The Longest Road: From Generational Trauma to Resilience & Choice - FPF with Sasha Perelman

Hi CAPPsters, join me to welcome Sasha Perelman to Final Project Friday. For her project she wrote a book The Longest Road, which explores themes of generational trauma, inherited resilience, and the conscious act of choosing what we carry forward from our lineage. She’s also developing a companion workbook. Join us to celebrate her book and her work.

About Sasha (CAPP.115)

Super Power

Resourcefulness / Creativity

3 things still left on my bucket list

• Travel to Asia

• Make my book into a limited TV series

• Live on a penthouse on the beach

If I could sit down with a Positive Psychology Researcher

If I could sit down for coffee with any Positive Psychology researcher, it would probably be Martin Seligman—mostly because I’d want to ask him how he feels watching the field he helped start evolve into so many different directions.

Over coffee, I think I’d ask something I find myself wondering often: Why is it that insight alone rarely creates change? So many of us can understand our patterns, our family stories, even our strengths—but actually living differently is another thing entirely. A lot of my work explores generational narratives, inherited resilience, and the possibility of consciously choosing what we carry forward. I’d be curious to hear his thoughts on how positive psychology can continue expanding beyond frameworks and measurements into practices that help people truly integrate what they learn.

And if the conversation went long enough, I’d probably also ask him what surprised him the most about the field after all these years. Those answers are usually the most interesting ones.

Where I’ll be on my Positive Psychology journey in 5 years

In five years, I hope to contribute to the continued evolution of Positive Psychology by helping translate its principles into lived, experiential practice. Much of my work explores the intersection of narrative, identity, and inherited resilience. Through writing, storytelling, and immersive experiences, I am interested in how people move from awareness to intentional change.

My book, The Longest Road, examines generational trauma, resilience, and the stories we inherit from those who came before us. The workbook companion I am developing as part of this program is an extension of that inquiry. It applies Positive Psychology frameworks to help individuals reflect on their personal narratives, identify strengths, and make conscious choices about the patterns they carry forward.

Over the next five years, I hope to expand this work into a broader platform that integrates research from Positive Psychology with creative and experiential formats. This includes workshops, facilitated dialogues, and learning environments that make the science of wellbeing more accessible and actionable.

My goal is to contribute to a growing conversation about how we cultivate flourishing not only at the individual level, but across families, communities, and generations. Positive Psychology offers powerful tools for understanding wellbeing. I am interested in helping translate those tools into practices that help people actively shape the lives they want to live.

What inspired my final project

Completing the Applied Positive Psychology certification was a deeply meaningful chapter in my own journey. After finishing the nine-month program, I found myself reflecting on a central question that has shaped much of my work: How do we move from insight into integration?

My book, The Longest Road, explores themes of generational trauma, inherited resilience, and the conscious act of choosing what we carry forward from our lineage. While writing it was a profound process of discovery, I began to realize that many readers were asking a similar question after finishing the book: What do I do with this reflection in my own life? That curiosity became the inspiration for my final project. The workbook companion I am developing is designed as an experiential bridge between storytelling and practice.

Drawing on core principles from positive psychology—such as meaning-making, post-traumatic growth, strengths awareness, and intentional wellbeing. It invites readers to move beyond passive reflection and into active exploration of their own narratives. Through guided exercises, prompts, and reflective frameworks, the workbook helps readers examine the patterns, beliefs, and inherited stories that shape their lives while also identifying the resources of resilience, creativity, and possibility that exist within them.

Ultimately, the intention of this project is to support people in doing what positive psychology does best: shifting the focus from simply understanding our past to consciously designing the lives we want to create moving forward.

Bio

Sasha Perelman is a Brooklyn-born, LA–based writer, poet, and experiential producer whose work lives at the intersection of storytelling, design, and transformation. She is the founder of Rooted Design Collective, an agency dedicated to crafting innovative and immersive brand activations and providing creative consulting for clients across industries from automotive to wellness.

Her debut novel, The Longest Road, is a sweeping exploration of generational trauma, resilience, and identity, weaving her family’s history of Soviet Jewish immigration to the U.S. with her deeply personal medicine journeys. Through these stories, Sasha bridges the gap between survival, sacrifice, and inherited burdens, revealing the possibilities of insight, healing, and transformation.

As a speaker and thought leader, Sasha shares insights on the power of vulnerability, and the value of human connection. She is deeply passionate about empowering women to reclaim their creativity, freedom, and purpose. Her work reflects a deep commitment to fostering meaning, understanding, and belonging.

Sasha draws inspiration from the world around her—traveling, cooking, DJ’ing house music, dreaming up her next venture, and immersing herself in moments that spark curiosity, joy, and reflection.

Connect with Sasha

• On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashaperelman/