Episode 61

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Published on:

2nd Nov 2025

Building a Garden After the Storm

This episode dives deep into the hidden cost of survival mode and how unhealed childhood trauma quietly dictates how we love, parent, and perceive ourselves. Jamie shares his story of losing his mother at eight years old, surviving emotional neglect, battling depression, and transforming his pain into purpose. Together, we explore the psychology of resilience, emotional regulation, and how to break generational patterns through awareness and accountability.

🎙️ What We Talk About:

  • The long-term effects of emotional neglect and abandonment
  • How survival mode rewires the brain and nervous system
  • The power of resilience and how it’s learned—not inherited
  • Why emotional intelligence is the foundation of healthy parenting
  • How to teach kids to process emotions instead of packing them away
  • The ugly side of healing: radical honesty and self-awareness
  • The lifelong journey of learning to feel, forgive, and grow

🔑 Key Takeaways:

“Survival mode is our mind and body’s way of trying to avoid pain—but healing begins when we stop running from it.”
“Don’t chase butterflies. Build a garden so beautiful they’ll want to stay.”
“Resilience isn’t toughness—it’s tenderness that refuses to quit.”
“Your children don’t need perfect parents. They need accountable ones.”


🙌 Why This Episode Matters:

This conversation is a gut-punch reminder that healing isn’t about blaming—it’s about breaking cycles. Whether you grew up emotionally neglected, learned to silence your feelings to keep others comfortable, or are parenting while still healing yourself—this episode is for you. Jamie and I get real about how trauma hides in plain sight and how we can consciously choose to parent differently, love differently, and live differently.


💬 Connect with Jamie:

🌐 Website: managingmentalhealth.net

📚 Books & Resources: Available via his website

📱 Instagram, Facebook, TikTok: @ManagingMentalHealth


🔗 Resources & Links:


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Show artwork for Survival Mode Disrupted with Leticia R Francis

About the Podcast

Survival Mode Disrupted with Leticia R Francis
Disruptive Unapologetic Conversations about Survival Mode
Survival Mode Disrupted is not just a podcast. It's a rebellion.

A raw, unfiltered space where we finally stop pretending we're fine and start telling the truth—the truth about the trauma we've carried, the identities they had to wear to survive, and the radical decisions we made to break free.

Because here's the deal: survival mode isn’t just a season. It’s a damn identity. One that so many were forced to adopt just to get through life, to stay safe, to stay needed, to stay sane. But eventually, it starts costing you more than it protects. Your peace. Your purpose. Your power.

This podcast is for the disruptors—the people who were told to stay small, stay silent, stay grateful for crumbs… and said “hell no.”

Hosted by Leticia, The Survival Mode Disruptor herself—a trauma recovery mentor, speaker, and woman who has lived through the fires of abuse, betrayal, and breakdown and still chose to rise—this show dives deep into the unapologetic exits from survival mode that no one talks about.

You’ll hear from women (and a few brave men) who walked away from toxic relationships, soul-sucking careers, generational dysfunction, religious trauma, cultural expectations, and the lies they were taught to believe about themselves. Not because it was easy—but because staying would’ve killed something sacred inside of them.

These are the stories of bold pivots, quiet courage, and messy but miraculous rebirths.

Each episode is a conversation—a disruption—meant to wake something up in you. Whether it’s a guest sharing the moment they chose themselves for the first time, or Leticia dropping a truth bomb that makes you question everything you’ve normalized, this podcast is here to shake the foundation of your survival mode identity and replace it with something truer. Something freer.

We’re not here for surface-level self-care tips or fake empowerment slogans.

We’re here to talk about what it really takes to:

Reclaim your voice after being silenced.

Reinvent yourself after being broken down.

Rewrite your story when everyone else wants you to stay the same.

Release the guilt of choosing YOU.

This is for those who are done performing. Done pleasing. Done pretending.

It’s for the ones ready to exit survival mode—not slowly, not quietly, but disruptively and unapologetically.

You won’t leave this podcast the same.
You’ll cry. You’ll rage. You’ll laugh.
You’ll see yourself in every story.
And more importantly, you’ll remember who the hell you are.

Welcome to Survival Mode Disrupted.
It’s not just a podcast.
It’s a movement.
And your exit begins here.

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About your host

Profile picture for Leticia Francis

Leticia Francis

I am not here to inspire you—I am here to activate you.

As a Survivor, Keynote Speaker, and Trauma Recovery Mentor, I know what it’s like to fight battles no one sees. I also know that breaking free is possible. My work is about disrupting survival mode, exposing trauma-driven success cycles, and giving women the blueprint to reclaim their lives.

🔹 200+ podcast features & speaking engagements
🔹 Global Women of Choice Award Winner 2022
🔹 Creator of the Survival Mode Exit Plan
🔹 Host of Survival Mode Disrupted Podcast