Confidence Comes From Within: A VEST Member’s Guide to Sustainable Leadership

In a culture that prizes overwork and perfection, it’s all too easy for professional women to become untethered—from their needs, their bodies, and even their sense of self. Anna Craycraft knows this intimately—not just through her clinical work as a psychologist, but through her lived experience as a woman, mother, founder, and healer.

VEST Member Anna Craycraft, Co-Founder of W Collective

As co-founder of W Collective, a space where yoga therapy and psychotherapy intersect, Anna is part of a growing movement to reclaim wellness—not as a luxury or afterthought, but as a radical, essential act of leadership.

For Anna, healing isn’t about achieving some ideal version of calm. It’s about honoring the full complexity of our lives and the unspoken emotional labor so many women carry with them.

“We do our most meaningful and fulfilling creating and producing, when we do so out of a sense of our own deep value, dignity and worth.”

Whether she’s guiding clients through burnout recovery, teaching women to tune into their inner wisdom, or coaching VEST members toward greater self-compassion, Anna’s work centers one powerful truth: that slowing down isn’t stepping back—it’s stepping into your power.

Q&A with VEST Member and Coach Anna Craycraft

You created W Collective as a space where psychology and yoga intersect. What inspired you to bring these two disciplines together, and what was missing from traditional models of wellness?

My cofounder, Aimee Benton and I were inspired to create W Collective because we could see that psychotherapy alone, while helpful in giving people skills and especially in building that profound relationship between the therapist and client, was really missing some important elements. When we combined yoga therapy with psychotherapy, we were able to help people get back into their bodies and reach more deeply into their emotional experiences and heal from trauma. Our bodies are such profound ways of knowing, and so much about how we live encourages us to cut ourselves off from these ways of knowing.

Your work is rooted in the mind-body connection. How can women—especially professionals under constant pressure—begin to recognize and respond to signs of disconnection or burnout?

This is a great question! I think the answer must be multifaceted. There are so many messages to women, regardless of their profession or industry, that tell them that their senses of self and personal experiences are not worth their time. Simply taking the time to reflect, to be still, to think about how we are actually feeling, physically and otherwise, in our day-to-day lives, is an act of resistance in so many ways. And then – and this can be harder for many women – we need to never stop asking for the help we need. That can be saying that we need less stress in our lives (leaning in and saying yes have their limits!), seeking therapy or other forms of mental healthcare, or setting important boundaries with the people in our lives.

In a world that often values productivity over presence, how do you help women give themselves permission to slow down, reflect, and heal?

This permission starts with addressing the deeply held beliefs in many women that we are valuable because we produce, or give, or help. This is backwards. We do our most meaningful and fulfilling creating and producing when we do so out of a sense of our own deep value, dignity and worth. So when I work with women who are trapped in the producing-burnout cycle I start by asking how they truly see themselves. And we begin to heal from there in very individual ways, based on each woman’s unique story. 

Trauma-informed care is central to your work. What does that mean in practice, and why is it especially important for women navigating leadership or caregiving roles?

Oklahoma has the highest ACES scores of any state in the country. We are a community of the walking wounded, in terms of early trauma. It is isolating and unrealistic to expect that our female leaders don’t carry some of these scars. So when I work with or meet women in leadership positions, I assume that they carry rich and complex histories that can lead to relational challenges, potential for burnout, and a need for space to be a real human. I don’t ask for superhuman responses to stressful or disrespectful situations. I expect humanity :)

As a clinical psychologist and yoga teacher, how do you blend science and spirituality in your approach to personal transformation?

My training has led me to know that we are more than just our bodies OR just our brains. We are mysterious and powerful beings who can and do change for the better with care and help. So I use high quality research about increasing our window of tolerance for intense or stressful situations through yoga therapy, while acknowledging that no one is fully predictable or responds in the same way to every therapeutic activity. Many women carry invisible emotional labor.

How do you support clients in setting boundaries and reclaiming their sense of agency—both internally and externally?

This work has to start internally, with clients giving themselves the permission to say no, to stop and rest, to prioritize, or even just know what they need. We can exercise so much agency in professional settings or for those we care about. Let’s start to apply that to ourselves. And then the work begins to set those boundaries and ask for what we need from those around us.

What drew you to join VEST as a coach, and how do you hope to serve women within this unique peer network?

I know that so many women may not need or want traditional therapy, but coaching can feel more accessible and less intense. Also, I feel so grateful to VEST and StitchCrew for the ways they’ve invested in me and in W Collective. I want to give back what I can in my capacity!

You’ve created a physical and emotional sanctuary through W Collective. What have you learned about holding space for others, and what advice would you give women who are always the ones doing the holding?

I’ve learned that holding space is not actually that complicated! Simply being authentically accepting and present, and opening our doors wide, has allowed folks from all walks of life to find peace and comfort here. I would tell women that holding space becomes much less heavy when we don’t take it so seriously! We can just be ourselves, and allow those who are drawn to our spaces to come. Yes, get your voice and brand out there - and then just be real and present! 

As a founder and mental health provider, how do you care for yourself while supporting others—and what practices have become non-negotiable in your life?

I absolutely prioritize time with my family. They ground me and remain a port in the storm. But I also need my own spaces. I make sure that I am still running several miles a week, that I’m spending time in my garden and that I’m reading something that engages me. These three activities are vital for my ongoing wellbeing.

When you think about a more equitable and compassionate future for women, what does it look like—and how can healing spaces like yours play a role in creating that future?

My vision of a more equitable and compassionate future for women necessarily includes a normalization of the realities of women’s multifaceted lives. We are deeply invested in our families, our neighborhoods, schools, faith communities, and our occupations. And this is not changing. So let’s create a world where women are encouraged and given formal space to hold all of the roles that we want and need to hold. That means that places like W Collective become places where women can address the issues that were not addressed at earlier times in their lives. W Collective encourages openness and inclusion and it acknowledges that real hurt needs space for healing. So let’s create a world where that space is supported through funding, actual and flexible time off, and workplace emotional safety and understanding.