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
223 episodes
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...
.png)
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...
.png)
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 ...
.png)
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 ...
.png)
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...
