In this episode of Founders Future, with host Zach Young, we meet Melanie Starr, a holistic well-being coach who specializes in guiding women through the profound life transition of divorce. Melanie shares her own powerful story of her long marriage ending, which was compounded by her daughter's severe illness, leading to a personal crisis where she experienced the neurological impacts of trauma firsthand, such as losing her ability to read. She explains how this inspired her to shift from her career in communications to helping other professional women and founders navigate divorce without losing years of their lives, their financial stability, or their business momentum.

Melanie delves into the science behind trauma, explaining how it shuts down critical brain functions like the prefrontal cortex and language processing, leaving individuals in a risk-averse, reactive state that is detrimental to running a business. She distinguishes her somatic, body-based "therapeutic coaching" approach—using techniques like EFT tapping and EMDR—from traditional talk therapy, emphasizing how her methods help regulate the nervous system to resolve deep-seated trauma without re-traumatization. The conversation also covers her mission to build supportive communities for women and her future goal of expanding into preventative work to help couples "divorce-proof" their marriages by learning to manage their emotions and heal past traumas.