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 220: What Is a Therapist’s Role When Coercive Control Enters the Courtroom?
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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 child’s therapist must remain focused on the child, why a survivor’s therapist may be cautious about testifying, and how therapy records, diagnoses, and even honest testimony can sometimes be weaponized.
But staying within our clinical role does not mean therapists have to remain silent about the larger systems affecting our clients.
I also explore the ways mental health professionals can make an impact beyond the therapy room through continued education, collaboration, thoughtful documentation, professional training, public education, and advocacy.
We explore:
- Why treating therapists generally cannot make parenting-time or decision-making recommendations.
- Why testifying may not always help—and can sometimes create additional risks for clients.
- How therapists can protect a child’s privacy and the trust built in therapy.
- Why diagnoses, records, and disclosures may be weaponized in family court.
- The importance of collaboration among therapists, attorneys, evaluators, GALs, and other professionals.
- How clinicians can advocate for survivors and children without practicing outside their scope.
- Why therapists have a role in changing the systems that shape their clients’ safety and healing.
I would love to hear from both survivors and mental health professionals: What do you wish therapists could do in these cases? What has surprised you about their role? And where could therapists make the greatest impact beyond an individual case?
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If you've been looking for a supportive community of women going through the topics we cover, head over to our website to learn more about the Rising Beyond Community. - https://www.risingbeyondpc.com/
Wondering where to start? Check out our top free resources - https://www.risingbeyondpc.com/resources.html
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