Poverty Trauma in High-Achieving Women: How Growing Up with Financial Instability Keeps You Stuck in Survival Mode

Have you ever heard the term “poverty trauma”?

Me either.

But I’ve lived it — and after years of working with high-achieving women in leadership and entrepreneurship, I see it everywhere.

If you ask me, growing up in poverty — or even poverty-like financial instability — wires your nervous system to live in survival mode. And survival mode is, at its core, a trauma response.

This isn’t about blame.
It’s about understanding what shaped you — so you can finally stop burning yourself out