Your Resume Says You’re Thriving. Your Nervous System Disagrees.

Wowza. Today you are in for a treat.

I’m joined by Annie Wright, LMFT—Annie is a licensed psychotherapist, trauma recovery specialist, executive coach, and author. Annie is also a successfully exited CEO of a multi-million dollar company and she now helps ambitious humans heal relational trauma so they can build lives that feel good on the inside, not just look good on paper. Annie is on Substack at Strong and Stable with a debut book on the way. She’s been quoted everywhere from Forbes to NBC to NPR.

I wanted to have Annie on the show to talk about what it actually takes for high-achieving women to feel good on the inside, and not just look successful on paper and this conversation definitely did not disappoint!

This episode is for the woman who:

• Is highly capable, deeply trusted, and visibly successful

• Has done everything right in the career playbook 

• And still feels chronically anxious, exhausted, or empty

We talk about why that happens—and what actually helps.

What We Cover in This Episode

✨ The “high-functioning woman” profile
Why so many ambitious women learned early that achievement = safety, validation, or love—and how that wiring eventually breaks down.

🧠 Little-t vs. Big-T trauma (and why “nothing bad happened to me” is often the tell)
Annie breaks down relational and developmental trauma in a way that is deeply clarifying—and deeply relieving.

🏗️ The “House of Life” metaphor
Why cracks in the foundation don’t always show up early… but will show up once the house gets taller (hello promotions, leadership, parenting, visibility).

🔥 Fear-fuel and fossil fuels
Why running on anxiety and over-functioning works—until it poisons everything.

🫁 Nervous system tools you can use in real life
Including Annie’s powerful 90-Second Wave for high-stakes meetings and hard conversations.

🧭 The Values Anchor Statement
How to ground yourself in integrity, bravery, or truth when being liked is at odds with being honest.

💬 The myth that healing will make you lose your edge
(And why the most powerful leaders we know are actually surrounded by support.)

Tools & Frameworks Mentioned

All of these are included in her workbook here.

• The 90-Second Wave – a nervous-system regulation tool for moments of acute stress

• Values Anchor Statements – using your core values as leverage during hard conversations

• Judith Herman’s Three-Phase Trauma Recovery Model

  1. Safety & Stabilization

  2. Processing

  3. Meaning-Making & Integration

• EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

• The idea that “trauma survivors have symptoms, not memories”

• The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk

• Annie’s upcoming book:
  Decade of Decisions (W.W. Norton, forthcoming 2027)

A Line That Stayed With Me

“A regulated nervous system makes more things possible—without a doubt.”