“I'm used to helping other people get through their darkest days, and suddenly, here I am, the grieving mum, wondering if anything that I've ever learned is going to be relevant and helpful to me now” - Dr. Lucy Hone

After the sudden loss of her 12-year-old daughter, Dr. Lucy Hone was forced to put her life’s work on resilience to the ultimate test.

In this episode of Standing Up Strong, host Dr. Jillian Coppley sits down with the renowned resilience researcher and grief expert to explore how personal loss shaped Lucy’s groundbreaking approach to grief, healing, and human flourishing. Lucy expands our understanding of grief beyond bereavement, introducing the concept of “living losses”—the heartbreaks that don’t involve death but still deeply impact our lives. From divorce and estrangement to illness, infertility, and job loss, these experiences can leave people feeling untethered, isolated, and unseen—and asking, How will I ever get through this?

Through research and lived experience this conversation highlights the role of character strengths—including hope, forgiveness, curiosity, and perseverance—as tools we can draw on in times of adversity, even if they aren’t what we usually consider to be our strengths. These strengths don’t remove pain, but they can help us navigate it with intention, connection, and courage.

Dr. Jillian Coppley is a visionary executive recognized internationally for her expertise in character strengths, wellbeing, and organizational transformation. With deep experience in positive psychology, strategy, and change, she has led large-scale collaborations, built global programs, strategic partnerships, and thriving organizational cultures that empower individuals, teams and organizations to flourish. Her leadership blends strategic vision, research-based innovation, and deep personal care for others —creating environments where people and programs thrive and where meaningful, lasting impact takes root.

Dr Lucy Hone is a resilience researcher, grief specialist, and author committed to helping people face the toughest chapters of their lives with clarity, compassion and practical tools. Her TED talk, "Three Secrets of Resilient People," has reached over 9 million viewers worldwide, and her first book, "Resilient Grieving," is now in its second edition. She's spent over 15 years studying how humans cope with loss, disruption and change - blending lived experience with evidence-based strategies to help people rebuild after heartbreak.

This series is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the science of character strengths is integral to our work, creating a community of upstanders.

https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/

https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity

Our thanks to the Mayerson Family Foundation and the VIA Institute on Character for their support of this series

https://www.mayersonfoundation.org/

https://www.viacharacter.org/

Episode Resources

Follow Jillian and Lucy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoppley/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlucyhone/

https:// www.instagram.com/drlucyhone/

https:// www.facebook.com/DrLucyHone

https://www.tiktok.com/@drlucyhone

Buy Lucy’s new book available from Simon & Schuster:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-Will-I-Ever-Get-Through-This/Lucy-Hone/9781668227893

Lucy's TED talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/lucy_hone_the_three_secrets_of_resilient_people

Take your free character strengths quiz here

https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/upstander/assess-your-character-strengths/