Domestic violence encompasses a range of abusive behaviors that occur within relationships, affecting individuals across diverse backgrounds and communities. Domestic violence—both within romantic relationships and within families—is a prevalent issue in the United States, impacting approximately ten million individuals on an annual basis. Statistics reveal that up to one in four women and one in...
Safety Plan for Domestic Violence: How to Leave Your Abuser
Why is it So Hard to Leave an Abusive Relationship?
Every year more than 10 million Americans experience violence within their romantic relationships [1]. Domestic violence impacts heterosexual couples as well as the LGBTQ community and both men and women. When someone is repeatedly hurt by a romantic partner, it seems like the victim would decide to end the abusive relationship. However, it’s difficult to...
Spiritual Abuse and PTSD: What You Should Know
Engaging with your spirituality can be deeply meaningful, providing solace, guidance, and a clearer sense of purpose in your life. However, abusive spiritual relationships can quickly erode your faith and your ability to trust, leaving painful emotional scars that may manifest as symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health disorder characterized by intrusive...
Trauma Bond vs. Love: Everything You Need to Know
Relationships are all around us, whether our friends we connect with to vent, our family we see on holidays, someone we’re dating, or the people we work with. While relationships can take on many forms, there are relationships that can be more difficult, such as abusive relationships or emotional attachments we’ve created through trauma...
What is Spiritual Narcissism?
Spiritual narcissism uses meditation, prayer, manifestation, or religion to inflate ego, signal moral superiority, and judge others as spiritually inferior rather than fostering true growth.
Can an Abusive Relationship Be Fixed?
Navigating an abusive relationship can be an overwhelmingly painful journey that leaves you mending your wounds for months or even years. And even when you’ve come to terms with the fact that the relationship isn’t just unhealthy –it’s abusive– you may question whether or not the relationship can be saved. This is especially common in...
Using Religion As a Means of Control: What You Should Know
Although spirituality can provide a sense of purpose and order to you world, it’s also disheartening to note that faith-based practices can also be the source of minimization and abuse within a relationship, be it romantic, platonic, familial, or within a religious organization.[1] Religious and spiritual abuse is a distressing reality that can affect people...
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SPIRITUAL ABUSE
26Feb 2026Zack Ehrmann MAEd, LMHC, LPC
Safety Plan for Domestic Violence: How to Leave Your Abuser
Domestic violence encompasses a range of abusive behaviors that occur within relationships, affecting individuals across diverse backgrounds and communities. Domestic violence—both within romantic relationships and within families—is a prevalent issue in the United States, impacting approximately ten million individuals on an annual basis. Statistics reveal that up to one in four women and one in […]
23Feb 2026Elizabeth McDade
Why is it So Hard to Leave an Abusive Relationship?
Every year more than 10 million Americans experience violence within their romantic relationships [1]. Domestic violence impacts heterosexual couples as well as the LGBTQ community and both men and women. When someone is repeatedly hurt by a romantic partner, it seems like the victim would decide to end the abusive relationship. However, it’s difficult to […]
20Feb 2026Zack Ehrmann MAEd, LMHC, LPC
Spiritual Abuse and PTSD: What You Should Know
Engaging with your spirituality can be deeply meaningful, providing solace, guidance, and a clearer sense of purpose in your life. However, abusive spiritual relationships can quickly erode your faith and your ability to trust, leaving painful emotional scars that may manifest as symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health disorder characterized by intrusive […]
12Feb 2026Alyssa Biestek
Trauma Bond vs. Love: Everything You Need to Know
Relationships are all around us, whether our friends we connect with to vent, our family we see on holidays, someone we’re dating, or the people we work with. While relationships can take on many forms, there are relationships that can be more difficult, such as abusive relationships or emotional attachments we’ve created through trauma […]
16Jan 2026Zack Ehrmann MAEd, LMHC, LPC
What is Spiritual Narcissism?
Spiritual narcissism uses meditation, prayer, manifestation, or religion to inflate ego, signal moral superiority, and judge others as spiritually inferior rather than fostering true growth.
24Sep 2025Lark
Can an Abusive Relationship Be Fixed?
Navigating an abusive relationship can be an overwhelmingly painful journey that leaves you mending your wounds for months or even years. And even when you’ve come to terms with the fact that the relationship isn’t just unhealthy –it’s abusive– you may question whether or not the relationship can be saved. This is especially common in […]
18Aug 2025Zack Ehrmann MAEd, LMHC, LPC
Using Religion As a Means of Control: What You Should Know
Although spirituality can provide a sense of purpose and order to you world, it’s also disheartening to note that faith-based practices can also be the source of minimization and abuse within a relationship, be it romantic, platonic, familial, or within a religious organization.[1] Religious and spiritual abuse is a distressing reality that can affect people […]
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12Feb 2026Alyssa Biestek
Trauma Bond vs. Love: Everything You Need to Know
Relationships are all around us, whether our friends we connect with to vent, our family we see on holidays, someone we’re dating, or the people we work with. While relationships can take on many forms, there are relationships that can be more difficult, such as abusive relationships or emotional attachments we’ve created through trauma […]
24Nov 2025Zack Ehrmann MAEd, LMHC, LPC
Hypervigilance from Emotional Abuse: What You Need To Know
There are many pervasive and pernicious harms suffered by those affected by emotional abuse, which is a form of relational abuse that includes all of the non-physical behaviors intended to minimize your sense of self and autonomy. Hypervigilance, or a state of increased alertness accompanied by behavior that aims to prevent potential danger, is an […]
19Sep 2025Elizabeth McDade
Enmeshment Trauma: When Love Becomes Suffocating
According to family systems theory, relationships between parents and children are naturally interconnected and influence one another. In order to support the well-being and healthy development of young children, the family system needs healthy psychological boundaries between family members. These boundaries help family members distinguish themselves from each other. Healthy boundaries also evolve as children […]
30Aug 2025Rychel Johnson, LCPC
Is Constantly Apologizing a Trauma Response from Emotional Abuse?
In an emotionally abusive relationship, over-apologizing is recognized as a response created over time to reduce or prevent the abusive partner from causing further harm. Outside of the context of the relationship, the emotional abuse victim will often continue to be overly apologetic even in situations that do not warrant apologies, which significantly impacts a […]
09Aug 2025Alyssa Biestek
My Husband Hit Me. What Do I Do?
Being hurt physically by a partner or spouse is frightening, confusing, and hurtful. Unfortunately, abusive marriages and relationships are more common than they should be. The National Domestic Violence Hotline website shares that around 24 individuals per minute are victims of some sort of physical violence or physical abuse by someone they are in a […]
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