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My Story: From Broken to Breakthrough
How I Learned That Healing Isn't Weakness—It's the Bravest Work You'll Ever Do
About Megan Rose
I didn't choose this work because I had it all figured out. I chose it because I was shattered, and I had to learn how to put myself back together.
The Breaking Point
There's a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from working in toxic environments. Not "I need a vacation" tired. Bone-deep, soul-crushing tired. The realization that no matter how hard you work, how much you give, or how perfectly you perform, it will never be enough for people who never intended to see your worth.
I've been the woman who cried in her car before walking into the office. Who stayed late trying to prove her value to leaders already drafting her exit plan. Who questioned whether she was "too sensitive" when the real problem was daily gaslighting. Who lost herself completely trying to meet impossible standards set by people who moved the goalposts every time she got close.
The panic attacks. The sleepless nights. That moment you look in the mirror and don't recognize the person staring back.
That was me.
If that's you right now? If you're reading this at 2 AM because you can't sleep, or in your car during lunch because it's the only place you can breathe? I see you. You're not broken. You're not failing. You're surviving something designed to break you.
The Credentials That Couldn't Protect Me
I had every credential that should have shielded me.
Bachelor's in Organizational Leadership (Summa Cum Laude). Master's in Management and Leadership (4.0 GPA, Strategic Management Award). SHRM-CP. CPRW. Currently pursuing a Doctorate in Organizational Psychology. Over 20 years in HR across healthcare, nonprofit, corporate, and government sectors. Million-dollar budgets. Organizational transformations. 35% employee engagement increases.
On paper, impressive. In reality, drowning.
No credential prepares you for leaders who smile to your face and sabotage you behind closed doors. For being overworked and undervalued while less qualified people get promoted. For being told you're "not a culture fit" when what they really mean is "you make us uncomfortable by holding us accountable."
The Moment Everything Changed
I sat in my car after another devastating performance review. One that contradicted every metric, every success, every piece of positive feedback I'd received all year. Hands shaking. Chest tight. And I thought: "If I stay here, I will lose myself completely."
Surviving wasn't enough. I needed to heal. And I needed to make sure no other woman went through this alone.
So I pursued certifications that honored the whole person: Trauma-Informed Coach. Emotional Intelligence Life Coach. Executive Coach. Certified Management Consultant. Executive Mentoring Specialist.
More importantly, I did the actual healing work. Therapy. Boundary-setting. Learning to recognize red flags. Understanding how trauma rewires your nervous system. Rebuilding my confidence from the ground up.
Two Truths That Exist Together
In the middle of that healing, I discovered something that reframed my entire life.
I am autistic.
Not the stereotype. Autistic the way so many women are: masked, high-achieving, exhausted, and missed.
I am autistic. And I am a survivor of workplace bullying, toxic leadership, and professional betrayal. These are not the same thing. One does not explain away the other.
Being autistic didn't cause my trauma. People did. Leaders who chose to undermine and sabotage. Colleagues who mocked what they called "awkward." Systems that rewarded performance over integrity.
But being autistic, undiagnosed, masking constantly, made me more vulnerable. It made recovery longer. It made the wounds deeper. It made it easier for others to dismiss me as "overreacting."
Suddenly, decades made sense. Why I'd been called "too much" my whole life. Why I could write 15 books but found small talk excruciating. Why I needed the same routine, the same soft pajamas after work, just to regulate. Why a last-minute schedule change could bring me to tears. Why I studied psychology obsessively, trying to decode a world everyone else navigated effortlessly.
I wasn't broken. I wasn't "too sensitive." I was spending enormous energy surviving environments never designed for my neurology.
And I was furious.
Furious at promotions denied because I was "socially awkward." Relationships lost because my honesty felt "too intense." Years spent believing something was wrong with me, when the truth was: I was different, not defective.
That fury became fuel.
How many women are out there right now, drowning in workplaces that punish them for how their brains work? Masking so hard they've forgotten who they are? Being told they're "not a culture fit" when it really means "you don't perform neurotypicality well enough"?
That's who I built this for.
Where I Am Today
Every role I hold connects to one mission: helping people reclaim their power and building workplaces that don't break them.
Career Coordinator, University of Southern Indiana: Serving over 9,000 students in workforce readiness and career development. I see myself in so many of them, especially first-generation students and those who've faced trauma.
Instructor, Romain College of Business: Bringing real-world HR experience and trauma-informed perspective into the classroom.
Director of Workforce Readiness, HR Indiana SHRM State Council: Leading statewide initiatives that bridge the gap between talent and opportunity.
Regional Volunteer Relations Team Member, American Red Cross: Handling complex HR investigations with trauma-informed, emotionally intelligent approaches.
Founder & CEO, Talent Transformation Whisperer, LLC: Creating accessible career empowerment resources for women and HR consulting for organizations ready to build cultures where people thrive.
What I've Learned
Healing isn't linear. Some days you'll feel powerful. Other days, an email triggers you and you're back at square one. That's not failure. That's being human.
Your story isn't a liability. Every gap, every "failed" job, every time you left for your mental health—those are proof you survived. Survival creates wisdom.
Your brain isn't broken. If you've worked twice as hard for half the recognition, if networking drains you, if you've been called "too much"—you might be navigating a neurotypical world without anyone telling you the rules were written for a different brain. That's not your shame. That's information.
Masking has a cost. I performed a version of myself for years. It worked until it didn't. Healing meant learning where I could unmask and how to build a career that didn't require abandoning myself.
Boundaries aren't selfish. They're survival tools. If someone gets upset when you set one, they were benefiting from you having none.
You don't owe toxic people an explanation. The right people will see you and celebrate you exactly as you are.
Leadership doesn't require losing yourself. Authentic leadership means showing up whole—emotions, boundaries, scars, and all.
AI is powerful, but it won't replace your story. I teach people to use AI strategically. But your voice, your intuition, your lived experience? Irreplaceable.
Why I Do This
Because no woman should rebuild alone.
Because I remember sitting in my car, shaking, wondering if I'd ever feel like myself again.
Because I know the shame of employment gaps, the fear of explaining why you left, the exhaustion of pretending you're fine.
Because I know what it's like to be autistic in workplaces that punish you for it without ever naming it.
Because neurodivergent women deserve career support that understands how our brains actually work.
Because healing is possible. And you deserve a guide who's walked this path.
What This Means For You
For Women:
Career support shouldn't cost more than your rent. I create accessible resources to help you advance, heal, and own your career: courses, toolkits, templates, and research-backed frameworks designed for how you actually think.
Whether you're neurotypical, neurodivergent, diagnosed, self-identified, or just starting to wonder—you belong here.
For Organizations:
I partner with organizations ready to build workplaces where more kinds of minds can thrive. HR consulting, workforce readiness strategy, psychological safety training, culture transformation, leadership development.
Workplaces heal when leaders choose people over productivity theater.
Let's Connect
If you're reading this thinking, "She gets it. She gets me," let's talk.
You don't need generic LinkedIn tips or toxic positivity. You need someone who's been in the breakdown, done the healing, and knows how to guide you back to yourself.
That's what I do.
Megan Rose, SHRM-CP, Founder, Talent Transformation Whisperer, LLC Virtual Nationwide
Where trauma-informed healing meets neurodivergent-affirming career transformation.
My Mission, Vision & Values
My Mission
To remove the barriers that keep women from accessing real career support. To create affordable, trauma-informed resources that help women heal from workplace harm and build careers that fit how they actually think. To partner with organizations ready to build workplaces where more kinds of minds can thrive.
My Vision
A world where career support doesn't cost more than your rent. Where no woman sits in her car crying before work, wondering if she's the problem. Where employment gaps are seen as courage, not failure. Where "I had to leave to protect my mental health" is met with respect, not judgment. Where different kinds of brains are accommodated, not punished. Where being "too much" is recognized as depth, not defect. Where success means flourishing, not just functioning. Where authenticity isn't a risk—it's rewarded.
Core Values
ACCESSIBILITY: Career Support Shouldn't Be a Luxury
Too many women can't afford the help they need to rebuild after workplace trauma. Traditional career coaching is expensive. Quality resources are gatekept behind price tags that assume you haven't just survived something that drained your savings, your energy, and your confidence.
I create tools designed to meet you where you are—financially, emotionally, professionally. Courses, toolkits, templates, and frameworks that give you what you need without requiring a massive investment. Because every woman deserves access to resources that help her heal and advance, not just the ones who can afford premium pricing.
HEALING: It's Not Optional, It's Essential
You can't strategy your way out of unhealed trauma. I learned that the hard way.
Your nervous system remembers what your mind tries to forget. Those panic attacks before meetings? That pit in your stomach when you see your boss's name in your inbox? The days of recovery you need after forcing yourself through a networking event? That's not weakness. That's your body protecting you from what hurt you before.
The resources I create honor that. They work with your nervous system, not against it. Real career transformation starts with feeling safe in your own skin again.
BOUNDARIES: Your "No" Is a Complete Sentence
You've been taught that boundaries make you difficult. Uncooperative. Not a team player.
Let me be clear: the people who benefit from you having no boundaries will always make you feel guilty for setting them.
Your "no"—without explanation, without apology, without guilt—is one of the most powerful tools you have. It protects your energy. It preserves your peace. It teaches people that your time, your body, your mental health are not negotiable.
Setting boundaries isn't selfish. Ignoring them is self-destruction.
SURVIVAL: Every Gap Tells a Story Worth Honoring
You left because staying was killing you. You were fired because you refused to stay silent. You pivoted because that version of success was costing you everything.
Those aren't failures. Those are moments you chose yourself when the world told you to keep performing.
That career gap you're trying to hide? It's proof you survived something that could have destroyed you. That's not a liability on your resume. That's leadership experience most people will never understand.
You don't owe anyone a trauma dump to explain your worth.
AUTHENTICITY: You Get to Be Fully Human
You've spent years performing. Pretending the criticism doesn't hurt. Smiling when you're falling apart. Monitoring your facial expressions, your tone, your reactions—terrified you're getting it wrong. Hiding exhaustion because showing fatigue is seen as weakness.
That's not leadership. That's survival mode disguised as professionalism.
Real leadership is saying "I don't have the capacity for that right now." It's admitting when you're struggling. It's leading with empathy because you remember what it felt like to be unseen.
You don't have to be bulletproof to be powerful. You don't have to mask to be professional.
SUSTAINABILITY: Success Without Sacrifice Is Possible
You've been sold a lie that success requires self-destruction. That grinding until you're empty is noble. That rest is laziness. That boundaries are career suicide.
I've watched brilliant women burn out trying to prove they belong in rooms that were never designed for them—or for how their brains work.
Sustainable success is built on self-compassion, not self-punishment. On alignment, not achievement at any cost. On careers that fill you up instead of draining you dry.
Your worth is not measured by your output. You are valuable because you exist, not because you produce.
My Philosophy
What I Reject:
The myth that you can "manifestation journal" your way through trauma without doing the actual healing work. Toxic positivity that tells you to "just be grateful you have a job" while you're being mistreated. Hustle culture that glorifies exhaustion and treats burnout like a badge of honor. Career advice that ignores the shame and fear attached to explaining gaps. The idea that you need to be "fixed" before you're worthy of success. The expectation that you perform neurotypicality to deserve advancement. The gatekeeping that makes quality career support unaffordable for women who need it most.
What I Stand For:
Creating resources that meet you where you are—financially, emotionally, professionally. Validating that what happened to you was real, harmful, and not your fault. Teaching you to recognize red flags so you never ignore your gut again. Building strategy and soul into every resource—because tactics without emotional support don't create lasting change. Trusting your story, your timeline, your healing process. Designing tools for women whose brains work differently, not just women who fit the mold. Understanding that trauma-informed and neurodivergent-affirming aren't marketing terms—they're how I build everything because I've lived it.
For Organizations
I also partner with organizations ready to do the work. HR consulting, workforce readiness strategy, psychological safety training, culture transformation. If you want to build a workplace where more kinds of minds can thrive—where you stop breaking people and start supporting them—let's talk.
Workplaces heal when leaders choose people over productivity theater.
My Promise to You
I promise to create resources that respect your budget and your bandwidth.
I promise to never rush your healing or judge your pace.
I promise to tell you hard truths with compassion, not cruelty.
I promise to build tools that hold space for the versions of you that are angry, grieving, scared, and exhausted—not just the "ready to take action" version.
I promise to remind you that you are not too sensitive, too emotional, too much, or too broken.
I promise to see your scars as evidence of strength, not damage.
You are not the problem. The system that broke you is the problem. You surviving it makes you extraordinary.
These resources exist because I remember what it felt like to need help and not be able to afford it. You deserve tools that help you remember who you were before they tried to break you.