Annie Wright - Relational Trauma Specialist
Helping ambitious and driven professionals heal relational trauma and build thriving lives on solid foundations.
Speaking and Presentations
Bringing the science of relational trauma to the rooms where it matters most.
The talk your audience won't stop thinking about on the drive home.
Most presentations on trauma, burnout, and mental health leave audiences with the same generic advice they’ve already heard: practice self-care, set boundaries, take breaks. Your people nod politely, grab a coffee, and nothing changes.
My presentations do something different. I make the invisible visible — naming the specific patterns that driven, ambitious professionals live inside every day but have never had language for. The perfectionism that isn’t about high standards but about managing the terror that anything less than flawless could mean rejection. The workaholism that isn’t dedication but a nervous system that learned stillness equals danger. The burnout that isn’t about workload but about decades of achievement running on survival fuel.
I bring over 15,000 clinical hours specializing in relational trauma in high-achieving populations, lived experience building and selling a multimillion-dollar therapy practice, and the kind of kitchen-table delivery that makes complex neuroscience land in the body, not just the brain. My insights on trauma recovery and sustainable success have been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, NBC, The Information, NPR, and Inc.
What audiences say afterward isn’t “that was interesting.” It’s “how does she know my life?”
Whether I’m presenting grand rounds to physicians, keynoting a state psychology conference, or speaking to a room of executives, every talk is designed to create recognition, deliver neuroscience your audience can actually use, and shift how people understand the relationship between their early experiences and their current patterns — professionally and personally.
Formats & Audiences
Keynote Presentations
Transformative talks for conferences, corporate events, and professional organizations. From state mental health conferences to women’s leadership summits, I deliver the kind of keynote that reframes how your audience understands achievement, burnout, and what’s actually driving both. Every keynote is tailored to your specific audience — their language, their pressures, their patterns.
Grand Rounds & Hospital Presentations
I present to physicians, medical residents, and healthcare teams on topics including vicarious trauma, relational trauma in high-achieving patient populations, and the neurobiological mechanisms behind provider burnout. These aren’t generic wellness talks. They’re clinically rigorous, evidence-based presentations designed for audiences who expect — and deserve — real science delivered with specificity and depth.
Workshops & Interactive Sessions
Half-day and full-day workshops teaching practical, evidence-based tools for nervous system regulation, boundary-setting, and sustainable high performance. Designed for organizations that want their people to leave with something they’ll actually use on Monday morning — not just concepts they’ll forget by Friday.
Podcasts, Panels & Media
A regular contributor to conversations on relational trauma, achievement patterns, and the neuroscience of burnout. I bring clinical depth and the kind of concrete, recognition-based examples that make podcast hosts say “we need to have you back.” Available for expert panels on the intersection of trauma, ambition, women’s leadership, and psychological wellbeing.
Selected Speaking Engagements
Upcoming
Understanding and Treating Relational Trauma — Keynote Presentation, Maine Counseling Association Annual Conference, March 2026 An advanced, practice-focused keynote for a statewide audience of clinicians on assessment, intervention, and treatment planning for relational trauma in high-achieving populations.
2025
Repairing the Cracks: Moving Beyond Achievement as Armor — The WHAT Alliance, January 2025 Examined the psychological function of achievement as a defense mechanism and provided research-informed interventions to help individuals reduce overreliance on performance-based identity.
2024
Childhood Experiences, Adaptations, and the Compulsion to Achieve — Hosted by Andy Johns, September 2024 Analyzed the developmental origins of achievement compulsion, drawing on attachment theory and trauma frameworks to support more adaptive coping strategies.
From Trauma to Transformation: A Clinician’s Guide to Navigating Relational Trauma Recovery — Psychology Associates of Maine, June 2024 Provided clinicians with a structured approach to identifying, assessing, and treating relational trauma using integrative, evidence-based modalities.
Vicarious Trauma in Physicians — Highland Hospital, Alameda Health System, May 2024 Presented grand rounds on the mechanisms, risk factors, and clinical indicators of vicarious trauma in healthcare providers, along with organizational and individual-level mitigation strategies.
The Hidden Signs of Teen Suicide — Fusion Academy, May 2024 Trained educators to recognize subtle behavioral, cognitive, and affective indicators of suicide risk in adolescents and implement appropriate intervention protocols.
The Hidden Signs of Teen Suicide — Evergreen Counseling, February 2024 Provided mental health professionals with updated research on suicide risk assessment and prevention for adolescent populations.
2023
The Hidden Signs of Teen Suicide — Los Lomas PTSA (Therapist-led Workshop), December 2023 Educated parents on risk factors, early detection, and evidence-based prevention strategies for adolescent suicide.
Calmer Parents, Calmer Kids: Trauma-Informed Parenting — Sprinkles Parents Conference, September 2023 Introduced caregivers to the neurobiological underpinnings of stress regulation and provided strategies to reduce family-wide dysregulation.
Entrepreneurship as a Mirror: How to Avoid Recreating Our Own Trauma Histories in Our Business — The Trust Peer Learning Session, June 2023 Examined how unresolved trauma patterns influence organizational decision-making and offered frameworks to create healthier business systems.
What Is Trauma? — Fusion Academy, March 2023 Delivered a foundational overview of trauma definitions, symptomology, and treatment considerations for a mixed educator and parent audience.
Signature topics include:
The hidden cost of high achievement: when success runs on survival fuel
Vicarious trauma and burnout in healthcare providers
Relational trauma in high-achieving women: what clinicians miss
Why traditional coaching fails driven professionals (and what works instead)
The neuroscience of “never enough”: perfectionism, workaholism, and nervous system adaptation
Trauma-informed parenting for ambitious mothers
From performing competence to embodying it: leadership after relational trauma
Interested in having me present at your organization?
I tailor every presentation to your audience — their professional context, their specific challenges, and the outcomes that matter most to your event. Whether you’re planning a hospital grand rounds, a corporate leadership event, a professional conference, or a community workshop, I’d love to discuss how we can create something that resonates long after the room empties.
