Making Meaning and Writing Toward Posttraumatic Growth with Lennie Echterling

Send us Fan Mail 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 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: [email protected] Connect with your host, Lisa: Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less Website Instagram YouTube Facebook LinkedIn Sign up for Psychology of Character Development for Memoirists. Produced by Espresso Podcast Production 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