Survival Mode Disrupted with Leticia R Francis

Ronda’s story is raw, heartbreaking, and deeply relatable for anyone carrying a mother wound. At 17, she was sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend — and when she told her mother, she was dismissed, blamed, and called a liar. That betrayal shaped the next 30 years of her life, impacting her relationships, safety, trust, and even her physical health. In this episode, we unpack what survival mode looked like for Ronda: isolation, guarding her heart, struggling at school, and moving through life feeling like everyone eventually hurts you. She shares how her therapist challenged her to write — and how writing turned into publishing two books on Amazon as a way to finally release what she carried alone for decades. This conversation highlights the 3 phases of exiting survival mode:Self-awareness: naming the truth and recognizing the impactReprogramming: choosing support (therapy + psychiatry) and rewriting the narrativeReinvention: turning pain into purpose and helping other women feel less alone🎙️ What We Talk About:Being sexually assaulted at 17 and not being believed by her motherHow betrayal trauma becomes a lifelong “guarded heart”PTSD + depression and what it’s like to finally get diagnosed later in lifeIsolation as a trauma response: “I don’t go outside” + “I don’t trust anyone”The mother wound and what it does to friendships, identity, and belongingTrauma in the body: heart symptoms, stress responses, and stored painHow writing became Ronda’s release — and why she published her storyThe pain of repeated betrayal and the lack of accountability from othersWhat healing looks like when you’re tired of crying and tired of carrying it🔑 Key Takeaways:“Some of the deepest trauma is not being protected after you speak up.”“Isolation can feel safe — but it also steals connection.”“Your body will start speaking when you’ve been silent too long.”“Healing starts when you stop holding it in.”“Your story may be the thing that saves someone else.”🙌 Why This Episode Matters:This episode speaks to the women who have survived trauma and then got punished for telling the truth. It’s for the ones who became hyper-independent, guarded, and isolated because trusting people kept hurting. Ronda’s story reminds us that silence isn’t strength — it’s often survival. And survival is not the final destination.💬 Connect with Ronda:📚 Ronda’s books on Amazon:She Didn’t Ask for the FireLetters From the Fire

In this gripping and deeply vulnerable conversation, Kelly shares her 61-year journey through survival mode — from childhood trauma to parentification, infertility, cancer, widowhood, raising a special-needs child alone, and ultimately surviving a rare autoimmune disease that nearly claimed her life. She opens up about her addiction to chaos, how trauma became her home base, how she built a $6M autism school from her basement, and the heartbreaking moment her body forced her to stop running by shutting down completely. This episode is a masterclass in self-awareness, reprogramming your trauma responses, and reinventing your identity after life strips everything away. You will walk away seeing survival mode in a completely different way — and with a renewed understanding of what healing truly looks like.🎙️ What We Talk AboutBeing “born into” survival modeParentification at age 9 & growing up in chaosLiving with an alcoholic mother and a raging fatherInfertility, date rape, ovarian cancer & griefAdopting a daughter with autism — then becoming a widow at 40Building a multimillion-dollar school… while drowning internallyThe body’s breaking point — and her near-death crisis in 2023Losing her entire identity: career, community, purpose & healthLearning to regulate her nervous system without numbingThe addiction to chaos that trauma survivors don’t recognizeRewiring survival mode: “Okay Chad, we don’t think like that anymore.”Reinvention after medical retirement & reclaiming purpose🗝️ Key Takeaways“My body did what I refused to do — it shut everything down.”“Calm didn’t feel safe. Chaos was home.”“You can’t heal what you keep outrunning."“Survival mode becomes identity when you’ve never known anything else.”🔗 Connect with Kelly🌐 Website: KellyWeaverConsulting.com💌 Email: KellyWeaverConsulting@gmail.com🧭 Coaching: Transformational support for women navigating identity loss, transitions, grief & reinvention

In this raw and unfiltered conversation, Honey shares how she spent most of her life in chronic survival mode—anxious, exhausted, over-medicated, and completely disconnected from her own needs. From growing up in the 50s and 60s under a picture-perfect version of patriarchy, to battling menopause, chronic pain, brain fog, and a cabinet full of prescriptions, Honey’s story is a brutal mirror for what so many women silently live through. Everything shifts when, in her 60s, one introduction to cannabis becomes the catalyst for reclaiming her body, her clarity, and her life. We talk about trauma, nervous system overload, plant medicine, medical gaslighting, and the power of women healing together. This is not a “go smoke weed, it’ll fix you” conversation. This is about options, sovereignty, and refusing to let a broken system dictate the rest of your story.🧠 What We Talk AboutWhat survival mode looked like for Honey: decades of anxiety she didn’t even know she hadGrowing up as a woman in the 50s–80s: pearls, patriarchy, and zero real education about women’s bodiesThe “doctor dance”: prescriptions on top of prescriptions, side effects, and feeling like a stranger in your own skinMenopause, chronic fatigue, neuropathy, brain fog and the perfect womanly stormThe moment her body told her, “If you don’t change something, you’re going to die”How one experience with cannabis opened a door to relief, curiosity, and researchThe history, propaganda, and politics around cannabis and why women were never meant to win in that systemCannabis as a potential tool for nervous system support, pain relief, and mental quiet—not a cure, not a replacement for medical careThe importance of women choosing mentors, communities, and inputs that regulate them instead of retraumatizing themWhy Honey stopped consuming news and fear-based media and how that impacted her nervous system and mental health🗝️ Key Takeaways“I didn’t even know I was anxious. I just thought that was my personality.”“I spent decades living in fight-or-flight and calling it ‘being strong.’”“Don’t believe everything you think—your thoughts are not always telling you the truth.”“You’re not broken. You’ve just been surviving in systems that were never built for you.”🔗 Connect with Honey🌐 Website & Free PDF: Cannabis Recovery Kit – HealingBeyondHigh.com📖 Book: Healing Beyond High: Cannabis Truth – available on Amazon🎙️ Podcast: Cannabis Truth – conversations with doctors, scientists, and advocates in the cannabis space

In this raw, deeply educational episode of Survival Mode Disrupted, Leticia sits down with somatic psychotherapist Suzy Butts to unpack the neuroscience of trauma, how stress gets stored in the body, and why so many of us are unknowingly living high up on a “stress cliff” that we think is normalSuzy breaks down:How trauma has shaped human behavior for thousands of yearsWhy we learned not to rock the boat, speak up, or express emotionsHow epigenetics passes trauma down 8 generationsWhy most adults don’t know what safety even feels likeWhy your nervous system pushes you into fight, flight, freeze or fawn before you can thinkShe shares her personal survival mode story — childhood emotional neglect, marrying an abusive partner, a life-changing car crash, high-achieving numbness, obesity tied to trauma, and how 9/11 cracked her emotional armor and pushed her into the world of psychotherapy.This episode is a masterclass in understanding survival mode from a somatic and scientific perspective, offering real compassion and practical insight into how we get stuck… and how we get free.🎙️ What We Talk AboutThe “stress cliff” model — and how it explains overwhelm, burnout, shutdown, and poor coping habitsWhy humans have been conditioned for survival, not thrivingHow trauma lives in the body long after the mind forgetsEmotional unavailability in parents & its generational impactWhy your nervous system mistakes chaos for comfortFreeze mode vs laziness — the truth behind shutdownHow trauma influences weight gain, overeating & self-neglectThe danger of normalizing “I’m fine”Why healing must include body-based processesPost-traumatic growth, and why you can’t go back — only forward🔑 Key Takeaways“You’re not broken. You’re overwhelmed.”“Trauma doesn’t start with you, but healing can.”“You can’t change what you can’t see — awareness is your lighthouse.”“Safety feels boring when chaos raised you.” 🙌 Why This Episode MattersToo many women think they’re failing when they’re actually in survival mode.They think they’re lazy when they’re actually numb.They think they’re dramatic when they’re actually overwhelmed.This episode dismantles shame and replaces it with understanding — helping listeners recognize what their nervous system is trying to tell them and how they can gently start moving back toward safety, presence, and ease.This is trauma education in its most accessible, compassionate form — and it’s a lifeline for anyone stuck on that cliff.💬 Connect with SuzyWebsite: fromsurvivingtothriving2.com.auProgram: From Stress to Bliss (10-module somatic trauma program + weekly group)🔗 Resources & Links:💣 Download the Survival Mode Exit Blueprint 👉🏾 Join the Survival Mode Exodus Membership🎧 Subscribe to Survival Mode Disrupted: The Podcast on YouTube ✍🏾 Subscribe to Survival Mode...

In this raw, unflinching episode of Survival Mode Disrupted, I’m joined by Dr. Dawnmarie Risley-Childs—a board-certified psychiatrist and survivor of 24 years of domestic violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. Dawnmarie doesn’t just bring clinical insight. She brings lived experience. We walk through her story of growing up in a house that looked “fine” on the outside but was a war zone behind closed doors: a psychopathic stepfather, a mother who collaborated and minimized, and a childhood wired around fear, confusion, and survival.She shares how:Chronic exhaustion and PTSD followed her everywhere—even into her medical careerKetamine treatment helped with anxiety and rumination… but didn’t touch the buried rage and terrorUnderground psychedelic-assisted therapy (with mushrooms and LSD) opened locked doors in her memory, body, and emotionsShe realized her mother wasn’t just a victim, but an active collaborator in her abuseReleasing anger—rather than bypassing it with “forgiveness”—became a turning point in her healingShe moved from protecting her abusers to protecting herself and her childrenAnd ultimately, we talk about what it means to reclaim your story, your body, and your future after being betrayed by the very people who were supposed to keep you safe.🎙️ What We Talk AboutHow survival mode can feel like permanent exhaustion while you still keep pushing yourself to functionThe “performance review” relationship with her mother and why nothing was ever good enoughReading The Body Keeps the Score and finally understanding why her body was screamingThe difference between ketamine treatment and classic psychedelics like mushrooms/LSD in trauma processing (from her experience)How psychedelic medicine can surface stored memories and emotions in a way traditional talk therapy often can’t reachThe moment she stopped trying to satisfy her mother and chose herself insteadWriting her book “The Offering: A Physician’s Journey through Abuse, Psychedelics, and the Freedom of Forgiveness” and why she ripped out a whole chapter to write a success chapter insteadThe radical act of forgiving herself—not for what happened, but for carrying shame that was never hers🔑 Key Takeaways“Healing is possible. So many people feel broken. But you can heal.”“I realised I was never going to satisfy my mother—and my life changed when I stopped trying.”“Psychedelic medicine didn’t erase my trauma. It helped me finally feel the anger and terror I’d been swallowing for decades.”“My mother wasn’t just looking away. She was collaborating. And I needed to stop protecting her more than I protected myself.”📖 About the Book – The OfferingTitle: The Offering: A Physician’s Journey through Abuse, Psychedelics, and the Freedom of ForgivenessDr. Dawnmarie’s book weaves:her high-achieving, “on paper successful” lifethe brutal reality of her childhood and young adulthoodher journey through PTSD, psychopathy, and complex traumaand her healing through psychedelic-assisted therapy and self-forgivenessIt’s part memoir, part clinical insight, and part offering to anyone who’s ever felt too broken to heal.🌐 Connect with Dr. Dawnmarie Risley-ChildsBook: The Offering: A Physician’s Journey through Abuse, Psychedelics, and the Freedom of Forgiveness🔗 Resources &amp; Links:💣 Download the <a...

Survival mode doesn’t always look like chaos on the outside — sometimes it looks like the “strong one,” the over-functioning one, the one who can read the room before anyone says a word. In this episode, Tenya shares how growing up with a bipolar mother, constant emotional chaos, and unspoken expectations put her into survival mode long before she had language for it. We walk through anxiety, depression, the moment she considered crashing her car just to get a break, and how the “acceptable” healing paths — meds and talk therapy — left her numb but not free. Desperate for something different, she Googled “holistic emotional healing,” found the Emotion Code, and stepped into energy work, muscle testing, and inherited trauma release. What she discovered? She’d been carrying emotions that didn’t even belong to her. We talk about energy, grief, complicated mothers, boundaries, and the radical idea that you are your first job — not your kids, not your parents, not your partner, you.🎙️ What We Talk AboutHow survival mode started before she was even 8 years oldGrowing up with a bipolar mom, chaos at home, and learning to walk on emotional eggshellsThe moment anxiety and depression resurfaced when motherhood “slowed down”How she used work, TV, drinking, smoking, and distraction to outrun her feelingsBeing offered “more meds” and “a CBT app” when she was already numb and overwhelmedGoogling “holistic emotional healing” and stumbling into the Emotion CodeWhat muscle testing actually is (and why your body is way more honest than your mouth)Inherited emotions: carrying your parents’ and ancestors’ stuff without even knowing itThe difference between conscious work (journaling, therapy) and energetic work — and why both matterGrieving a mother you weren’t close to, and why grief doesn’t always look like people expect it toSetting boundaries with parents and family without buying into “but they’re your mom/dad” guiltRedefining self-care as “I am my first responsibility, my first best friend, my first priority”🔑 Key Takeaways“You’re worth spending your time on. Period.”“Our bodies want to thrive — they’re just buried under everything we’ve absorbed.”“You don’t have to ingest something to begin healing. Sometimes you start by listening.”“Just because someone is family doesn’t mean they get unlimited access to you.”🙌 Why This Episode MattersSo many women in survival mode blame themselves for not “getting better” with the tools they were handed: just talk, just pray, just take the pills, just push through. This episode cracks that wide open. We talk about the parts of healing people still whisper about: when meds help but also numb you, when therapy isn’t enough on its own, when grief is complicated because the person you lost also hurt you, and when choosing yourself means disappointing the people who think they own you. If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing “all the work” but still feel blocked, stuck, or disconnected from your own body — this conversation will help you see that you’re not failing. You’re simply ready for deeper tools, better boundaries, and a different way to exist.💬 Connect with Tenya🌐 Website: designyourexistence.com✨ Instagram / socials: via her site🔗 Resources &amp; Links:💣 Download the Survival Mode Exit Blueprint 👉🏾 Join the <a href="https://leticiareneefrancis.newzenler.com/f/the-survival-mode-exodus-waitlist" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

In this soul-shaking episode, Leticia sits down with Lena, a speaker and emotional intelligence consultant whose entire life shifted three and a half years ago when every buried emotion, fear, memory, and childhood wound erupted at once. What she thought was depression was actually the collapse of years of survival mode. What she thought was “just burnout” was her nervous system screaming for release. This conversation dives into emotional suppression, spiritual awakenings, ancestral trauma, nervous system pressure, and what it actually looks like to purify your energy and feel your emotions instead of running from them.Highlights include:How the inability to relax is a MAJOR sign of survival modeThe moment Lena’s entire emotional backlog surfacedWhy triggers aren’t about other people — they’re about unhealed memoriesHow emotional suppression becomes a coping mechanismWhy self-awareness is the first step to exiting survival modeHow to feel emotions without drowning in themWhy reprogramming feels like “one step forward, two steps back”The truth about reinvention and why you can’t go back to who you were before the traumaHow to protect your energy without abandoning your healing🎙️ What We Talk AboutThe emotional collapse that forced Lena to finally face her woundsSpiritual awakening vs ego death — and why both can feel terrifyingHow childhood trauma resurfaces as adult anxiety, fear, burnout, and overthinkingThe danger of living in “potential” instead of realityEmotional triggers as memories — not reactions to peopleHow to sit with painful emotions without fleeing or numbingThe risk of surrounding yourself with emotional vampiresReinventing yourself after trauma instead of trying to “go back”The power of allowing your emotions to move through your bodyWhy healing requires presence, patience, and self-compassion🔑 Key Takeaways“We’re not reacting to the person — we’re reacting to a memory.”“Feeling is the healing. The only way out is through.”“Your nervous system can’t lie. It tells the truth your mind keeps trying to escape.”“You can’t go back to who you were before the trauma — but you can become someone more whole.”🙌 Why This Episode MattersToo many women believe emotional breakdowns mean they’re failing. In reality,...

In this episode of Survival Mode Disrupted, Leticia sits down with spiritual coach and psychic Tracy Fance, who proves that trauma isn’t always loud, dramatic, or headline-worthy. Sometimes it’s adoption, constant criticism, emotional instability, and a life that makes you feel “never enough.” Tracy shares how being adopted, bounced between homes, and raised by highly critical parents shattered her self-worth and led to years of wrong jobs, wrong relationships, and survival-driven decisions. From watching a partner nearly die at 17, to navigating toxic dynamics, to healing through spiritual work and community, Tracy shows what it really looks like to move from autopilot to awareness.This conversation dives deep into everyday trauma, post-lockdown burnout, the school system, generational pain, and the uncomfortable truth that most people are in survival mode without even realizing it. If you’ve ever dismissed your story because “other people had it worse,” this episode will call you out with love and invite you to finally take your pain seriously.🎙️ What We Talk About:What “everyday trauma” looks like when it isn’t abuse, assault, or a single big eventHow adoption, divorce, and critical parents quietly wire you for “I’m not good enough”The ripple effect of early trauma on partners, jobs, self-worth, and decision-makingWhy community and safe people are essential for breaking survival patternsLeticia’s three phases of exiting survival mode: Self-Awareness, Reprogramming, ReinventionThe way family systems, past pain, and even spiritual beliefs can keep you loyal to your own sufferingCOVID as a collective global trauma—and why so many people are stuck in post-lockdown limboHow the school system, “good girl” conditioning, and corporate life create quiet, chronic survival modeJournaling as a powerful, practical tool to expose your stories, patterns, and hidden beliefs🔑 Key Takeaways:“It’s not always the big, dramatic trauma that breaks you. Sometimes it’s the drip, drip, drip of never feeling good enough.”“Most people are in survival mode and have no idea—because their trauma looks ordinary.”“The person you became to survive will not be the person who leads you into your breakthrough.”“You don’t have to stay loyal to the environments—and the people—that are slowly killing your spirit.”🙌 Why This Episode Matters:So many women minimize their pain because they weren’t “attacked,” “beaten,” or “publicly destroyed.” But the truth is, being criticized every day, emotionally abandoned, guilt-tripped, compared, or ignored is trauma—and it shapes how you love, work, and see yourself. This episode is a wake-up call for anyone who’s been living on autopilot, numbing with scrolling, hustling, or people-pleasing while telling themselves, “It wasn’t that bad.” If you’re ready to stop gaslighting yourself and finally honor what you went through, this conversation is your mirror and your permission slip.💬 Connect with Tracy:Website: tracyfance.comFind her on social media as Tracy Fance or Tracy Fance Soul HealerFree journaling guide available via DM / message request🔗 Resources &amp; Links:💣 Download the Survival Mode Exit Blueprint 👉🏾 Join the Survival Mode Exodus Membership🎧 Subscribe to