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Vibha Vinodrai | Somatic Leadership Coach for Women

@healherway

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I help women in corporate lead in the AI era, be visible & speak up through nervous system regulation
📈12+ yrs - Strategist in Corporate
👉🏽DM ‘leader’

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Comment “COMMUNITY” and I’ll send you a link to join my free Skool community ↓

Your job isn’t burning you out. The way you’re doing life is.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Most of us grew up in environments where love, approval, or safety felt conditional.

You got it when you
✨performed well,
✨stayed quiet,
✨didn’t cause problems,
✨made people comfortable.

So your nervous system did what it was designed to do — it learned the rules to keep you safe.

The problem is you’re still playing by those rules. At 32. In a boardroom. On a Zoom call. In a one-on-one with your manager.

Hypervigilance isn’t a personality trait. It’s a survival response that got wired in early.

✨It’s why you’re reading the energy of every person in the room before you’ve said a word.
✨Why you rehearse conversations in the shower.
✨Why one piece of critical feedback can derail your entire day.

Your nervous system is doing its job — it’s just doing a job from an operating system built when you were 7 years old.

A regulated nervous system doesn’t need to earn its place in the room. It’s not scanning for danger in someone’s tone. It can hear feedback without collapsing. It can set a boundary without bracing for impact.

That shift doesn’t happen through more discipline or mindset work. It happens when your body finally learns that it’s safe.

Comment “COMMUNITY” and come do that work with us for free!

#nervoussystemhealing #nervoussystemregulation #burnoutrecovery #womenincorporate #corporateburnout hypervigilance somatic healing embodied leadership workplace burnout high achieving women inner child healing trauma informed women’s mental health healherway taken in Toronto, Canada by @healherway

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5 months ago

Comment “COMMUNITY” and I’ll send you free access to my Skool community ↓

I did everything right.

I worked hard. Spoke up. Said the right words. Made connections. Impressed people.

But the results just weren’t there.

And if I’m honest — I did have a strategy. It just wasn’t a real one.

It was: work hard and hope the right people notice you and pick you.

Nobody told me that strategy was designed to keep me waiting, lost and playing small.

Systemic bias exists against women — but I was also stuck in a victim mindset. No one taught how to ask for what I wanted.

No wonder I burned out fast and hard.

I lost a lot before I figured that out. The money I didn’t ask for. The titles I didn’t claim. Years of playing small because visibility felt dangerous.

Here’s what I know now: you cannot ask for what you deserve if your body doesn’t feel safe enough to. Safety is foundational to growth, expansion and leadership.

This account exists so you don’t have to learn that the hard way.

In this space — I help women in corporate negotiate their salary, ask for bigger titles, speak up without spiralling, stop overworking, and navigate toxic workplaces with their mental health intact.

Not by thinking differently. By finally feeling safe enough to take up the space you’ve already earned.

Comment “COMMUNITY” and come find your people. 🖤

#womenleadership #corporatewomen #womenleading #womenincorporate #burnoutprevention

Women empowerment, women in leadership, CEO, Director, VP, corporate coach, leadership training, wfh, wfh moms, working moms taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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5 months ago

Nobody told me this when I was mid-career.

I was doing everything right. Speaking up. Raising my hand. Leading projects.

And still being told I wasn’t visible enough.

That feedback broke something in me — and then rebuilt me.

Because what I discovered changed how I lead, how I coach, and how I see every woman who comes to me saying “I don’t know why I’m being overlooked.”

Sylvia Ann Hewlett studied thousands of leaders and found the answer was Gravitas — the quality that makes someone visibly leadership material. Not louder. Not more airtime. Something deeper.

Herminia Ibarra’s research showed it’s not capability holding women back — it’s an identity shift that hasn’t been supported. Women know what to do. They just don’t yet feel safe enough in their bodies to do it without waiting for permission.

That’s the nervous system piece nobody talks about.

When visibility feels like danger — you hide in the process, wait for approval, over-prepare, under-claim.

Real visibility isn’t performed. It’s embodied.

Swipe to see what Gravitas is really made of. 👉

Comment ‘VISIBILITY ’ and I’ll send you the visibility strategy that fast tracks your journey.

#WomenInLeadership #EmbodiedLeadership #GravitasForWomen #NervousSystemLeadership #VisibilityAtWork taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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4 months ago

Are you the primary breadwinner in your home? Your income isn’t a bonus. It’s the mortgage.

More women are the primary breadwinner than anyone talks about. A lot of us keep it quiet, to protect our partner or because there’s shame wrapped up in it. And often it isn’t a role we chose. We took it on because someone had to.

But that silence has a cost.

There’s a gender pay gap. So when a woman is the breadwinner, her whole family is earning less. And when no one at work knows what you’re carrying, your income gets treated like a nice extra. Something that can wait until next cycle.

That’s not a you problem. It’s a flaw in an unjust system. But until it changes, you can’t afford to leave money on the table.

In 12 years in corporate, I watched who got the raise and who didn’t. The difference was rarely the quality of the work. It was how they asked, who was advocating for them in rooms they weren’t in, and whether they let “not right now” be the final answer.

You’re not just asking for yourself. You’re asking for your family. Ask like a provider.

Swipe through for what to do before your next review, and save this for the day you need the reminder.

If you’re a woman who’s the primary breadwinner and you want that raise or promotion, comment RAISE and I’ll send you my Raise Readiness Workbook. It walks you through translating your impact, naming your number, and handling pushback.

#womenincorporate #breadwinnerwomen #genderpaygap #salarynegotiation #womenleaders taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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5 days ago

Part 1 was the red flags. Part 2 is about what it looks like when a manager is truly in your corner. After 12 years in corporate, these are the signs I learned to trust.

1. Their appreciation feels genuine.
Not a generic “great job.” They notice the specific thing you did better, improved upon and why it mattered.

2. They see your gaps and your potential, and they tell you both.
You always know where you stand and where you could go. Nothing in your performance review comes as a surprise.

3. They trust you with more responsibility.
Sometimes before you feel ready. Not to test you, but to grow you, and they stay close enough to support you through it.

4. They ask what you want for your career.
Not just what they need from you this quarter.

5. They protect you in rooms you’re not in.
Sometimes you only find out from someone else. A colleague once told me, “He’s very protective of you.” I had no idea and just hearing that made me feel safer in corporate.

6. They own their mistakes in front of you.
Which makes it safe for you to own yours.

7. They let you in on big changes
You get the deets about the changes coming your way so you are prepared instead of blindsided.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “I’ve never had a manager like this,” you’re not alone. And a lot of this relationship can be built from your side of the table too.

I created a free guide on how to do that, from regulating yourself before the 1:1 to sharing your wins in a way that actually lands.

Comment “Ally” and I’ll send it to you.

#WomenInCorporate #WomenInLeadership #CareerAdvice #CorporateLife ManagerRelationship by @healherway

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13 days ago

Have you experienced any of these red flags? I’ve had managers who were true allies and managers who just weren’t. The red flags aren’t always loud. Sometimes your manager is perfectly nice to you and still not on your side.

1. You hear about big, shocking changes at the same time as everyone else.
A manager who’s in your corner lets you in early, because they want you prepared, not blindsided.

2. You do the work, they present it.
This was a big one for me. A manager who has your back puts you in the room with senior leaders and lets you present your own work, with your name on it.

3. Everyone else appreciates your work, except them.
Your peers notice. Other leaders notice. But your manager downplays your impact, overlooks your contributions, or just doesn’t see your full potential. Maybe you’ve been working together for a while and you feel they’ve put you in a box and can’t see you as a leader.

4. You get blamed before anyone hears your side.
When something goes wrong, their first instinct is to point at you, not to understand what happened.

5. They never make time to mentor you or are incapable of mentorship.
You get tasks, not growth. Your career conversation keeps getting pushed to “next quarter.”

6. You brace before every 1:1.
Your shoulders tense. Your stomach drops. Your body often knows before your mind is ready to admit it that you don’t feel safe to be yourself around them.

Now, the honest part. I don’t believe it’s always the manager. We play a role in every relationship dynamic we create. So ask yourself: am I showing up with integrity? Am I contributing? Am I clear about what I need?

If the answer is yes and they still don’t see you, that’s worth bringing up. Not as a complaint, but as a conversation.

I created a free guide on how to have that conversation, from regulating yourself before the 1:1 to sharing your wins in a way that actually lands.

Comment “Ally” and I’ll send it to you.

#WomenInCorporate #WomenInLeadership #CareerAdvice #CorporateLife #ManagerRelationship taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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14 days ago

Okay, I’ve had this rant on repeat lately. Why are they still here? Just let go so we can do things differently.

But after 12 years in corporate and years studying the nervous system, I think something else is going on.

Most boomers were raised by parents who lived through war and scarcity. Survival mode got passed down as normal. Push through. Don’t feel. Provide at all costs.

So a whole generation built their identity on output. Their work became their worth.

And survival mode doesn’t retire.

For a nervous system like that, leaving doesn’t feel like freedom. It feels like disappearing. They’re not hanging on because they love the job. They’re hanging on because their body doesn’t know who it is without it.

Here’s the part that stung for me.

If you’re a corporate woman stuck in prove-myself mode, over-delivering, unable to delegate, feeling guilty every time you rest, this isn’t just their story. It’s where that pattern leads if nothing changes.

The real work isn’t waiting for them to leave. It’s making sure our nervous systems don’t follow the same script.

If you want to build a career where your worth isn’t tied to your output, DM me “Leader” and let’s talk about what that looks like for you.

#corporatewomen #nervoussystemregulation #womeninleadership #burnoutrecovery #millennialwomen by @healherway

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18 days ago

Judging celebrities creates a fear that you too will be judged when you become visible as a leader and it’s going to make you want to play small or shrink.

Also when we mock him for crying on a stage we are literally telling men that if they show vulnerability, they will be mocked. There is no right way to be a victim and supporting p@l3stine doesn’t require us to bring other people down or mock other people who are actually using their voice to break down barriers.

#edsheeranfans #consciousleadership #corporatewomen #leadershipcoaching #womenleadership taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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a month ago

Mamdani’s leadership shows us what’s possible even in one of the most corrupt environments. I don’t think corporate is very different from politics. The next generation of leaders have much to learn from Mamdani. Tell me what you learned from him in the comments.

#mamdani #corporatewomen #womenleadership #consciousleaders #leadershipskills taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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a month ago

I ran the numbers on every time I people pleased instead of asking for what I was worth. The total: a quarter of a million dollars. Gone — not to one bad call, but to six years of small, “reasonable” choices people make every day.

People pleasing isn’t just being “too nice.” It is constantly worrying about what other people think not just of what you wear and say but also of your financial standing.

It’s doing what they want instead of what you want. It’s a symptom of low self-worth, not a personality trait.

If you’re a woman who’s ever gone quiet in a negotiation, taken the smaller ask, or picked “safe” over “right” — that’s not a confidence problem. That’s a nervous system that never learned what safety feels like at a bigger size.

It’s a nervous system that doesn’t know its own value and worth so you keep shrinking.

Comment “RAISE” if you’re ready to ask for what you deserve. Or tell me below — what has people pleasing cost you?

#nervoussystemregulation #peoplepleasing #womenincorporate #raise #moneymindset taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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a month ago

I always say corporate is 50% work, 50% relationship building.

And if you want better relationships, you need better communication. And if you want better communication, you need emotional intelligence. That’s the chain.

Most women in corporate are terrified of emotions. Emotions get put on a tight leash the second you walk into a meeting. But here’s what changed everything for me: your thoughts are the language of your mind. Your emotions are the language of your body. You can’t communicate well if you’re only fluent in one language.

So how do you actually practice this?

❤️1. — get intimate with your own emotions. Just start noticing. “Oh, anger is here.” “Sadness is here.” “Fear is here.” That’s it. That’s the whole first step.

❤️2. — validate before you problem-solve. With yourself and with others. “That sounds really hard.” “That sounds frustrating.” Reflect it back before you try to fix it.

❤️3. — practice this with people you already feel safe with first. You don’t need to bring this into your hardest conversation on day one.

Emotions aren’t the thing blocking your productivity. AVOIDING them is.

If this landed, drop an emoji in the comments!

#emotionalintelligence #corporatewomen #nervoussystemregulation #communicationskills #womenatwork taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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a month ago

Comment ALLY and I’ll send you the exact scripts ↓

Some of my managers advocated for me. Some didn’t. The ones who didn’t taught me the thing I actually needed to learn: advocating for yourself is a skill, not a personality trait.

Corporate women, if you’re waiting to be noticed instead of turning your manager into someone who actively advocates for you, this one’s for you.

It starts with converting your wins into impact language instead of effort language.

✨ “I finished the report” becomes “I finished it two days early, which gave the team time to catch an issue before it hit leadership.”

✨ “I helped onboard the new hire” becomes “I cut onboarding time in half, so the team hit its deadline without slipping.”

✨ “I stayed late to fix the client issue” becomes “I resolved it before it became a churn risk.”

Same work. Completely different sentence. One gets remembered. One doesn’t.

Comment ALLY and I’ll send you the exact scripts.

#corporatewomen #careeradvice #workplaceculture #leadershipdevelopment #womenincorporate taken in Toronto, Ontario by @healherway

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2 months ago