Leticia Francis is a trauma recovery mentor, keynote speaker, and author of Survival Mode Exit Plan. Known as The Survival Mode Disruptor, she works with high-achieving women who appear successful on the outside but remain trapped in survival mode internally.

With lived experience of teenage domestic violence and decades navigating survival-based identities, Leticia brings clarity, truth, and depth to trauma recovery conversations. Her approach is grounded, trauma-informed, and unapologetically honest—focused on nervous system healing, identity recalibration, and reclaiming personal agency.

Leticia is widely respected for naming the hidden cost of survival mode and guiding women toward lives built on truth, safety, and emotional freedom rather than endurance. Her work empowers lasting transformation without bypassing the realities of trauma.

What if the part of you that keeps pushing, coping, and holding everything together was never meant to live forever?

In this deeply honest episode, Sharlene welcomes Leticia Francis, trauma recovery mentor and author of Survival Mode Exit Plan, to explore the reality of exiting survival mode after trauma.

Leticia shares her lived experience of teenage domestic violence and how it led to decades of survival-based identity—where strength was measured by endurance, not wellbeing. Together, they unpack the unseen cost of survival mode and why so many survivors struggle to feel safe, settled, or truly alive long after the trauma ends.

This episode speaks directly to high-achieving women who look capable on the outside but feel chronically exhausted, emotionally guarded, or disconnected within. Leticia explains how trauma reshapes the nervous system, why survival identities form, and the three essential phases of exiting survival mode—offering language and understanding that many survivors have never been given.

This is a compassionate, trauma-informed conversation that replaces self-blame with clarity and opens the door to healing rooted in truth, safety, and choice.

🔑 Three Key Takeaways

1. How unresolved trauma keeps the nervous system locked in survival mode
2. Why survival identities form—and how they quietly shape adult life
3. The three phases required to safely and sustainably exit survival mode