And you won’t want to miss our conversation about our shared obsession with a particular punctuation mark that we are absolutely claiming regardless of what anyone else thinks. Resources for this Episode:  Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto by Sonya HuberAcetylene Torch Songs by Sue William SilvermanInnocence & Experience: Voice in Creative Nonfiction by Sue William SilvermanFinding Your Voice and Crafting Stories that Ignite the Soul with Sue William SilvermanWriting Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma“The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann BeardGet Your Free Human Design Report Register for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative ArcDitch Your Inner Critic Now Episode Highlights 00:00 The Question That Opens Everything04:33 On Voice (and Finding Yours)15:27 Writing as a Living Practice29:33 The Quiet Work of Finding Joy Again32:57 Craft as a Way of BeingJeannine’s Bio: Jeannine Ouellette’s lyric memoir, The Part That Burns, was a Kirkus Best Indie Book and a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award in Women’s Literature. Her other books include Mama Moon and The Good Caregiver with Robert Kane, M.D. Her essays and short fiction have appeared widely in journals and anthologies, including Narrative, North American Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Masters Review and more. Her bestselling Substack, Writing in the Dark, explores writing as a metaphor for life and attention as a pathway to becoming. She teaches writing at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and the University of Minnesota and her craft book, One Word at a Time: A Creative Practice for Transforming Your Writing and Your Life, is forthcoming from Penguin. Connect with Jeannine:  Substack: https://writinginthedark.substack.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeannine.ouellette.7Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msjeannineouellette/?hl=enConnect with your host, Lisa: Get Your F 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

    49 min

  4. APR 9

    Silenced No More: How to Write the Story You've Been Afraid to Tell with Meagan Justus

    Send us Fan Mail In this Ask Me Anything session, writer and advocate Meagan Justus brings two questions that so many writers are quietly wrestling with. 1st: when you keep circling the core of your story without being able to reach it, do you shape what you have or keep writing until you get there? And 2nd: when your story involves people or institutions with power, how do you protect yourself while still telling the truth?  Together, we dig into why writers circle their stories, how changing names doesn't protect you legally, what the vetting process actually looks like, and what the unfolding controversy around Amy Griffin's memoir The Tell can teach us about the publishing process.  Resources: The "but/therefore" principleThe Queen’s PathThe Beat Sheet Another B******t Night in Suck City by Nick FlynnSome Ether by Nick FlynnThe Ticking Is the Bomb by Nick FlynnThe Liar's Club by Mary KarrCherry by Mary KarrLit by Mary Karr https://authorsguild.org/How Can I Avoid Lawsuits When Writing Memoir?Legal Vetting for Manuscripts to Manage RiskThe Billionaire, The Psychedelics, and the Bestselling Memoir by Katherine Rosman & Elisabeth EganLawsuit Accuses Writer of Using Classmate’s Story in Best-Selling Memoir by Katherine Rosman & Elisabeth EganExamples of Hermit Crab Essays  Get Your Free Human Design Report Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative ArcDitch Your Inner Critic Now Connect with Meagan:  https://www.creativelyvisible.com/https://substack.com/@creativelyvisibleMeagan Justus is a writer and advocate exploring the messy middle of chronic illness, disability, and trauma. Through essays and storytelling, she works to make invisible struggles visible and a little less lonely. Her writing blends honesty, humor, and the occasional chocolate metaphor to explore resilience, self-advocacy, and the stories we discover while living through life’s hardest chapters. 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

    27 min

  5. APR 2

    Healing Your Ancestral Trauma: How Family Constellations Work Can Free You from Stories That Aren't Yours with Tania Gonzalez-Ortega

    Send us Fan Mail What if the stories we tell about ourselves aren't really ours,  and what if we could finally trace them back to where they began? This is something I’ve been asking myself for years, and today I’m excited to share a few ways you can answer those questions for yourself through Family Constellations work. This week’s guest, Tania Gonzalez-Ortega, is a Family Constellations practitioner with twenty-five years of experience in energy work. During our conversation, we explore the benefits and challenges of the dark night of the soul, how some of what we experience during the dark night isn’t ours, and how we can work with those connections in ways that allow us to live our fullest, most empowered lives. Episode Highlights 07:31 The Lessons Inside the Dark Night11:37 The Trauma That Was Never Yours17:16 What Happens in a Constellation Session22:43 When Writing Becomes Healing28:25 The Ripple Effect of Healing Your Lineage Resources from this Episode:  Story Alchemy with Lisa Cooper Ellison on the New Earth Consciousness PodcastWaldorf Education ModelWhat is Family Constellations TherapyThe Dark Night of the Soul, poem by St. John of the CrossDark Night of the Soul by St. John of the CrossGet Your Free Human Design Report Sign up for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative ArcDitch Your Inner Critic Now  Tania’s Bio: Tania Gonzalez-Ortega has been practicing energy work for over 25 years. Her background spans ancestral healing, nervous system regulation, and deep emotional integration. She’s studied in India and the United States and guided hundreds of clients through profound personal transformation. Tania is also a financial educator who helps women and families build real wealth in a balanced, ethical way. Her work bridges two worlds most people keep separate: Inner transformation and financial structure. Yet true sovereignty requires both. She lives in the mountains of Washington State with her husband and son on 64 acres of land that constantly reminds her that stability and growth can coexist. Connect with Tania:  Facebook: facebook.com/taniamamaInstagram: instagram.com/@newearthconsciousnessYouTube: youtube.com/@newearthconsciousnessConnect 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

    39 min

  6. MAR 26

    Human Design for Writers: How Understanding Your Design Unlocks Resilience, Creativity, and Deeper Healing with with Jessica Eure

    Send us Fan Mail What if the key to unlocking your creativity wasn't about doing more but about finally understanding who you are? In this episode, trauma therapist Jessica Eure and I explore how Human Design is transforming the way we work, create, and heal. From decoding your body graph to learning why you say yes when you mean no, this conversation is a masterclass in radical self-acceptance. Whether you are a trauma survivor trying to reclaim your creative life or a writer searching for more energy and focus, this episode will give you a new map for understanding yourself as well as the practical tools to use it. Episode Highlights 00:00 Why Human Design Isn’t What You Think05:10 The Moment You Start Trusting Yourself Again16:45 Where You’re Still Operating from Conditioning21:52 How Human Design Changes Your Relationships Resources for this Episode: Toward a postmaterialist psychology: Theory, research, and applicationsNeurofeedbackGet Your Free Human Design Report Register for Find and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative ArcDitch Your Inner Critic Now  Connect with Jessica:  Websites:  www.jessicaeure.comwww.virginianeurofeedback.comEmail: jessica@virginianeurofeedback.com Jessica’s Bio: Jessica Eure is a mental health counselor and educator working at the intersection of nervous system repair and consciousness. She is the co-founder of Virginia Center for Neurofeedback, where she integrates QEEG-guided neurofeedback and trauma-informed psychotherapeutic approaches to support regulation, resilience, and deep healing. Alongside her clinical work, Jessica has spent 25+ years studying reiki, chakra systems, tarot, astrology, contemplative traditions, and more recently, Human Design, weaving these frameworks into her understanding of identity, purpose, and personal transformation. 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

    42 min

  7. MAR 19

    Find Your Life's Purpose One Feeling at a Time: A Human Design Approach to Alignment

    Send us Fan Mail Resources for this Episode:  Get Your Free Human Design Report Ditch Your Inner Critic Now Do you feel aligned, or are you burning out? It’s a question we must ask ourselves repeatedly during the year of the fire horse. In today’s episode I share the simple Human Design tool you already have at your disposal that can help you stay in alignment as you live your life’s purpose whether you’re wrestling with the big issues or daily decisions.  Episode Highlights 02:00 The “Am I On Track?” Question04:30 Why Alignment Prevents Burnout06:30 Using Emotions as Your Compass11:00 My People-Pleasing Pattern (Real Story)19:10 Satisfaction vs. Excitement (What Actually Matters)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. 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

    24 min

  8. MAR 12

    How I Escaped Iran & Wrote My Way to Freedom | My Name Means Fire Author Atash Yaghmaian

    Send us Fan Mail What if the condition that made your life unmanageable was also the source of your greatest gifts? In this episode, I sit down with Atash Yaghmaian, a therapist, activist, and author of My Name Means Fire, to explore how writing became the bridge between her many parts, her trauma, and ultimately her freedom. Atash lives with dissociative identity disorder (DID), and shares what that means: not as something to be feared, but as a brilliant survival mechanism that carried her through war, revolution, and abuse in her native Iran. We explore the power of writing from your parts, how reading can be an act of solidarity, and why inner harmony makes you a better human, writer, and friend to the world. Episode Chapters 03:02 Coming Out With Dissociative Identity Disorder11:10 Writing a Memoir With Multiple Voices21:25 From the Iranian Revolution to Finding Freedom37:09 Healing the Inner Child Through Writing42:14 DID as Protection, Healing, and Activism Resources for this Episode:  Books to Read on IranA Different Side of the Self: On Finding Freedom By Telling My Story in English by Atash YaghmaianFind and Refine Your Memoir’s Narrative ArcDitch Your Inner Critic Now Atash’s Bio:  Atash Yaghmaian is the author of “My Name Means Fire.” She is a writer and a psychotherapist whose stories and articles about mental health and Iran have appeared in LitHub, Ms. Magazine, The New York Daily News, The Mighty, and Thrive Global, among others. Born in Tehran, Atash migrated to the United States alone at the age of 19, fleeing war, trauma, and abuse. She blogs at atashyaghmaian.com. Connect with Atash:  Website: www.atashyaghmaian.comInstagram: @ayhealingYouTube: @AtashYaghmaianConnect 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

    54 min
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About

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 Get Your Free Ditch Your Inner Critic masterclass—your shortcut to a confident, S.H.I.F.T.ed mindset: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/

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