When trauma isn’t acknowledged, it doesn’t just stay hidden, it shapes how business is built, how visibility is held, and how success is experienced. This conversation with Chantal Vanderhaeghen dives into what happens when trauma is no longer kept separate from business, but instead recognised as a factor that affects clarity, decision-making, and confidence.
Chantal’s journey through C-PTSD, emotional burnout, and business dissolution reveals how deeply trauma can impact every level of a business. From childhood experiences to invisible grief and identity loss, her story reflects what many in business feel but rarely name. And through that naming comes the potential for deep healing, realignment, and authentic growth.
EPISODE 19: Listen using the player below, or click the links to your fave platform to subscribe and listen over there:
The Split Between Persona and Truth
A key theme in Chantal’s journey is the separation between personal pain and professional presentation. This split creates an emotional disconnection. The polished, capable business version of the self is maintained while the struggling, vulnerable side is hidden, until it can no longer be.
The expectation to show up professionally, to “put on the lippy” and perform success, keeps many from speaking about what’s real. But trauma doesn’t disappear behind high-functioning behaviour. It simply hides, distorts, and eventually affects both wellbeing and business health.
Emotional Suppression and Business Collapse
Chantal’s experience highlights the cost of suppressing trauma while trying to run a business. Despite early success with her natural skincare brand, the deeper emotional patterns eventually made the business unsustainable. When emotional suppression meets entrepreneurial pressure, burnout follows.
Dissolving a business can carry shame. But for Chantal, this was a turning point. A moment of honesty. And from that dissolution came the beginning of a more grounded, emotionally honest business path.
Trauma Is Not Always Obvious
One of the most powerful insights shared is how trauma is not always dramatic or visible. A single event—like a car accident—can trigger layers of unprocessed emotion from the past. The body holds everything. And when something activates that stored energy, symptoms like anxiety, brain fog, and emotional shutdown can emerge suddenly.
Chantal’s reflections invite a new level of understanding:
- Trauma is not measured by the event, but by the internal experience and what is carried into it
- Small events can trigger massive emotional responses if there is unresolved history present
- Minimising trauma, by oneself or others, adds to the shame and confusion around healing
- Emotional safety is foundational, especially in business spaces that often ignore mental health
- True healing begins when the body is listened to, not overridden by logic or performance
Acknowledging trauma, rather than hiding it, creates space for growth, empathy, and new direction.
Identity, Grief, and Business Purpose
Chantal’s story touches on a lesser-known form of grief: the grief of identity. When a long career ends or a version of the self is lost, it can feel like standing in a void. There is no clear sense of who one is, only who one was. And in that liminal space, business can become both a lifeline and a mirror.
This kind of grief isn’t often recognised. It doesn’t come with rituals or support. Yet it affects confidence, motivation, and emotional capacity. The recognition of this grief becomes a pathway to redefining success, not as performance or profit, but as presence, rest, and regulation.
Reframing Success and Income
Social media often amplifies narrow definitions of success, six-figure months, seven-figure launches, polished growth stories. For those living with trauma or mental health challenges, this messaging can feel overwhelming or invalidating. Chantal challenges this narrative by reframing success through emotional, physical, and energetic wins.
Success can be getting out of bed. It can be acknowledging pain instead of pushing through. It can be taking a day off, choosing rest, or creating from a place of peace rather than urgency. These moments may not be profitable, but they are powerful.
Supporting Self Through Triggers
When the nervous system is dysregulated, even simple business actions, like going live, running a webinar, or showing up on Zoom, can feel like too much. Chantal shares how understanding her own triggers helped her move from pushing through to supporting herself through discomfort.
Rather than forcing performance, she now listens by connecting with her body and the energy of her business through rituals and lets the pace be set by internal capacity rather than external timelines.
Business as Energy and Relationship
Business is not just structure, it is energy. Chantal now relates to her business as a living entity with its own rhythm and needs. She opens and closes the business energetically each day, creating clear separation and preventing emotional entanglement.
This shift from task-based performance to relational energy work has changed how her business feels, and how it grows. Business becomes more sustainable, more intuitive, and more supportive when held with care.
Final Reflections
This conversation reflects a deeper truth about business: trauma doesn’t disappear in high performance. It needs to be witnessed, integrated, and supported with strategy, softness, and presence.
When trauma is acknowledged, success redefines itself. It becomes rest. It becomes a rhythm. It becomes listening to the body, honouring the truth, and building a business that aligns with what’s real—not just what looks good from the outside.
*Links are correct at time of publishing. Chantal’s Social Media Links
- Website – LINK
- Facebook – LINK
- YouTube – LINK
- Insight Timer – LINK
- We also did a episode for my Arty Thursday YouTube Podcast which you can find here LINK
