The Rising Beyond Podcast
If you're trying to protect your children while navigating an abusive ex, this podcast is for you. Because leaving the relationship didn't end the abuse, and no one prepared you for what came next.
The Rising Beyond Podcast is for protective mothers navigating the overwhelming reality of sharing children with someone who continues patterns of manipulation, coercive control, or emotional abuse after separation. Join Sybil Cummin, licensed professional counselor, who has spent the last decade helping survivors and their children navigate this incredibly difficult chapter. Every week, we share trauma-informed education, nervous system insights, protective parenting strategies, and honest conversations about family court, post-separation abuse, and healing, so you can feel more confident, more grounded, and better equipped to protect both your children and yourself.
Whether you're in the middle of family court, struggling with parenting alongside someone who continues patterns of control, or simply trying to become the parent you want to be after everything you've survived, you'll find validation, practical guidance, and hope here.
The Rising Beyond Podcast
Ep 200: Epistemic Injury: The Trauma of Not Being Believed
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Sometimes the deepest wound isn't just what happened to you.
It's what happens when you try to explain it, and no one believes you.
In this episode, we are talking about epistemic injury — a form of harm that happens when your reality, your knowledge, or your credibility is questioned, dismissed, or minimized. Many survivors of coercive control experience this not only in their relationships but also in the systems they turn to for help.
If you have ever walked out of a meeting, court appointment, therapy session, or conversation, wondering:
Did I explain that wrong?
Did I sound crazy?
Maybe it really is me…
You are not alone. And you are not imagining the impact this has on you.
In this episode, we talk about:
• What epistemic injury is and why it affects so many survivors
• How not being believed can recreate the effects of gaslighting
• Why this type of injury can be so destabilizing to your identity
• How systemic betrayal connects to epistemic injury
• Signs you may be dealing with epistemic injury
• How healing begins by rebuilding trust in your own perception
• Why healing sometimes means protecting your reality instead of proving it
This conversation is especially important for survivors navigating family court, post-separation abuse, or professional systems that may not fully understand coercive control.
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