The Short Story
Nicole M.
Roccas
Hi! I am an author and certified trauma-informed coach. Through my writing, speaking, and work with clients, I seek to help others locate meaning from within the toughest issues of life and faith, like despondency, grief, and trauma.
You can get a taste of my work on the Time Eternal podcast or by reading my books (most people start with Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life).
When I’m not writing, coaching, or spending too much time on Instagram, I enjoy hiking, connecting with others, and expressing my dry sense of humour in ways that tend to make others vaguely uncomfortable.
A Wisconsin native, I live in Hamilton, Ontario with my overactive beagle, Felix. I also have my PhD in History from the University of Cincinnati.
Frequently Asked Questions
Some questions that come up pretty often…
How did you start writing?
Even when I was a little girl, I was fascinated by words and inspired by the act of bringing worlds and pictures into existence through my writing. There is something about putting one’s thoughts on paper that is so powerful – writing, too, offered me a space of safety and self-expression when other areas of my life felt uncomfortable. Growing up, I was often told that I was eloquent, articulate, and creative.
It wasn’t until graduate school, though, that I really began to realize I could actually write in a professional sense. More than any other single skill I gained in my doctorate, I am most grateful for the many opportunities I had to hone my nonfiction writing skills. Towards the end of my doctorate, I also began podcasting, which helped me further develop my voice and style as a communicator. This in turn led to the publication of my first book, Time and Despondency. Writing that book was such a meaningful experience that I decided to continue to focus more on spiritual writing moving forward.
How did you start coaching?
I began working coaching other writers in 2014, as I approached the last few years of my Phd.
At the time, I mainly worked with fellow graduate students and academics who desired added structure and accountability as they completed dissertations or monographs.
Gradually my clientele has become more diversified. While I continue to work with some academics, I also work with writers in a variety of genres. I also work with individuals seeking to make progress in other areas of their life besides writing.
What made you start focusing on trauma recovery?
A few years into coaching, I began to sense the need for added training and skill-building to better serve my clients. I was particularly intersted in learning how to maximize the writing experiences of people engaging difficult emotional and spiritual topics in their writing.
I had to put this desire on hold, however, for several years as I dealt with some traumas in my personal life. In doing so I began to recognize the importance of the trauma-informed approach.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and took us all by storm. Somehow as I came out of the rubble of the pandemic, I knew that I wanted to learn more about trauma and how to help people who had experienced it – including myself. In 2021, I completed my trauma-informed coaching certification with the Moving the Human Spirit institue, which was truly a life-changing experience. I’m excited to be moving into this new area of coaching and life work!
Why do you write so much about time and don’t you ever get sick of it?
Yes, I write a lot about time. Everything I do, in fact, has some connection to time.
When you think about it, time is the thing that makes everything more difficult – and more beautiful. It would be so much easier to pray, to hold on to hope, to do the things that are difficult but good for our souls, if we didn’t have to do them for any length of time. It’s the endurance time requires that makes the good life hard to attain. But it’s also time – in its fleetingness – that makes the best things that much more beautiful and sacred.
For some reason time is just something that endlessly fascinates, inspires, mystifies, and enlivens me. When I think about writing on a given topic, I’m never just interested in that topic itself but how it relates to and is lived out in time. If my writing, and my faith, can’t apply to the temporal world in which we live, then I lose interst quickly.