Some life changes arrive gently. Others feel like a collapse, a dismantling so complete that there’s no going back to who you were before.

In this episode of The Reinvention By Design Podcast, I spoke with Amy Huggins, founder of Ascension Wellness, who describes her journey through trauma, loss, and grief as the catalyst that finally brought her home to herself.

Amy didn’t just experience one moment of hardship. She experienced a wave of losses, one after another: being disowned by her mother, enduring further abuse from family, losing all three of her beloved dogs, and watching her marriage end. Each time she tried to get her footing, another blow would land.

Eventually, she said, it felt like her life shattered faster than she could rebuild it.

“I wasn’t just in grief. I was gone. I was living completely in my trauma identity.”

When Trauma Becomes Identity

Before her breaking point, Amy was already working in wellness coaching, training in holistic life, career, and executive coaching, and later became a Trauma Recovery Coach. She was helping others transform, even as parts of herself remained unhealed and disconnected.

Like many of us, she learned how to function in pain, to perform through it.

But trauma doesn’t ask for performance. It waits. And when everything finally broke, what she found wasn’t emptiness. It was truth.

“Once everything was gone — every illusion, every role, every defense — what was left was me.”

That moment wasn’t polished or empowering. It was raw. But it was real. And from that place, Amy rebuilt through deep reconnection.

Rebuilding a Life That Fits the Soul, Not the Mask

Today, Amy supports coaches, wellness professionals, and entrepreneurs in building businesses that reflect who they really are, not who they became to survive. She teaches how unresolved trauma shows up in business, leadership, and identity, shaping how we serve, communicate, and show up in the world.

She describes her work not as strategy-first, but truth-first because you cannot build something aligned if the person building it still feels like they have to hide who they are.

“Trauma disconnects us from ourselves — healing reconnects us to truth.”

🎙 The full conversation with Amy Huggins is now live on The Reinvention By Design Podcast.

Connect with Amy Huggins — Ascension Wellness

For those who want to explore Amy’s work or connect to her trauma-informed resources and community spaces:

* Website: https://www.ascensionwellnesslife.com/

* Thriving Entrepreneurs Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thrivingentrepreneursandcoaches

* Podcast – Becoming & Belonging: https://www.ascensionwellnesslife.com/becoming-and-belonging-podcast-a-journey-of-identity-and-culture/

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ascensionwellnesslife

* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dragonfish0221/

Amy’s work is rooted in the belief that once we stop living from trauma identity, we can finally build lives that reflect our truth, not our patterns.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennycotten.substack.com