Healing Money Trauma and Undercharging: A Recovery Guide for Women Entrepreneurs

Part 3: Healing Money Trauma and Undercharging

Have you ever felt ashamed to charge for your work—especially if you're helping others heal? Or found yourself slashing your rates “just this once,” but then doing it again…and again?

If so, you're not alone—and you're not broken.You're likely carrying money trauma.

As a trauma-informed coach and woman in recovery, I had to face this truth the hard way: My pricing wasn’t just a business decision—it was a reflection of my inner wounds.

In this post, we’ll unpack:

• What money trauma really is

• How it leads to undercharging

• How childhood neglect and codependency affect your relationship with wealth

• Steps to heal your money story so you can charge with confidence and build sustainable income

What Is Money Trauma?

Money trauma is the emotional imprint left by past experiences of scarcity, shame, or stress around finances.It’s not just about growing up without money—it’s about the stories we inherited about worth, safety, and survival.

Examples of money trauma:

• Growing up hearing “we can’t afford that” constantly

• Being told your needs were “too much”

• Watching your parents fight about money

• Being praised only when you worked hard or sacrificed

• Having to be the “responsible one” too early

• Surviving abuse or abandonment and linking money with power or control

These experiences get stored in the body as financial survival patterns.

Signs You're a Codependent Entrepreneur With Money Trauma

• You undercharge to avoid discomfort or rejection

• You feel guilty receiving payment, especially for emotional or spiritual work

• You give discounts no one asked for

• You overdeliver, hoping people will “see your value”

• You feel unsafe raising your prices—even when your costs increase

• You resent clients but blame yourself for “being too sensitive”

Sound familiar? You're not alone—and there’s nothing wrong with you.You're doing business with an inner child running the show.

Why Codependency and Undercharging Go Hand in Hand

Codependency teaches us to:

• Put others first

• Avoid conflict

• Tie our worth to being needed

• Fear being seen as selfish

• Believe love must be earned through sacrifice

Now combine that with money, and you get:

“I’ll keep my prices low so they don’t leave.”“I don’t want to be too much.”“What if they think I’m greedy?”“I just want to help people.”

But here's the truth:You can be generous and still be paid well.You can be kind and still hold your value.You can help people and still build wealth.

The Trauma Behind the Pricing

Let’s look deeper:

Childhood Experience	Business Behavior
Neglected or ignored	Overdelivering for validation
Parentified child	Taking on too much responsibility
Abandonment trauma	Pricing low to avoid being “left”
Emotionally unsafe	Avoiding feedback or rejection
Told to “be nice”	Fear of being assertive in sales

Undercharging is not just a mindset issue. It’s a nervous system issue.Your body is trying to keep you safe—not successful.

Healing Money Trauma as a Woman in Recovery

You don’t just need a pricing strategy. You need somatic and emotional repair. Here’s how to start:

1. Identify Your Money Wounds

Ask yourself:

• What messages did I receive about money growing up?

• When do I feel unsafe around money?

• What emotions come up when I think about raising my prices?

Get them out of your body and onto paper. Name the wound.

2. Separate Pricing From Worth

You are not your rates.You’re not more valuable at $500 than you were at $50.Your pricing reflects your offer’s value and transformation, not your identity.

3. Use Anchoring Practices

Try somatic grounding tools to calm the nervous system during money decisions:

• Box breathing before discovery calls

• EFT (tapping) before sending proposals

• Mirror work: “I deserve to be well-paid for my gifts.”

• Journal prompt: What would I charge if I trusted I was already enough?

4. Practice Saying the Number Out Loud

If your price makes your voice shake, you’ve got healing to do.Say it. Daily. In the mirror. In your journal. With a coach or safe friend.

✨ “My offer is $2,000, and it’s worth every penny.”✨ “This program is $497, and payment is due before we begin.”

5. Stop Explaining Yourself

If you feel the need to over-explain your rates, that’s a trauma response.Let your pricing be clear, clean, and unapologetic.

Script: “Here’s the link to enroll. Let me know if you have any questions.”

No justifying. No begging. No negotiating your value.

6. Create Safety Around Receiving

Set up rituals that make receiving money feel safe:

• Bless each invoice you send

• Practice gratitude when payments come in

• Create a “receiving playlist” with empowering songs

• Track money that comes in (not just bills going out)

When You Heal Money Trauma, Everything Changes

🌿 You stop leaking energy and start owning your worth

🌿 You no longer take it personally when someone can’t afford you

🌿 You attract clients who respect and value your work

🌿 You finally have space to rest, create, and breathe

Because when we heal our money wounds, we no longer treat our business like a charity, or a trauma bond, or an emotional lifeline.

We treat it like the sacred channel of service and abundance that it truly is.

Bonus: Money Reparenting Mantras for Women in Recovery

• “It’s safe to be seen and paid.”

• “I do not have to suffer to serve.”

• “I honor my time, my energy, and my gifts.”

• “I attract clients who value me because I value me.”

• “It’s not selfish to want wealth—it’s self-respect.”

What’s Next?

🔥 Part 4: Saying No in Business Without Feeling Like a B*tch. You’ll learn how to stop people-pleasing and start protecting your peace in your brand, your inbox, and your client relationships.

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Want to go deeper?

• 🧠 Join my email list for recovery-based money healing tools

• 🌱 Check out my coaching offers for women in recovery

• 💬 Share this post with a woman who needs to hear it

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                             Need Help Developing A Plan For Self-Care

Do you want help developing a self-care plan that works for your busy schedule? Do you want accountability in implementing a self-care plan? If you or someone you love is struggling to maintain optimal mental and emotional health, consider reaching out to Spiced Life Conversation Art Wellness Studio and Botanica. We are a Metro Atlanta, Conyers Georgia area. We are a coaching and counseling practice with empathetic, skilled counselors and recovery coaches who can help you set goals, develop a self-care routine, and move forward to build a more fulfilling life. Our team would be happy to work with you either just for a couple of sessions to develop and implement a Self-care plan or longer term to work toward overall better mental health within our membership site or other programs.

About The Author:

Dr. Nikki LeToya White MSEd-TL, Ph.D. RHN is the founder, director, and full-time board-certified trauma-informed nutritionist, folk herbalist, and wellness consultant at Spiced Life Conversation Art Wellness Studio and Botanica. She created Spiced Life Conversation, LLC

Art Wellness Studio and Botanica to provide the Metro Atlanta area with counseling and coaching services where clients are carefully matched with the right program for healing abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma that cause codependency, emotional eating, financial stress, and imposter syndrome as it relates to fear of success and being abandon. We help you begin your emotional healing journey with ease. Recently, we have expanded to include an online membership site so we now provide support to people living all over the world. All of our recovery coaches provide at least one evidence-based treatment to assist in your recovery. Dr. White is a big proponent of self-care and helping people live a fulfilling life! She has been in full remission with both codependency and emotional binge eating disorder since 2016. In living a life in recovery from sugar addiction. Loving her low-sugar balance lifestyle.

Best Regards

Dr. Nikki LeToya White