Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing
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
Sign 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/
Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing
Making Meaning and Writing Toward Posttraumatic Growth with Lennie Echterling
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
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
4:41 Lessons from Landmine Survivors
10:00 Triggers for Resilience
12:00 Defining Posttraumatic Growth
15:00 The Problem of Toxic Positivity
22:00 The Power of Being with Another Person’s Story
27:00 The Struggle to Trust
30:00 Embracing and Exploring the Chaos Story
35:00 The Role of Neuroplasticity in Storytelling
38:00 Lessons Learned from Final Conversations
42:00 Making Every Day Valentine’s Day
47:00 The Power of Expressing Gratitude
54:40 Lennie’s Best Writing Advice
56:20 Lennie’s Resilience Practice
Connect with Lennie:
Email: echterlg@jmu.edu
Connect with you
Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi
Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production
