The Rising Beyond Podcast
Are you ready to thrive as you are coming out of a toxic or abusive relationship? Join Sybil Cummin, a licensed professional counselor who has specialized in working with victims and survivors of domestic violence and narcissistic abuse for over a decade and runs a membership community for women on their healing journey. On this podcast you will finally feel understood and your experience will be validated as you learn tangible strategies to handle family court, coparent with your abuser, improve your connection with your children, and heal from the trauma of narcissistic abuse and domestic violence.
Episodes
209 episodes
Bonus Coaching: Afraid CPS Will Believe Your Ex? What Protective Parents Need to Know
When child protection gets involved, it can feel like everything your ex threatened is starting to happen.Many survivors were told: “If you leave, I’ll make sure everyone thinks you’re unstable—and I’ll take the kids.”So ...
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Ep 200: Epistemic Injury: The Trauma of Not Being Believed
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 reali...
Ep 199: Changing the System From the Inside: A Law Enforcement Perspective on Domestic Violence with Captain Eric Threlkeld
What if the most important parts of your story were never being asked about?Many survivors share a similar fear when the call in law enforcement for help:What if they only look at what happened that day… and not everything that l...
Ep 198: Religious Betrayal: When Faith Communities Don’t Recognize Abuse
What happens when the place you expected to find support becomes another place where you feel unseen?In this episode, we talk about religious betrayal and how it shows up for survivors of coercive control and domestic abuse. Many survivo...
Ep 197: Manufactured Crazy: When an Abuser Provokes the Reaction They Later Use Against You
Have you ever felt like your ex keeps pushing and pushing until you finally react… and then suddenly you’re the problem?In this episode, we’re talking about what I often call manufactured crazy — when someone intentionally provo...
Bonus Coaching Session: When Your Parenting Plan Needs More Specificity (and Your Attorney Pushes Back)
What do you do when you know vague parenting plan language will create problems, but your attorney says you’re asking for too much detail?In this Bonus Coaching episode, we look at a common situation many protective parents face: trying ...
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Ep 196: Hope After 12 Years of Post-Separation Abuse: Jennifer’s Story
There is something many survivors quietly wonder but don’t always say out loud:Will this ever end?Will my kids be okay?Will I ever feel like myself again?In this episode, I sit down with Jennifer, who spent over a decade n...
Ep 195: Why Emotional Intelligence Matters More Than Ever After Coercive Control
Have you ever walked out of a court hearing, a meeting with a professional, or even a hard parenting moment and thought, “Well, that didn’t come out the way I meant it?”Maybe your anxiety came out sharp. Maybe yo...
Ep 194: Why the Jeffrey Epstein Coverage Is So Triggering for Survivors
How are you, really? With the Jeffrey Epstein coverage everywhere, many survivors are feeling triggered, angry, betrayed, and exhausted. The language in the media. The redactions. The victim blaming. The protection of powerful people. It is a r...
Ep 193: Trust Your Gut: Reclaiming Safety After Coercive Control
We have been conditioned to be polite over safe. To make others comfortable even when our bodies are signaling danger. To be small, sweet, accommodating.That conditioning increases risk for women, especially survivors of coercive control...
Bonus Coaching Session: When Abusive Exes Team Up: Custody Threats, Coercive Control, and What to Do
A mother of three is navigating ongoing post-separation abuse from two different ex-partners. After disagreeing with a proposed school and therapist change, her second ex escalated with threats of full custody, weaponizing her trauma history an...
Ep 192: Disability Rights in Family Court: What Survivors with Anxiety or PTSD Need to Know (Part 1)
Family court is one of the most overwhelming environments a trauma survivor can face.For some survivors, the idea of court brings intense anxiety, panic, or shutdown. For others, it feels like a space where they must perform calm and com...
Ep 191: What the Research Shows About Family Court, Abuse, and Child Safety with Joan Meier & Danielle Pollack
What happens when survivors of domestic violence and coercive control enter family court isn’t just anecdotal — it’s documented, researched, and deeply concerning.In this episode of The Rising Beyond Podcast, Sybil is joined by ...
Ep 190: Parentification After Abuse: When Children Are Asked to Carry Adult Emotions
What happens when one parent leans on a child emotionally and you are determined not to do the same?Many protective parents notice it quietly at first.Their child starts worrying about the other parent.They feel responsible for a...
Ep 189: “High-Conflict” Divorce, Mediation, and Child-Centered Parenting Plans with Laura Lorber
Parenting plans, mediation, and negotiations are some of the most stressful parts of divorce — especially when abuse, coercive control, or high conflict are involved.In this episode of The Rising Beyond Podcast, Sybil is joined ...
Bonus Coaching Session: When Facts Don’t Matter: Parenting a Child Aligned With an Abusive Ex
In this Friday Coaching Corner, Sybil responds to a protective mother navigating ongoing post-separation abuse involving her highly gifted, autistic teenager. The abusive co-parent has repeatedly pulled the child into adult financial and legal ...
Ep 188: Custody Evaluations Explained: What Evaluators Look For and What Can Go Wrong
Custody evaluations tend to bring up two very different reactions for survivors.For some, the idea of an evaluation is terrifying, especially if they have heard stories about how much power evaluators hold and how often survivors feel mi...
Ep 187: Mend or Move On? How to Decide If a Relationship Is Too Toxic with Kate King, LPC
Should you keep trying to repair a relationship, or is it time to walk away? If you’ve found yourself repeatedly questioning the level of toxicity in your relationships — with a parent, sibling, friend, or even a new romantic partner — this epi...
Ep 186: Will My Child Become an Abuser? What Teens Really Need from the Protective Parent with Riley Cochran, LPC
If you are a protective parent trying to “co-parent” with a narcissistic ex-partner, you’ve likely found yourself awake at night wondering how all of this will shape your child’s future.Will my child grow up to be an abuser?Will my c...
Ep 185: Starting the New Year When You’re Still Facing Post-Separation Abuse
What do you do when you’re staring down a new year and your life looks nothing like what you imagined? When you’re navigating post-separation abuse, family court chaos, or the long tail of coercive control, the idea of setting goals or creating...
Ep 184: Going Pro Se in Family Court: How to Represent Yourself and Protect Your Kids with Casey Brinkman
Take a listen to this episode that listeners come back to frequently.If you are a survivor in the battle ground of family court, would you say that your attorney is representing you well?Do you feel heard? Or maybe y...
Ep 183: Co-Parenting with a Narcissist: Strategies for Modifying the Parenting Plan
I'm sharing this episode again as it's one that many of you listen to frequently. If your parenting plan is not working or there has been a change in yours or your child’s lives to where the parenting plan no longer reflects the actual ...
Ep 182: Breaking Down Coercive Control with Kate Amber, MS
Enjoy this fan-favorite rerun episode with my guest, Kate Amber. What the heck is coercive control anyway? If you have experienced domestic violence or narcissistic abuse, you have experienced coercive control. And it’s likely that ...
Ep 181: Anger, Grief, and Gratitude: A Survivor’s Guide to the Holiday Season
Do you ever feel like you “should” be grateful, especially around the holidays — but underneath, you’re still angry, grieving, or exhausted?You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re being human.This episode explores how gratitude an...
Ep 180: Bad Mom Moments and How to Repair
What happens when you have every intention of showing up as the best mom possible and then things go awry and you show up as someone that you do not want to be?Do you beat yourself up for days? We all have bad mom moments ...