Growing up around addiction, dysfunction, or emotional unpredictability shapes you — and it can show up in your business and career.

In this episode of The Gutsy Podcast, LauraAura sits down with Jess Frost, a trauma-informed Self-Leadership and Emotional Agility Coach who specializes in working with Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA).

Jess shares how early experiences with addiction and codependency influence identity, boundaries, emotional regulation, and confidence in adulthood — especially for high-achieving women and entrepreneurs. Together, they explore what self-leadership actually means, how trauma responses can quietly drive decision-making, and why healing isn’t about blaming the past but understanding it.

This conversation is honest, grounding, and empowering — especially if you’ve ever struggled with people-pleasing, over-responsibility, emotional suppression, or difficulty trusting yourself.

You are not defined by your history. And healing doesn’t mean rewriting it — it means reclaiming your voice within it.

In This Episode

• What it really means to be an Adult Child of Alcoholics (ACOA)
• How childhood dysfunction shapes adult identity and leadership
• The link between codependency and high achievement
• Trauma responses that look like “strength” on the outside
• Emotional agility and learning to feel without collapsing
• Why self-leadership is the opposite of self-abandonment
• Reclaiming your voice after years of people-pleasing
• How healing impacts business, relationships, and boundaries

Want a space to practice this kind of inner work and communication in real time? Come join The Gutsy Collective — a space for high-achieving women building new foundations and making the small, consistent moves that matter. This is where we practice being seen, heard, and supported—together.

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