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 125: Shining a Light on Family Court Failures with Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins and Erin Siegal
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Transparency is a requirement for any meaningful change in our family court system for survivors of domestic violence and narcissistic abuse. This is extremely apparent when you hear the horror stories of survivors day after day of their time and retraumatization in family court.
And just recently, the curtain has been pulled back to allow the world to see what is really going on when a survivor of domestic violence tries to protect her children in family court. Today I am talking with two survivors with their own horror stories who have both received media attention on their cases.
Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins was recently in the news after being jailed for protecting her children. And while the media reported several things incorrectly (which will be corrected in this episode) it shed the light on courts ordering reunification therapy when there are significant concerns of sexual abuse with what turns out to be an unethical therapist.
Erin Siegal’s case was in the limelight several years ago on her experiences with unethical and harmful court evaluators and other legal professionals. This case and reporting were at the start of the movement here in Colorado that allowed Kayden’s Law and other laws to be passed to help start court reform. She continues to be threatened with gag orders to silence her advocacy.
We need to continue the momentum and continue to shine the spotlight on what is really going on in our family court system. So that survivors are not silenced.
Where to find Erin and Rachel -
Erin - https://linktr.ee/fortitudeflourish
Rachel - https://www.tiktok.com/@mount.simon.minis?_t=8qQwZPeFfit&_r=1 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550070298795&mibextid=LQQJ4d
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