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 170: Why Custody Decisions Need a Pattern-Based Approach When There has Been Coercive Control
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When it comes to domestic violence and coercive control, the systems we rely on to protect children are often looking at the wrong thing.
Instead of assessing for patterns like, long-term, consistent dynamics of fear, control, and power imbalances, many custody decisions are still made based on isolated incidents. And that’s a huge problem.
In this solo episode, I’m sharing why we need a major shift in how we assess safety, parenting, attachment, and the best interests of the child, and how a pattern-based approach can more accurately reflect the lived experience of survivors and their children.
We’ll talk about:
- Why coercive control often doesn’t show up in isolated “incidents”
- How this outdated model fails kids in custody evaluations
- Why it can take months or even a year for a child to feel safe enough to reveal the full picture in therapy
- The dangers of assuming we can determine a child’s best interest after two brief sessions with an evaluator
Whether you're a survivor navigating the family court system or a professional working in this space, this episode offers clarity and validation, and a call to do better by the families most impacted.
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