Cover of The Resilient Career with Cyndi Bennett

The Resilient Career with Cyndi Bennett

The Resilient Career with Cyndi Bennett

By: CPTSD Trauma & Resilience at Work
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Summary
 Why does work feel so hard when you know you’re capable? Why does feedback from your boss send you spiraling? Why do you overthink every interaction, struggle to set boundaries, or find yourself people-pleasing just to keep the peace? Why do you keep ending up in toxic workplaces, or stay far longer than you know you should? And why can you be successful on paper while still feeling like you’re just trying to survive your career? If you live with CPTSD or the effects of complex trauma, your past doesn’t stay neatly outside the office. It can show up in how you respond to authority, conflict, criticism, uncertainty, visibility, and change. It can influence the jobs you choose, the behavior you tolerate, the opportunities you pursue, the boundaries you set, and what you believe you’re capable of professionally. The Resilient Career is where we talk about that. Hosted by career coach and trauma survivor Cyndi Bennett, this podcast explores the intersection of CPTSD, complex trauma, and work...and what it takes to build a successful career when your nervous system learned survival long before you learned how to navigate the workplace. This isn’t therapy, and it isn’t another podcast telling you to simply be more confident, think positively, or push through. It’s a conversation about understanding the patterns beneath your professional life so you can make different choices. You’ll learn how trauma can show up in your career, how to recognize workplace triggers and survival patterns, how to navigate difficult managers and toxic environments, how to build boundaries and advocate for yourself, and how to make career decisions from a place of greater clarity and confidence. Because resilience isn’t about tolerating more. It’s about understanding yourself well enough to build a career that no longer requires you to abandon yourself in order to succeed. Your past may be part of your story. It doesn’t have to write the rest of your career. Topics include: CPTSD at work, complex PTSD, complex trauma, workplace trauma, toxic workplaces, trauma responses at work, workplace triggers, people-pleasing, perfectionism, hypervigilance, burnout, boundaries at work, difficult managers, career confidence, self-advocacy, trauma-informed leadership, career transitions, professional identity, Entrepreneurship as a Trauma Survivor, and career resilience. The Resilient Career with Cyndi Bennett: CPTSD, Trauma & Resilience at Work

www.resilientcareeracademy.comCyndi Bennett Career Success Economics Personal Development
Episodes
  • Why Traditional Career Advice Doesn’t Always Work for Trauma Survivors

    Why Traditional Career Advice Doesn’t Always Work for Trauma Survivors
    10 Nov 2026

    Summary

    Someone gives you career advice that sounds perfectly reasonable. “Just reach out.” “Speak up more.” “Ask for the promotion.”

    You understand what they’re suggesting. You may even want to take that step. But when the moment comes, something makes it harder than it seems like it should be.

    You open the message, rewrite it several times, consider how the other person might respond, and eventually close the window without sending it.

    In this episode, Cyndi Bennett explores why traditional career advice can leave out important parts of the experience for trauma survivors. We look at the difference between knowing what to do and feeling able to do it, how past experiences can influence professional interactions, and why a more trauma-informed approach makes room for your needs, boundaries, and present circumstances.

    Key Thoughts

    * Career advice often moves directly from the goal to the instruction without considering what taking that step might require of you.

    * Knowing how to do something and being able to use that skill in a particular moment are not always the same experience.

    * What looks like procrastination from the outside may involve concerns about safety, judgment, privacy, or how someone might respond.

    * Another template or reminder to try harder may not address what is actually making a career step difficult.

    * A trauma-informed approach considers both your past experiences and the circumstances you’re navigating now.

    * Your career goals, capacity, boundaries, and need for support all belong in the decisions you make about your professional future.

    What This Means for You

    If you’ve struggled to follow career advice that seems straightforward for everyone else, consider whether the advice has accounted for your experience.

    You may not need another instruction. You may need to understand what makes that particular step difficult, what concerns deserve attention, and what kind of support would help.

    You can pursue the same career goal through a different approach. You don’t have to ignore your needs or share more about your personal history than you’re comfortable sharing to make progress.

    Try This After Listening

    Think about one piece of career advice you’ve struggled to follow.

    Complete this sentence:

    “The part that becomes difficult is…”

    Is it asking for help? Drawing attention to yourself? Waiting for someone else’s response? Or something else?

    Naming where the difficulty begins can help you understand what the original advice may have missed and identify what you need included in your next step.

    Continue the Conversation

    If you want to explore career development that considers your experiences, needs, and circumstances, join the Resilient Career Academy on Substack.

    You’ll find articles and resources about navigating professional relationships, finding your voice, pursuing opportunities, and building a career without leaving important parts of yourself out of the process.

    Subscribe to the Resilient Career Academy for free, or explore the paid membership for additional career development support.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.resilientcareeracademy.com/subscribe
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    19 min
  • When a Simple Hello Feels Like a Big Step | Newsletter #16

    When a Simple Hello Feels Like a Big Step | Newsletter #16
    7 Nov 2026
    You know when you want to reach out to someone, but before you’ve even said hello, you’re already wondering if they’d rather you didn’t?That’s where I’ve been lately. For a long time, I’ve wanted to reach out to some of the people who read this newsletter. If you’re reading this, I mean you. I’d love to know what brought you here and what’s been on your mind about work.Then my mind starts in. What would I say? Would it seem creepy to reach out personally? Would you see my name in your inbox and think, “Another email?”It’s funny how quickly I can go from wanting to say hello to imagining all the ways that hello might be unwelcome.I’ve had the same experience in other parts of my coaching business. I’ve wanted to follow up with someone who expressed interest in coaching, then wondered if I’d come across as pushy. I’ve wanted to tell a business owner I admire how much I appreciated something they wrote, then worried they’d think I was about to ask for a favor.And I’m starting to see a pattern. Each time, I have a reason I’d like to reach out. Then I start imagining how the other person might take it. Before I’ve written a word, I’m already responding to a conversation we haven’t had.That’s the conversation I want to have with you today.If you’re new here, I’m Cyndi Bennett, a trauma-informed career coach and founder of the Resilient Career Academy.I spent more than 25 years in the corporate world, and I write about how our experiences as trauma survivors can show up in our working lives. Lately, I’ve been noticing how they show up in the business I’m building, too.In case you missed itI wrote about what can happen when we want to get to know someone and feel the urge to hide just as connection becomes possible. The piece is called: I’ve been thinking about what that tension looks like when the people we’d love to get to know are also the people we hope to serve.Two Business Owners Walk Into a Networking EventI keep picturing two trauma survivors at a networking event for business owners. One is standing by the coffee, thinking, I’d love to meet her. I’ll wait until she’s finished getting her coffee.The other is stirring a coffee she’s already stirred three times, thinking, I wish she’d come over. I’d go over there, but she looks like she’s waiting for someone.A few minutes later, one of them finally says, “Have you been to one of these before?”“No,” the other says. “Have you?”“No. I was hoping you knew what we were supposed to do.”And if you actually walked out of that networking event having said that much to another person, you would actually count that as a win!When a Simple Hello Is Part of Making a LivingI can see myself on either side of that coffee table. I’ve gone to events hoping to meet people and spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure out whether they’d welcome a conversation.I do want to respect people’s time. And I’m beginning to notice how quickly that can turn into deciding for someone else whether they’d want to hear from me.When you’re building a business, those conversations are part of how you make a living. They’re how you learn what people need and how they find out whether you can help. A hello can lead to a conversation that helps you write something more useful, a referral from someone who understands what you do, or a chance to work with someone who’s been looking for exactly the kind of support you offer.Any one of those moments can seem small. But when I keep talking myself out of reaching out, fewer people get to know what I do, and I have fewer chances to learn how I could serve them. Over time, that can affect how much I earn and whether the business can support me.This is one of the things I’ve been thinking about as I put together an upcoming workshop for trauma survivors who are building businesses. How do we do the things our businesses depend on, like reaching out to people we’d love to work with, when those things can feel so uncomfortable? I’ll share more about the workshop soon.One small step I’m taking for my own growth as a trauma survivor is to email a few of you who’ve been reading my work for a long time. I’m going to ask you if you’d like to hop on Zoom for a little chat.I’d love to hear what’s kept you reading, what’s been hard about work or building a business lately, and what kind of support would actually help. I’m a little nervous about sending those emails. And when I picture us with our coffee, getting to know each other a little, I’m looking forward to it, too.If We Were Standing by the CoffeeI’d love to know a little more about what you’re going through. It would help me write about the things that matter to you and be here with you through some of the harder parts.If we were standing by the coffee, here’s what I’d ask you.What’s been hard about work or building your business lately that you wish ...
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    9 min
  • Networking with CPTSD: When We Want to Connect and Hide

    Networking with CPTSD: When We Want to Connect and Hide
    5 Nov 2026
    You know that moment when you’ve found someone you’d really like to connect with, but you can’t quite bring yourself to send the message?You’ve read something they wrote and felt that little spark of recognition. You have something you’d like to say. Maybe you can imagine a conversation, a shared interest, or the relief of meeting someone who understands the work you’re trying to do.You open a message and start typing. For a moment, you feel excited. Then you read it back and begin wondering how it will land. Why would they want to hear from you? Does this sound like you’re trying to sell something? You delete a sentence, soften another, and read the whole thing again.Your cursor hovers over Send. You picture them opening it, and suddenly the words feel too personal. You close the window. You’ll come back when you know what to say.There’s relief in closing it. There’s disappointment, too. You wanted to make that connection, and now you’re back on your own with everything you wished you could have said.For those of us living with the effects of complex trauma, that can be a familiar tension. We want to connect and be seen, while also wanting to pull back somewhere we feel less exposed. When we’re building a business, we may find ourselves meeting that tension every time we try to reach beyond the work we can do on our own.Before We Go Further, Let Me Introduce MyselfI’m Cyndi Bennett, a trauma-informed career coach and Founder of the Resilient Career Academy.I help professionals who have experienced complex trauma and CPTSD understand what’s holding them back at work and build careers they’re proud of.That work includes the relationships we build along the way. Whether we’re working within an organization or building a business, connecting with others can open up possibilities, offer encouragement, and help us feel less alone. It can also bring us face to face with how vulnerable it feels to let someone know us.Lately, I’ve been experiencing that tension myself. I want to reach out, take an interest in others, and make room for people to know me. And sometimes, as that connection becomes possible, I also want to pull back and hide.It leaves me wondering:How do we make room for the connection we want while honoring the part of us that wants to feel safe?Where My Connection Quest BeganThis whole connection quest started in an email marketing workshop. We were learning how to notice where someone might be in their buyer journey by paying attention to their reading behavior. What were they reading? What were they interested in?Then came the suggestion to “just reach out.” Create a connection. Have a dialogue.I could see the possibility in that. There are people reading what I write, and I’d like to know them. I’m curious about what brought them here, what resonates with them, and what matters in their lives. But as I imagined opening a message, I found myself thinking, “What do I even say? How do I do that without seeming creepy?”As entrepreneurs, we receive messages from people offering to help us grow our businesses all the time. We haven’t asked for their help, but they arrive with an offer, a promise, or an assessment of what we need. Sometimes we can feel the sales conversation beginning before we’ve agreed to have one.For some trauma survivors, that attention can feel predatory. Someone has noticed us, decided we need something from them, and begun moving closer. We may find ourselves wondering what they know about us, what they want, and how persistent they’ll become if we don’t respond.So when the advice in the workshop was to “just reach out,” those messages were part of what came to mind. I know how it can feel to be on the receiving end. What if I make someone else feel watched? What if they think my interest in them is the beginning of a sales pitch?And because we were talking about noticing reading behavior, the question became even harder. Someone had quietly chosen to read what I’d written. How could I approach them in a way that respected that choice and their privacy?Now there were two concerns tangled together. I was afraid of being rejected, and I was afraid of making someone else uncomfortable. My heart was pounding, my palms were sweating, and the words were disappearing beneath all the questions. “Just reach out” had become a moment of trying to protect both of us before a conversation had even begun.What We Bring Into the ConversationAs I thought about it, I realized this reached beyond the people who subscribe to my publication. There are people whose publications I subscribe to whom I’d like to know, too. I read something that moves me or makes me curious, and I want to respond. Yet I can feel that same hesitation when I consider making myself known.For some of us, reaching toward another person carries memories of what happened when we tried before. We may have offered a thought, asked for attention, or shared ...
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    13 min
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