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.
Episodes
233 episodes
Ep 220: What Is a Therapist’s Role When Coercive Control Enters the Courtroom?
If they see the safety concerns, why can’t they tell the court?In this episode, I pull back the curtain on the role of a treating therapist in cases involving coercive control, post-separation abuse, and family court. I explain why a chi...
Ep 219: 20 Things Professionals Need to Understand About Coercive Control
What if just one professional truly understood coercive control?What if your therapist, evaluator, attorney, judge, child protection worker, or GAL recognized the patterns that so often go unseen?Would your family's story look dif...
Bonus Coaching Session: My Teen Refuses to Go to the Other Parent's House. What Do I Do?
This week's question comes from a protective mom navigating one of the most heartbreaking and misunderstood situations in family court.Her teenage daughter refuses to go to her dad's house. She's crying, begging not to go, and sometimes ...
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Ep 218: Surviving a Smear Campaign Without Losing Yourself
Back-to-school season often brings more than new teachers, new classmates, and new routines.For many protective parents, it also marks the beginning of a new round of smear campaigns.Whether it's with teachers, other parents, coac...
Ep 217: AI and Post-Separation Abuse: What Protective Parents Need to Know with Rina Rosewell
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, including family court.More and more protective parents are telling me that their ex has suddenly started sending perfectly written messages, using AI to draft legal documents, or threatening to sub...
Ep 216: The Problem with Using Children as Evidence in Family Court
This week's episode comes from a question I was asked by a group of family law attorneys."What behaviors can we look for in a child that tell us coercive control or domestic violence is happening?"On the surface, it seems like a s...
Ep 215: When Justice Isn't Accessible: Closing the Gaps in Legal Support for Survivors with Heather Bellino
Leaving an abusive relationship is only the beginning.For many survivors, the legal system becomes the next obstacle, especially when financial abuse, intimidation, and limited access to legal representation leave them trying to navigate...
Bonus Coaching Session: How Do I Trust Again After Isolation and Abuse?
You left the relationship. You're rebuilding your life. You're even trying to reconnect with friends.So why does every interaction leave you questioning everything?In this Friday Coaching Corner, I answer a listener question from ...
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Ep 214: Hope When Family Court Breaks Your Heart: Holding On Through the Impossible
What do you do when the outcome you feared actually happens?What happens when you've lost time with your children, the professionals who were supposed to protect them didn't listen, and you're wondering how you're supposed to keep going?...
Ep 213: What Colorado's New Family Court Bill Actually Means for Survivors
Colorado recently signed HB26-1309 into law, and many survivors and protective parents are asking what it actually means for families navigating family court.I break down what I am learning about HB26-1309, a bill focused on domestic vio...
Ep 212: When Couples Therapy Causes Harm | Understanding Coercive Control in the Therapy Room with Frances Russell, LMFT
What if the therapy that was supposed to help actually made things worse?For many survivors of coercive control, couples therapy doesn't bring clarity, it deepens confusion, self-doubt, and shame.In this episode, I'm joined by lic...
Ep 211: Attachment Styles, Dating After Abuse, and Why This Isn't Your Fault
Attachment theory has become one of the most talked-about topics in the dating and relationship world.You have probably heard terms like anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, secure attachment, and disorganized attachment. Maybe you'v...
Ep 210: Healing from Domestic Abuse: Rethinking Our Relationship with Our Bodies with Karianne Gwinn
What if your body isn’t betraying you… but trying to protect you?In this episode, we’re rethinking the relationship survivors often have with their bodies after trauma. I’m joined by Karianne Gwinn to talk about the very real physical im...
Bonus Coaching Session: My Child Stopped Fighting Parenting Time. Should I Be Relieved?
Your child stopped fighting parenting time… but something still feels off. In this FCC episode, we unpack what may be happening when a young child goes from visible distress to emotional shutdown during transitions, how to think about attachmen...
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Ep 209: Why Coparenting Feels Like a Trap (And What to Do Instead)
What if “coparenting” isn’t failing because you are doing it wrong?And instead, it is not working because the map you were given on how to do it is not meant for “coparenting” with someone abusive.The way that our system is design...
Ep 208: Parenting Under Pressure: Why Perfection Isn't the Goal
If you're sharing children with an abusive or controlling ex, parenting can feel like walking a tightrope.Every mistake feels high stakes. Every emotional moment feels like evidence. And many protective moms carry a quiet fear that if th...
Ep 207: How to Create a Parenting Plan That Protects You and Your Kids with Cat Climaco
What happens when a parenting plan leaves too much room for interpretation?In this episode, we’re talking about one of the biggest mistakes survivors make during divorce and custody negotiations: agreeing to vague parenting plans that un...
Ep 206: Waiting for the Shoe to Drop: Why Survivors Stay on Edge Even When Things Are Quiet
What if the reason you can’t relax… is because your body learned that calm never lasted and does not mean you are safe?In this episode, I’m talking about something so many survivors experience after coercive control and domestic violence...
Bonus Coaching: When Your Ex Suddenly Becomes the “Perfect Parent” During a PRE Evaluation
What happens when the parent who was minimally involved suddenly becomes “Parent of the Year” once court professionals start watching?In this Friday Coaching Corner episode, we’re talking about a situation many protective parents quietly...
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Ep 205: Children as Collateral Damage in Family Court | The Hidden Impact of Post-Separation Abuse
We don’t talk enough about the real collateral damage of broken systems.And it’s not just survivors.It’s our kids.In this episode, I’m naming something that so many of you are living through but rarely see acknowledged out ...
Ep 204: Why Context Matters in Abuse Cases and How an Expert Witness Can Help with Carol Ann Peterson, PhD
What actually happens when domestic violence cases enter the courtroom?In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Carol Ann Peterson—expert witness, consultant, and longtime advocate—who brings a behind-the-scenes look at how abuse is understood...
Ep 203: Anger After Trauma: What Do You Do With It?
A lot of survivors feel exhausted for a long time.Physically tired.Mentally overloaded.Emotionally drained.And then one day, something shifts.Anger shows up.And what surprises many people is not just the ange...
Ep 202: Inside Family Court: What Domestic Violence Assessments Actually Do with Lisa Fontes
What actually happens in a domestic violence assessment? And how do you know if you even need one?In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Lisa Fontes, an expert in coercive control and domestic violence assessments, to talk about somethin...
Ep 201: The Healing Plateau: Why Progress Slows Down After Abuse and Trauma
At some point in healing, a lot of people hit this moment:You were making progress.You were starting to feel a shift.And then… it feels like nothing is happening anymore.It can feel confusing. Frustrating. Even dis...
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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