Why I Wrote a Book About Stress and Trauma - Burnout, Neurodivergence, and the Model I Wish I Had
In this episode, Dr. Ashley Anne shares the personal story behind Gravity Point® and the creation of the Gravity Point® Anthology.
From a young age, she knew she wanted to be both a doctor and a teacher.
Years later, she became exactly that: a trauma therapist, professor, and academic leader. She earned a doctorate in counselor education, trained at top institutions, and worked alongside world-class experts in mental health.
And yet, despite doing everything “right,” she was sicker than ever.
Chronic dysregulation, burnout, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms persisted, even with therapy, meditation, yoga, strong relationships, and consistent self-care. The advice she received was always the same: “Just take better care of yourself.” But self-care wasn’t the missing piece.
Here's what shifted: treating illness after it develops wasn't enough. Dr. Ashley Anne wanted to help people resolve stress and trauma before it makes them sick in the first place.
So she stepped away from academia and clinical practice to build something different. She wrote a book. She created a method. And she started teaching people how to use stress as information rather than letting it accumulate into disease, disorder, and discord.
In this episode, Dr. Ashley Anne shares:
• How chronic dysregulation made her sick despite elite training and support
• The breakthrough therapy session that changed how she understood stress
• Why conventional stress models (fight, flight, freeze) weren’t enough
• How inaccurate stress language keeps people stuck
• The role of mirroring and vicarious stress in burnout
• How discovering her neurodivergence reframed her sensitivity
• Why highly sensitive and neurodivergent systems often absorb more stress
• How sensitivity can become a superpower
• Why she stepped away from traditional clinical work to build a prevention-based model
She explains how Gravity Point® evolved over 15 years of research and clinical observation into a systematic self-awareness framework that:
- Expands stress beyond fight/flight/freeze to include 20 distinct responses
- Honors both vital stress (what happens to you) and vicarious stress (what happens through you)
- Focuses on resolving dysregulation before it turns into disease, disorder, or relational discord
This episode is for helpers, healers, leaders, highly sensitive people, neurodivergent folks, and anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by both personal pain and collective stress. It is also for anyone who senses they have something meaningful to contribute to the world, but feels too exhausted or disconnected to access it.
🎙️ FREE RESOURCE: Download the Gravity Point® Guidebook to learn the step-by-step method for resolving stress and trauma in everyday triggering situations: https://www.gravitypointinstitute.com/free-guidebook?utm_source=apple-spotify&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=004&utm_id=podcast-2026
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Learn More about the Gravity Point® Paradigm here: https://www.gravitypointinstitute.com/
Gravity Point® is an educational framework for understanding stress responses. It is not a substitute for medical care, mental health treatment, or therapy.
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