From Trauma To CEO

Farya Barlas
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From Trauma to CEO is where ambitious, high-functioning women learn to turn survival wisdom into conscious leadership.Hosted by trauma-informed psychologist Dr. Farya Barlas, this podcast goes beneath “mindset” and into the nervous system, identity, and lived experiences that quietly shape how you work, lead, and succeed.Each episode unpacks the real psychology of high achievement, how your hardest seasons forged your brilliance, how old survival codes still run the show, and what it looks like to expand into a version of success that no longer costs you your wellbeing.Farya’s work is known for changing people at the level that endures, her clients carry her voice for years, making calm, powerful decisions that honour both their ambition and their nervous system.If you’re ready to understand why you are the way you are, and grow into a CEO of your own life with your soul, not your survival system, leading the way, this is where it begins.

  1. Starting the New Year Without Pressure: A Different Way Forward

    4 DAYS AGO

    Starting the New Year Without Pressure: A Different Way Forward

    Growth doesn’t always announce itself with momentum. Sometimes it arrives as quiet. In this episode, we explore the unfamiliar space that opens when pressure, urgency, and the old internal push no longer drive you, especially at the start of a new year. And we name what this moment is really asking for: not more discipline or motivation, but a different relationship with movement, choice, and expansion. Why entering a new season without urgency does not mean you are behind, stuck, or losing momentumHow pressure can shape identity and direction for years, and why it eventually stops workingThe difference between emptiness and unused capacity, and why calm can feel unsettling for high achieversWhy decision-making feels heavier when nothing is forcing your hand, and desire has to leadHow maturity is often misread as stagnation when the old engine has retiredThe cultural messages around motivation and goal-setting that quietly keep people trapped in pressureThe reframe that matters: you are not unmotivated, you are unwilling to be motivated by pressureA simple internal tool to help you notice where tension is still driving you, and where a quieter signal is beginning to emerge This episode is an invitation to move forward without forcing, without shrinking your life, and without abandoning growth. Pressure made you effective, but it was never meant to be permanent. FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    22 min
  2. Why High Achievers Miss This Phase of Growth

    23/12/2025

    Why High Achievers Miss This Phase of Growth

    Success doesn’t always feel like fireworks. Sometimes it feels like fog. In this episode, we name the flat, unanchored feeling that can hit right after you finish something big, especially when life is finally working. And we explore what it may actually signal: not burnout, but an identity transition your nervous system needs time to integrate. Why this moment is often misread as burnout, boredom, or self-sabotage, even when nothing is actually wrongHow pressure can become a nervous system’s organizing principle, and why calm can feel disorienting instead of relaxingThe subtle freeze response many high achievers experience as fog, flatness, low initiative, and difficulty choosingA client story that shows how success can trigger identity withdrawal when the demand ends, and the old self loses its structureThe distinction that matters: rest can restore exhaustion, but it does not automatically resolve identity disorientationThe diagnostic question to ask yourself: “Who am I allowed to be if I’m no longer organized around pressure?” and how your reaction is the dataWhy burnout asks for recovery, but identity transition asks for courageThe reframe to hold onto: this pause is not failure, not loss, and not the end of ambition, it’s the moment an old structure dissolves so something more honest can be built FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    29 min
  3. When Awareness Isn’t Enough: What Actually Creates Real Change with Sally Davidson

    15/12/2025

    When Awareness Isn’t Enough: What Actually Creates Real Change with Sally Davidson

    You can understand your patterns perfectly and still keep repeating them.  In this episode, Farya Barlas, a Psychologist, is joined by Sally Davidson for a powerful conversation about why high-functioning, high-achieving women often burn out without ever “falling apart.” This isn’t about mindset or motivation. It’s about what happens when success is built on survival, the body never feels safe enough to slow down, and insight alone stops working. If you’ve ever: Felt successful on the outside but disconnected on the insideTried therapy, coaching, or personal development, but still felt stuckLived in “push through” mode until your body forced you to stopKnown you need a different way forward, but don’t know where to start This episode will speak directly to where you are. What We Uncover in This Episode: Why burnout in high achievers rarely looks like collapse and how it hides behind productivityHow trauma-coded patterns can feel like “strength” until the body says noThe difference between understanding your trauma and actually healing itWhy nervous system safety matters more than motivation or mindsetHow breathwork and embodiment create change when talk alone doesn’tWhat happens when you stop living from survival and start listening to your bodyWhy slowing down doesn’t mean losing ambition — it changes how you grow About the Guest: Sally Davidson Sally Davidson is a board-certified nurse coach and trauma-informed breathwork facilitator with over 30 years of experience in high-pressure healthcare and clinical leadership. After reaching burnout herself, she shifted her work toward nervous-system and body-based healing, helping high-functioning individuals move out of chronic stress and survival patterns. Today, Sally supports clients through coaching, breathwork, and retreats, guiding them to reconnect with their bodies and create change that feels sustainable and grounded.  Find her at https://sallydavidsoncoach.com/ and on Instagram @sallydavidsoncoach. FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    49 min
  4. The Unspoken Rule Every Therapist Absorbs and How To Finally Outgrow It Ft. Dr. Nicole Nasr

    15/12/2025

    The Unspoken Rule Every Therapist Absorbs and How To Finally Outgrow It Ft. Dr. Nicole Nasr

    You’ve built the skill. You’ve shown up for everyone. You’re the one people call when things fall apart. So why does the next level still feel impossible to picture? In this episode, Farya Barlas, a Psychologist, chats with Dr. Nicole Nasr about the invisible rules that keep even the most capable therapists, coaches, and founders operating out of survival. Dr. Nasr is living proof of a different path: a clinician who stepped into founder leadership without trading her ethics or her soul. If you’ve ever felt blocked by self-doubt, resisted the spotlight, or wondered why your business growth keeps colliding with an invisible ceiling, press play. Inside this episode, you’ll uncover: The quiet way trauma and training can collude to keep practitioners doing everything themselves.How “not enough” shows up as strategy-sabotage vs. nervous-system truth.Why therapists (and other helpers) often struggle to monetize their brilliance — and one reframe that changes everything.What it feels like to move from a confining “operator” identity into a sustainable CEO capacity.How to spot when your ambition is survival-coded, not future-ready.The single question Nicole used to start designing a company that reflected who she actually was (not who she thought she had to be). About the guest: Dr. Nicole Nasr Dr. Nicole Nasr, Psy.D., is a counseling psychologist, entrepreneur, and the founder & CEO of Journey — a practitioner community and platform created to help therapists and coaches scale their impact without sacrificing wellbeing. Trained and practicing in the UK with roots in Montreal and Beirut, Nicole blends clinical expertise with a founder’s sensibility. Through Journey, she builds structures that connect practitioners to clients, training, and community so they can grow their work beyond the therapy room.  Become a journey member at journeystartshere.com and find them on Instagram @_journeystartshere. FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    40 min
  5. Why Capable People Burn Out Doing Everything Alone Ft. Nata Salvatori

    15/12/2025

    Why Capable People Burn Out Doing Everything Alone Ft. Nata Salvatori

    In this first guest episode, Farya Barlas, a Psychologist, sits down with freedom-first leadership and business scaling coach Nata Salvatori, whose work sits right at the intersection of identity, leadership, and sustainable success. Together, they explore the deeper mechanisms behind why high-achieving women struggle to delegate, trust support, or step into true CEO leadership, even when they’re exhausted, burnt out, or quietly resentful of how much they’re holding. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why high achievers feel safest doing everything themselves even when they say they want supportThe identity shift that must happen before strategy, systems, or delegation can actually workThe surprising reason delegating often triggers anxiety, guilt, or controlHow over-responsibility forms in childhood and why it shows up so strongly in entrepreneurshipThe difference between working a lot from expansion vs. working a lot from fearHow Nata built multiple businesses and avoided burnout by rewiring her leadership identityA powerful reframing around money and undercharging that lifts the shame and reveals the real block About Our Guest: Nata Salvatori Nata Salvatore is a Freedom-First Leadership & Business Scaling Coach and the founder of Accidental CEO. She helps high-capacity entrepreneurs step out of chronic over-responsibility and into leadership grounded in clarity, trust, and ease. A multi-business owner, speaker, educator, and creator of the RETURN Framework, Nata specializes in guiding founders from overwhelmed operator to embodied CEO, without the burnout that usually comes with growth. Find her at accidentalceo.co/coaching, on Instagram @accidentalceo.co, and on Substack accidentalceoco. FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    32 min
  6. From Survival Self to Chosen Self: The Identity Shift That Changes Everything with Fareda Barlas

    15/12/2025

    From Survival Self to Chosen Self: The Identity Shift That Changes Everything with Fareda Barlas

    Some conversations arrive like a hand on your shoulder — quiet, steady, and impossible to ignore. In this episode, Farya Barlas, a Psychologist, sits down with Fareda Barlas, sister, therapist, and founder of Hadley Wood Practice, for a deeply human conversation about the ways our past shapes not just what we do, but who we become. This is not an interview about techniques. It’s a conversation about the hidden rules we’ve lived by, the layers we keep protected, and the surprising tenderness that shows up when someone truly witnesses you. Expect a few laughs, honest confessions, and moments that land in the body.  If you’ve ever wondered why success can feel hollow, why asking for help is so hard, or why the same survival patterns keep showing up even after “doing the work,” - this conversation will meet you there. What You’ll Learn: Why some of the strengths you’re proudest of began as the strategies that kept you safe and how they now limit you.What “bringing all of who you are into the room” really looks like in therapy and leadership.How dissociation and hyper-competence help you survive... and why they can quietly block joy.A simple way to spot when vulnerability is being traded for productivity.Why therapists and high-achievers often feel stuck even when “everything looks fine” on paper.What shifts when therapy becomes a living relationship instead of a checklist. About the guest: Fareda Barlas Fareda Barlas is an integrative, trauma-informed psychotherapist and the founder of Hadley Wood Practice. She is BACP-registered and works across psychodynamic, attachment-based, existential/humanistic, and somatic approaches. Fareda focuses on the whole person, including the nervous system, relational patterns, and lived experience, and is known for bringing intuition, authenticity, and presence into deep trauma work. Find her at Hadley Wood Practice (website), Instagram @fareda.psychotherapy, Book a session to Work with Fareda. FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    42 min
  7. The Self You’re Playing and the One Your Success Is Asking For

    15/12/2025

    The Self You’re Playing and the One Your Success Is Asking For

    In this episode, Farya Barlas, a Psychologist, uncovers why deeply intuitive, highly intelligent, emotionally attuned women consistently underestimate their own brilliance, even when their entire life, career, and community prove otherwise. This episode opens a powerful door into the part of you who learned to hide long before she had language for why.  Inside this episode, you’ll uncover: Why your most brilliant insights feel “obvious” to you and why that’s a trapThe tiny childhood interactions that quietly shaped your adult voiceHow lack of mirroring leads you to shrink your genius without noticingThe somatic reason your throat closes when you speak or pitch your ideasWhy your baseline knowledge is someone else’s breakthroughHow comparison in childhood becomes minimization in adulthoodA simple three-step nervous system reset to restore your authorityThe identity-level shift required to stop censoring your brilliance FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    23 min
  8. When Ambition Goes Flat: How High Achievers Break Through the Invisible Ceiling

    15/12/2025

    When Ambition Goes Flat: How High Achievers Break Through the Invisible Ceiling

    What do you do when you’ve achieved the goals you once dreamed of, but suddenly, none of your next steps feel exciting? What if the lack of motivation you’re blaming on “burnout,” “boredom,” or “maybe I’m just not that kind of person” is actually something far deeper and far more common among high achievers? In this episode, Farya Barlas, a Psychologist, explores the invisible internal ceiling many successful people hit without realizing it. A ceiling created not by capability, but by what your nervous system believes you're allowed to want. If you’ve ever hit a career or income milestone only to feel strangely blank, unmotivated, or “done,” this episode will help you see what’s happening underneath and the next steps to overcome it.  Inside this conversation, you’ll uncover: The surprising reason your nervous system might reject your next level before you even imagine itHow trauma silently shapes what you believe you’re “allowed” to wantWhy dreaming for others is easy, but dreaming for yourself feels impossibleHow to recognize when your goals were built from responsibility, not desireWhy daydreaming isn’t the same as vision and how to tell the differenceA reflection that reveals the exact place your imagination has been capped FREE RESOURCES: Follow Farya Barlas on Instagram, Substack to stay connected with the version of you who’s ready to expand. Follow for daily insights on identity work, nervous system capacity, and feminine leadership — so the part of you that’s growing has a place to land.If this episode helped you hear something true inside yourself, help us get this work into more hands. Join the From Trauma to CEO Launch Squad, support the series launch, and enter to win some beautiful prizes along the way.Want to know which identity is running your success? Take the Success Shift Quiz to uncover which nervous system patterns shape your business, leadership, and ambition.If you’re ready to stop building success from survival and start leading from regulation, ease, and capacity, join my email list to be the first to know about upcoming programs, retreats, and ways to work with me. Click here to join.Subscribe and leave a review to help more cycle-breakers discover From Trauma to CEO.

    15 min
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About

From Trauma to CEO is where ambitious, high-functioning women learn to turn survival wisdom into conscious leadership.Hosted by trauma-informed psychologist Dr. Farya Barlas, this podcast goes beneath “mindset” and into the nervous system, identity, and lived experiences that quietly shape how you work, lead, and succeed.Each episode unpacks the real psychology of high achievement, how your hardest seasons forged your brilliance, how old survival codes still run the show, and what it looks like to expand into a version of success that no longer costs you your wellbeing.Farya’s work is known for changing people at the level that endures, her clients carry her voice for years, making calm, powerful decisions that honour both their ambition and their nervous system.If you’re ready to understand why you are the way you are, and grow into a CEO of your own life with your soul, not your survival system, leading the way, this is where it begins.

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  • Creator
    Farya Barlas
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Farya Barlas All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    From Trauma To CEO