Listen "EP 29: Frank Anderson, MD - Challenging the Fear of Rejection and Leading with Vulnerability - Part 2"
Episode Synopsis
Everybody’s carrying a burden that’s weighing them down.
If you dare to care, it is inevitable you will end up carrying the burdens from grief, betrayal, and rejection.
And these burdens are often unseen.
These invisible struggles fuel loneliness, shame, and despair. Eventually, the unaddressed burdens we carry start to impact our ability to live and lead in ways that are important to us. They take their toll on the quality of our work, our relationships, and our well-being.
Yet, instead of transforming the pains from abuse, betrayal, loss, shame, poverty, chronic health struggles and so on, we see them as a poor reflection on our ability to lead, succeed, and provide.
We have breathed in the clear and emphatic message: Hide your pain.
These toxic messages around struggle take a dangerous toll on how we care for ourselves and others.
To engage our teams, support wellbeing, and lead through change, we must model and explore real and honest emotions.
My guest today is dedicating his life’s work to change culture’s toxic messages around struggle and how we approach the burdens we carry.
I am so thrilled Dr. Frank Anderson came back for a continuation of our important conversation we started last month.
Dr. Frank Anderson is one of the nation's leading mental health professionals as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Committed to promoting compassion, hope, healing, and non-violence in the world, Frank specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation and is passionate about teaching brain-based psychotherapy and integrating current neuroscience knowledge with the Internal Family Systems model of therapy. He also travels around the world as a proponent and instructor of the IFS modality.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
How the physiology of hyper- and hypo-arousal in the face of injustice pulls us away from our values and toward burnout, and how leading with love and compassion builds sustainable learning and growth
Why ADHD and trauma are so frequently comorbid, and the neuroscience of how they continue to compound each other
Why simply shutting down your inner critic isn’t working, and a compassionate model of healing from IFS that relieves and heals their burdens
How trauma exists on a wide spectrum, and why acknowledging trauma needs to be seen as a strength
Learn more about Frank Anderson, MD:
FrankAndersonMD.com
Instagram: @frank_andersonmd
Twitter: @FrankAndersonMD
Connect on Facebook
Learn more about Rebecca:
rebeccaching.com
Work With Rebecca
Sign up for the Weekly Rumble Email
Resources:
Transcending Trauma: Healing Complex Ptsd with Internal Family Systems, Frank Anderson
Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder, Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey
The Daring Way
Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD
Janina Fisher
Judith Herman
Chris Burras
More episodes of the podcast The Unburdened Leader
EP 142: The Hidden Leadership and Mental Health Costs of Performative Goodness with Elise Loehnen
31/10/2025
EP 139: Bad Bosses Aren't Born, They're Made: Breaking Toxic Leadership Cycles with Mita Malick
19/09/2025
EP 136: From Overwhelm to Enough: Leading Through Intentional Consumption with Ashlee Piper
08/08/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.