For anyone living with trauma, Leticia Francis believes one thing above all: healing starts with honesty.

That belief is what drives Survival Mode Disrupted, her podcast that brings raw, vulnerable conversations about trauma into the open.

What makes the discussions especially meaningful is that they are the kinds of truths that people — especially in close-knit communities like Bermuda — are usually too afraid to speak aloud.

And like many of her guests, Ms Francis knows what it means to carry a story in silence.

“I am a victim of teenage domestic abuse,” she said. “I was involved with a man that was more than twice my age from the age of 14, and that relationship was abusive, and it ended as a result of me being stabbed.”

She survived — but didn’t initially move on.

“It took me a while. Post the stabbing, we tried marriage counselling — because I ended up marrying this man — but it wasn't until I did separate counselling and I really started learning how to love myself, that I was able to leave with confidence,” the 43-year-old said.

Ending the marriage didn’t make life easier. Without the support she needed to heal, she entered multiple abusive relationships — the first physically violent, the others emotionally or financially harmful. Because she was no longer being hit, she convinced herself that she was finally “out of the weeds”.

“I think I was very naive in thinking that, OK, I'm out of this relationship, and everything will kind of just fall into place, everything will go back to normal,” she said. “It wasn't until about three years ago that I recognised I was still impacted by what happened in my teens and I spent some time getting trauma informed.”

In writing her memoir, which has yet to be published, Ms Francis realised that much of what she had chalked up to personality traits were actually coping mechanisms.

“We don't talk about the residual impact of trauma. I was a people pleaser, I was an overachiever, I was a fixer, a model, all of which I chalked up to be in my personality. I thought I was being nice and, in actuality, those were trauma responses,” she said.

She moved to England 13 years ago after she was arrested at her corporate job because of the behaviour of a man she was involved with.

“Part of the reason why I left Bermuda was just so that I could anchor into my healing and focus on me without the constant reminder of the trauma that I had endured while on the island,” Ms Francis said.

“It was this reconciliation that if I didn't change, this would be my story. I worked with somebody who really helped me to see that although I had been a victim, I was no longer a victim. It helped me change my life.”

In England, she thought she was satisfied with her work at Lloyd’s of London but life took another turn when she started a family. Two babies in three years, and a long maternity leave, pushed her towards introspection. She became certified as a coach and eventually left her job entirely.

Today she describes herself as the “​​Survival Mode Disruptor”. Through her work as “a trauma recovery mentor, keynote speaker, and truth-teller”, Ms Francis helps women to “unlearn survival mode and step into the life they were meant to live — one of power, purpose, and unapologetic transformation”.

It’s laid out in her book, Survival Mode Exit Plan: The No-BS Guide to Reclaiming Your Life After Survival Mode.

“It's really just a raw, honest guide about what it takes to exit survival mode. So it's an outline of my proprietary method that I use with my clients.”

She takes people through three phases: self-awareness, reprogramming and reinvention.

As she puts it, “I believe that the person that we become in order to survive is inherently different from the person we need to be in order to thrive. There needs to be a death of our trauma identities in order for us to move into our higher self. So I use those three phases … that’s the work that I do in order to help them move out of survival mode and take radical ownership of their lives.”

That insight became the foundation of her podcast, which was designed to raise awareness not only of “big-T” trauma such as sexual or physical abuse, but also of the smaller, often overlooked experiences — workplace stress, the pressure of daily life — that can push someone into a constant state of survival mode.

Her intuition was right. One episode — an interview with her best friend’s daughter — drew 32,000 views on LinkedIn alone.

The audience she built led to a second season that focused more closely on Bermudian voices, among them Shanika Darrell on suicidal ideation, D’esta Ascento on domestic abuse, and Francko Harris, a former addict who spent time in prison.

“In Bermuda it is very difficult for people to be open about their traumas, but they're often judged on how they deal with their trauma,” Ms Francis said. “As a community, we are conditioned, in a way, to keep a good face. I salute the people who have agreed to share their stories.”

She believes that trauma’s patterns are universal, and if more people understood that “people will be a little bit more compassionate and maybe have a second thought to vocalising their opinions that aren't really helpful.”

Not all of her guests are Bermudian.

“I've had a Columbine survivor,” she said. “I've had a man discuss wanting to kill his son's mother and how, as he sat and waited to do so, he was able to change his mind. We've had vast discussions about the different modalities of healing — from praying to ketamine to LSD.”

The conversations are intentionally “very raw [and] vulnerable”. Ms Francis hopes that they “trigger someone else to get healing, because they recognise that they are not in this alone, or for the community to support people better”.

“I also advocate for trauma-informed care. I believe that everyone that touches someone who is impacted by trauma should be trauma informed, starting with school systems and the judicial system. But it starts with these conversations that I just love to have.”

Healing, she believes, is possible for anyone.

“Surviving something traumatic is not the final destination. Thriving is.”

• To learn more about Leticia Francis’s coaching or to purchase Survival Mode Exit Plan: The No-BS Guide to Reclaiming Your Life After Survival Mode, visitleticiareneefrancis.com. Her podcast is also available on the website