Annie Wright - Relational Trauma Specialist
For ambitious women whose lives look good but don't feel that good
Executive Coaching with Annie
When Your Professional Success Doesn't Feel as Solid as It Looks
You've built a meaningful professional life through dedication and hard work.
You’ve built something impressive—maybe you’re leading a team, growing a practice, or scaling an organization that actually matters. From the outside, your professional life looks enviable. But you know the truth underneath: despite your accomplishments, there’s a gnawing awareness that something foundational isn’t quite solid.
Maybe you’ve built financial success but still check your bank account obsessively, like security could disappear at any moment. Maybe you’re excellent at managing up and leading teams, but intimate business partnerships require a vulnerability that feels too risky—what if they see the real you and decide you’re not as competent as they thought?
Maybe your work-life balance doesn’t exist because work has become your entire identity, the one place you feel competent and valuable. Maybe you can’t take vacation without checking email because what if everything falls apart when you’re not watching? Maybe feedback from your boss sends you into a spiral that lasts for days, even when it’s constructive.
Perhaps you sense it in those 2 AM anxiety spirals, in relationships that never quite receive the same attention as your work, or in the persistent feeling that despite your achievements, something fundamental isn't quite solid.
Maybe you notice certain colleagues trigger you in ways that remind you uncomfortably of family dynamics—the micromanaging boss who feels like a critical parent, the dismissive business partner who makes you feel invisible, the team conflict that sends your nervous system into overdrive like you’re back in childhood trying to keep everyone happy so no one leaves.
Maybe you work 70-hour weeks not because you love the hustle, but because stopping feels dangerous—like if you’re not constantly producing, proving, achieving, someone might realize you’re dispensable. These patterns aren’t coincidence—they’re your nervous system speaking in code about the relationship between achievement and foundations.
Trauma-Informed Professional Coaching That Transforms
My coaching program is designed for driven, ambitious professionals who’ve used achievement as both shield and validation—and who are ready to transform that relationship without sacrificing their capabilities, purpose, or impact.
Unlike traditional coaching that adds new productivity tools to an already strained structure, my approach addresses the load-bearing walls of your professional life. I strengthen your psychological foundation so it can genuinely support not just your current achievements, but everything you’re still becoming.
What Makes This Approach Different
As someone who personally navigated from using achievement to numb difficult emotions and prove my worth to building genuine stability—who founded, scaled, and successfully sold a multi-million-dollar therapy practice while healing my own relational trauma—I bring both clinical expertise and lived experience to our work.
I understand the invisible threads connecting early relational patterns to current professional challenges. I recognize when:
- Perfectionism isn’t just about high standards but about managing the terror that anything less than flawless performance could lead to rejection or abandonment
- Difficulty delegating isn’t just about control but about the deep fear that if you’re not personally managing every detail, people will leave or things will fall apart
- Professional burnout isn’t just about workload but about a nervous system that learned early that your worth depends on how useful, productive, and indispensable you can be
- Sunday night dread isn’t about not liking your job but about the anxiety that comes from making work your primary source of identity and safety
This work isn’t about dismantling your professional success. It’s about understanding how early relational experiences still shape your relationship with achievement, so you can lead from genuine confidence rather than survival mode, and build sustainable success that enhances your life instead of consuming it.
What We'll Focus On Together
Leading Without Performing
Navigate professional growth and expanded responsibilities while maintaining your internal stability. No more white-knuckling through leadership challenges or feeling like you’re constantly proving your competence.
Achievement That Enhances Rather Than Exhausts
Build sustainable professional rhythms that honor both your ambition and your well-being. You’ll maintain your drive without sacrificing your health, relationships, or peace of mind.
Making Decisions from Wisdom, Not Anxiety
Develop frameworks for choices that align with your values rather than fear-based protective patterns. Stop second-guessing yourself or needing external validation for every decision.
Confidence That Doesn’t Depend on Perfect Performance
Cultivate genuine self-trust that doesn’t require constant external validation or flawless execution. Your competence becomes embodied rather than performed.
Boundaries That Protect Your Energy Without Isolation
Create professional limits that preserve your capacity while maintaining meaningful connections. Learn to say no without elaborate justifications or fear of abandonment.
Authentic Professional Communication
Develop a voice that balances expertise with genuine connection. Stop reading emails five times before sending or rehearsing every conversation like your competence is on trial.
Handling Professional Triggers
Address why certain colleagues, feedback, or situations send your nervous system into overdrive. Transform professional relationships from emotional minefields into sources of energy.
Ready to strengthen your professional foundation?
Let’s Talk
Who this is for
My coaching works best for professionals who are:
Committed to meaningful work but exhausted by the cost
You’re building something that matters but find yourself constantly vigilant, checking email obsessively, or feeling like everything could fall apart if you’re not personally managing every detail.
Smart enough to recognize the patterns but stuck in them
You can see that your perfectionism, people-pleasing, or hypervigilance are connected to deeper patterns, but knowing this intellectually hasn’t been enough to change how you actually show up.
Ready for root-level work, not quick fixes
You understand that sustainable professional growth requires addressing why you perform competence rather than embody it, not just learning new productivity strategies or leadership frameworks.
Managing professional success alongside personal complexity
You’re navigating career growth while dealing with relationship challenges, parenting stress, family dynamics, or systemic barriers that compound the internal pressure you already feel.
Successful externally but seeking internal alignment
You’ve achieved things that should feel satisfying but find yourself thinking “is this it?” You want professional success that enhances your life rather than consuming it.
Willing to invest in transformation
You recognize that this work requires both financial investment and emotional commitment. You’re ready to do the deeper work that creates lasting change rather than temporary relief.
What My Clients Often Experience (Before We Work Together)
- On the edge of professional burnout, unable to slow down without anxiety or guilt
- Disconnection from work that once felt meaningful or energizing
- Uncertainty about maintaining professional excellence without sacrificing wellness
- Readiness to evolve their approach but facing invisible barriers with each attempt
Most clients come to me having tried everything—leadership development, productivity systems, even therapy—but find themselves right back where they started. They’re smart, capable professionals who know what needs to change but can’t seem to make it stick, no matter how hard they try.
Why you can’t slow down even when you know you should…
Some part of you learned early that slowing down was dangerous, that your value depended on your output, that staying alert prevented disasters. This part of you is brilliant—it got you where you are today by making sure you never stopped achieving, never stopped proving your worth, never stopped scanning for problems before they hit.
But this same part can’t tell the difference between then and now. It acts like your professional success is still about survival, like one mistake could mean abandonment, like rest is the same as giving up. Your body treats normal work stuff—feedback, delegation, conflict—like actual threats instead of just part of the job.
This is why willpower and regular professional coaching don’t work. They don’t get why your body responds to a tough email like it’s life or death.
Why My Approach Is Different
I bring a unique combination of expertise and experience that addresses why other approaches miss the mark:
- Clinical Understanding: With over 15,000 hours helping professionals heal relational trauma, I get the invisible patterns that drive professional perfectionism, make delegation feel impossible, and turn achievement into a survival strategy.
- Real-World Business Experience: Having built, scaled, and sold a multi-million-dollar therapy practice, I know what it’s like when your nervous system treats normal business challenges like emergencies. I’ve lived the pressure, the sleepless nights, the constant worry that everything could fall apart.
- Personal Transformation: My own journey from using achievement to numb difficult emotions to building genuine stability means I understand what it’s like when slowing down feels dangerous and rest triggers anxiety.
- Understanding the Whole Picture: I see how childhood experiences still show up in your work life, especially for high-achievers who learned that love had conditions, safety came through performance, and vulnerability meant danger.
This combination means I can address both what’s happening at work AND why your nervous system is responding this way. Instead of piling more strategies onto an already overwhelmed system, we work with how your body actually operates to create change that lasts.
How Coaching Works
Session Structure
We’ll dig into what’s actually happening, spot the patterns that keep you stuck, and figure out concrete steps you can take right away. No abstract theories—just practical work that addresses both the professional challenge and why your nervous system is reacting the way it is.
Between-Session Support
When you’re facing a big presentation, difficult conversation, or high-pressure decision, you can reach out for real-time guidance. Sometimes you need support in the moment, not just during our scheduled calls.
Progress Tracking
We’ll keep an eye on both the external stuff—how work is actually going—and the internal shifts, like whether you’re sleeping better, feeling less anxious about feedback, or able to delegate without panic. Real change shows up in both places.
Personalized Development
Everything we do is tailored to your specific situation, the patterns that trip you up most, and where you want to grow next. Your challenges are unique, so your approach should be too.
The Difference Between Coaching and Therapy
While my therapy practice focuses on deeper healing of relational trauma, coaching takes those insights and applies them to your current work life without diving deep into past experiences. Coaching stays focused on the present and future—what’s happening now and where you want to go.
If you’re dealing with significant emotional overwhelm, processing childhood trauma directly, or working through major relationship issues, individual therapy might be more helpful. I’m happy to discuss which approach fits your current needs better.
Stop Building Professional Success on Shaky Ground
Your skills and drive have gotten you far. Now it’s time to make sure what you’ve built can actually support not just what you’ve achieved, but everything you’re still becoming.
Notice what happens when you consider this possibility. Is there relief? Resistance? Maybe both? Whatever comes up is valuable information about how ready you are for this kind of change.
This work isn’t an indulgence—it’s a strategic investment in both your professional future and personal well-being. By addressing the patterns beneath your achievements, you create work that doesn’t just look impressive but feels sustainable.
You don’t have to keep white-knuckling your way through professional success. There’s a different way to be ambitious—one that enhances your life instead of consuming it.
Ready to Build Something Solid?
Whether you're ready to start this work now or just figuring out what's possible, I'm glad the part of you that knows something needs to change brought you here.
There’s no rush to make this decision. You’ve been managing these patterns for years—a few more days or weeks to think it through won’t hurt anything. But there’s also no benefit to waiting if you’re ready to stop feeling like your professional success is constantly on the verge of falling apart.
If you’re tired of white-knuckling your way through leadership challenges and ready to build sustainable success that doesn’t exhaust you, I’d be honored to help. Fill out this brief form or email support@anniewright.com to schedule a consultation, and we’ll figure out whether this approach fits what you need right now.
Your drive and ambition don’t have to come at the cost of your sleep, your relationships, or your peace of mind. There’s a way to be professionally successful that enhances your life instead of consuming it—and it starts with understanding why your nervous system treats normal work challenges like survival threats.
Warmly,
