When life changes overnight, survival takes over but healing requires intention.

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair Podcast, host Kim Russell sits down with Theresa Mazzuco, founder of Your Business Blueprint, to explore what happens when trauma, stress, and entrepreneurship collide.

After her father’s heart attack, Theresa suddenly found herself running his company while battling her own health anxiety, and complications brought on by chronic stress and grief.

Through her journey, she discovered how unresolved trauma lives in the body, how functional and integrative medicine can restore balance, and why nervous-system awareness is essential for leaders and founders.

Today, Theresa helps early-stage entrepreneurs use her Start Smart Framework to create solid business foundations that can hold through life’s hardest moments.

Together, Kim and Theresa discuss:

• The link between grief, the nervous system, and chronic illness
• How to navigate burnout, caregiving, and leadership after trauma
• The difference between symptom management and root-cause healing
• Practical ways to build sustainable, trauma-informed business systems
• Why alignment and self-trust are more powerful than hustle
• 
  

This episode is both heartfelt and educational—a reminder that success doesn’t have to come at the expense of your health. I

f you’ve ever ignored your body’s warnings or pushed through burnout, this story will help you slow down, breathe, and rebuild with compassion.

trauma-informed entrepreneurship, Theresa Mazzuco, Your Business Blueprint, Start Smart framework, sustainable small business, grief and entrepreneurship, stress and autoimmune symptoms, functional vs traditional medicine, nervous-system regulation, trauma-conscious leadership, women in business, healing while building, Kim Russell, The Survivor’s Chair Podcast

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Order the book The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

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