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

Send us Fan Mail In this summer rewind episode, we revisit my conversation with Courtney Maum, author of Alan Opts Out , Before and After the Book Deal, and The Year of Horses . During our chat, we discuss writer mental health, the key ingredients in an author brand, what success really means and how you can achieve it, as well as the number one skill all authors need to cultivate.  Episode Highli...

Send us Fan Mail In this summer rewind episode, we revisit my conversation with writing instructor and author of The Courage to Heal, Laura Davis. During this episode, Laura and I discuss the healing power of writing, the difference between writing to heal and writing for a public audience, and the challenges Laura faced while writing her memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars. Episode Highlights...

Send us Fan Mail About this episode:I am currently on break so I can focus on my writing and some much-needed rest. Until I return with new episodes on September seventeenth, I’ve curated a summer rewind series of fan favorites. This week’s episode with Lynn Shattuck and Alyson Shelton was recorded in October 2024 Back then, the L oss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss, a...

Send us Fan Mail What do we carry with us from the people we love and lose, and how do we make a choice from the center of our grief? This week, I'm wrestling with these questions alongside memoirist Jill Christman, whose new book The Heart Folds Early is a fierce and tender exploration of the decision to end a pregnancy after a devastating diagnosis. Jill and I talk about how grief from an e...

Send us Fan Mail What if understanding your characters (and your readers) came down to something as simple as a cup of coffee? In this episode, I sit down with author, writing coach, and rule-breaking storyteller Lindz McLeod to explore writing voice, character motivation, and the iceberg principle that makes stories hauntingly unforgettable. Lindz shares the simple but revelatory "coffee que...

Send us Fan Mail About this episode: Have you ever said yes to something that felt like destiny, only to realize later it took you further from your goals? In this episode, I share a personal story about a writing group experience that taught me one of the most important lessons of my creative life: the difference between people-pleasing and truly following your gut. I break down what people-pleas...

Send us Fan Mail About this episode:  With a recent executive order expediting the review of psychedelic drugs like psilocybin, psychedelic therapy is moving from the fringes into the national conversation — and this week's episode couldn't be more timely. Whether you're curious about what psychedelic therapy is, how it works, or whether it's right for you, licensed marriage an...

Send us Fan Mail Building an author platform can feel overwhelming, especially when you're doing it alone, on a budget, and wondering if any of it is actually working. In this episode, I sit down with author and adoptee advocate Patricia Knight Meyer to explore a Human Design approach to platform-building that’s rooted in intuition, authentic connection, and knowing where to focus your energy...

Send us Fan Mail Author platform doesn't have to mean performing for an algorithm or chasing followers who don't care about your work. In this episode, I break down what an author platform actually is, why the "magic formula" myth keeps so many writers stuck, and how to build a platform that grows alongside your nervous system–not against it. If you've ever felt like the s...

Send us Fan Mail What does it really take to build a writing career out of your hardest story and stay whole while doing it? In this episode, I sit down with author Tia Levings, whose memoir A Well-Trained Wife has become an increasingly timely reckoning with religious trauma, patriarchy, and survival. With her second book I Belong to Me just hitting shelves, Tia pulls back the curtain on navigati...

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...

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" h...

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...

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 wh...

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 pra...

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-accept...

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 whe...

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...

Send us Fan Mail Would you like to know when to say yes or no, how to tell which piece of feedback is right for you or your book, or how to proceed with greater ease? If you’re working on a book, would you like to spend more time having your characters tell you what to write and less time trying to figure it out? Find out how your intuition can do all of these things and how connecting with it is...

Send us Fan Mail How do you keep the faith when your nervous system is fried, your heart is tired, and the world feels like too much? In this editors’ roundtable episode, I’m  joined by Kristin Sancken and Lynn Shattuck for an honest conversation about what actually helps when times are tough. Together, they share personal stories of losing faith in creative projects, the hidden cost of valuing pr...

Send us Fan Mail What do you do when the memory you need most for your memoir is the one you can’t quite reach? You listen to this week’s guest, Sue William Silverman. Sue is the award-winning author of nine works of nonfiction and poetry and co-chair of the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She joined me for a deeply honest, craft conversation about what to do when you can’t...

Send us Fan Mail Listeners, do you ever wonder if your memories are real? Are you writing a memoir and struggling to remember something—or worrying that what you’re sharing might not be “the truth”? Today on Writing Your Resilience , I’m joined by psychotherapist and neuroscience nerd Stacy Simmons for a powerful conversation about memory, trauma, and storytelling. We explore why memory isn’t a re...

Send us Fan Mail  Writers, are you writing about trauma and wondering how detailed to get or how to connect the dots when your story feels scattered? The solution might be a memoir in essays that allows you to write about powerful discreet moments that are loosely connected by associations.  If that's you, you are in for a treat because this week on the Writing and Resilience Podcast, I'...

Send us Fan Mail This week, I’m joined by Wendy Dale, the author of The Memoir Engineering System , for a conversation that will change the way you think about structure, scenes, and what actually makes a memoir work. We talk about why “this happened, then this happened” isn’t a story, how connected events create momentum, and why your job as a memoirist isn’t just to show—but to transport your re...

Send us Fan Mail As we step into 2026, many writers feel ready to begin—yet remain stalled or exhausted from the year before. In this episode, I show you how to reclaim momentum through creative alignment and the one thing you must do to harness your success. We explore the three essential things every writer must do: shed limiting beliefs, build supportive habits, and set boundaries that honor wh...