There is a word that quietly shapes more careers than most people realize. Should.
I should be further along by now. I should be able to speak up in meetings. I should know how to set limits. I shouldn’t get so upset when someone criticizes my work.
And then comes all the career advice layered on top of it. Just be more confident. Advocate for yourself. Stop people-pleasing. Don’t take things so personally.
Sounds simple enough. But what happens when you already know what you should do, and knowing isn’t the problem?
What happens when you try to speak up and your mind goes blank? When you want to say no but the words won’t come? When you’re ready for the next opportunity but something inside keeps telling you it’s safer to stay right where you are?
What if traditional career advice has been overlooking something important?
If you live with CPTSD or the effects of complex trauma, your past doesn’t stay neatly outside the office. It shows up in how you respond to feedback, authority, conflict, and change. It influences the jobs you choose, the behavior you tolerate, the limits you set, and what you believe you’re capable of professionally. And most career advice has no framework for any of that.
The Resilient Career is where we talk about what’s actually happening beneath the surface.
Hosted by career coach and trauma survivor Cyndi Bennett, this podcast explores the intersection of CPTSD, complex trauma, and work. Together, we’ll get curious about the patterns that may be shaping your professional life and explore practical, trauma-informed strategies for navigating them. Because awareness alone doesn’t create change, and knowing the right career strategy doesn’t mean your nervous system is ready to put it into practice.
This is not therapy. And it is not another podcast telling you to push through.
It is a conversation about understanding yourself well enough to build a career that no longer requires you to abandon yourself in order to succeed.
Topics include CPTSD at work, complex trauma, workplace trauma, toxic workplaces, people-pleasing, perfectionism, hypervigilance, burnout, limits at work, difficult managers, self-advocacy, career confidence, trauma-informed leadership, career transitions, entrepreneurship as a trauma survivor, and career resilience.
Subscribe now and join the conversation. Because your past may be part of your story. It doesn’t have to write the rest of your career.
