Show Notes
Praise, Obedience, Burnout: The Real Job Description for Trauma Survivors. Ana satirical monologue exposing how workplaces—especially those rooted in hierarchical, exploitative systems—capitalize on the trauma responses of emotionally abused individuals. Through a faux job advertisement, she uncovers how survivors of emotional abuse often become ideal employees not because of their strengths, but because of the survival mechanisms they've developed: perfectionism, hypervigilance, over-compliance, and a deeply ingrained need for external approval.
Key Takeaways:
1. Satire as Social Critique
Ana uses mock corporate language ("Can we have your attention please?", "benefits and perks are not monetary") to mimic recruitment lingo, but she flips the script—revealing how trauma survivors are often groomed to over-function in systems that don’t truly value or nourish them. The “job” being advertised isn’t one that fosters healing—it’s one that feeds off their unresolved trauma.
2. Trauma Responses as Capital
This piece makes clear that in many organizations:
Hypervigilance is reframed as “astute ability to recognize the needs of executives”
Compliance and obedience are rewarded with praise, not boundaries or equity
Perfectionism is exploited under the guise of “high standards”
In essence, the emotional labor and nervous system dysregulation of survivors are being weaponized to benefit systems that offer praise instead of pay, attention instead of support.
3. Conditional Belonging
The sarcastic line—“You will matter to us and we will pay attention to you for a full 15 minutes”—pierces into the heart of trauma-informed performance. Survivors are often conditioned to feel that any amount of attention is a form of love, even when it’s shallow, performative, or transactional.
4. The Cult of Praise
The “salary” being offered is approval, praise, and feeling seen. Ana is pointing to how survivors often work themselves to the bone to earn the smallest crumbs of validation, especially when they were denied emotional safety growing up. These are false rewards, but to a nervous system trained in neglect or abuse, they can feel like survival.
What Ana Is Really Saying:
This is not about jobs—it’s about how systems recruit unhealed parts of people to uphold toxic dynamics. Ana is issuing a warning to survivors:
“Just because they say you are seen doesn’t mean they see you. Just because they praise you doesn’t mean they respect you. Don’t confuse recognition with restoration.”
Why This Episode Matters:
It’s radical truth-telling in a world where capitalism thrives on unhealed trauma.
It helps survivors recognize the dynamics that exploit them, not empower them.
It invites a shift from external validation to internal liberation.
It’s disarming, but it doesn’t coddle—it illuminates.
Exiled & Rising – Premium Podcast Membership. JOIN FOR FREE: https://exiledandrising.supercast.com/
New. Micro Lesson.Years of unlearning : https://exiledandrising.mykajabi.com/signup
Get the Book: The Trauma We Don't Talk About – Ana Reads from Volume 1 : https://amzn.to/41SjKKL
❤️ Please donate .
This podcast is independently run. No production teams. Fancy edits. Only a truth & storytelling.
https://buy.stripe.com/3cscOqbbXfZp0sU7ss
Somatic Trauma Recovery CenterLearn more about Ana’s trauma healing practice, somatic tools, and programs.https://www.somatictraumarecoverycenter.com/
About Ana Mael:
Ana Mael is a genocide survivor, somatic therapist, and author of The Trauma We Don’t Talk About. She is the founder of the Somatic Trauma Recovery Center and has dedicated her career to helping survivors reclaim their identity, dignity, and self-trust.
With decades of lived experience, Ana offers a unique, unapologetic approach to healing that combines trauma justice, somatic therapy, and spiritual integrity. She advocates for vulnerability, accountability, and collective healing to dismantle the systems that perpetuate oppression and harm.
Ana’s work provides a critical lens into the trauma of marginalized communities and offers a roadmap for healing that is both deeply personal and collectively transformative.
Chapters
- (00:00:01) - Hiring the Emotional Abused
