Feeling Trapped: Recognizing Emotional Abuse in Relationships

Welcome to Episode 141 of the Being Human Podcast:  Seven Signs of Emotional Abuse (A Relationship Series, Part Four)

In this week’s episode, Dr. Greg continues the series on relationships, this time exploring aspects of emotional abuse in relationships while highlighting seven warning signs that can help you know when it’s time to get support.

Highlights from the episode: 

• Emotional abuse as being on a spectrum and the need for understanding nuances of what it looks like in individual relationships;  

• The seven signs of emotional abuse as guideposts for discerning what difficulties in your relationship mean;

• Distinguishing between expression of negative emotions and verbal abuse; 

• A vocation to marriage (or the discernment of a relationship leading towards marriage) as good insofar as it serves our relationship with God; 

• Our capacity to have a deep interior experience of relationship between ourselves and God as part of our dignity as humans;

• How the failure of a marriage does not equal the failure of one’s pursuit of sanctity; 

• Clarification around the question of whether it is wrong to refuse the request of a spouse to engage in something that is sinful;

• The difference between tiptoeing around delicate issues with your spouse vs. a relationship permeated with a fear of bringing up any topic;

• How our brains can come up with unrealistic and irrational ways of solving our problems as part of our survival instinct;

• An underlying sense of feeling trapped as a result of repeated exposure to abusive treatment in a relationship; 

• Distinguishing between what’s proper for a therapist to hold vs. holding the whole emotional weight of your spouse. 

Resources mentioned or relevant:

• National Domestic Violence Hotline Information; 

• Schedule a free consultation call with someone on our team to discuss how we can support you;

• Ep. #98: Are You Gaslighting Yourself? 

• Ep. #140: How to Argue (A Relationship Series, Part Three);

• How to Spot Emotional Abuse Blog Article; 

• Learn about IDDM (Mentorship), our new model of accompaniment;

• Sign up for Being Human, our weekly newsletter, to stay up to date on the exciting developments at CatholicPsych;

• Visit our website to read the CatholicPsych blog, shop in the CatholicPsych bookshop, or discover other resources we have available; 

• Download The Integrated App for access to free audio exercises, the Catholic Mindfulness Virtual Retreat, courses, prayer resources, and more; 

• Become a member of the Integrated Life Community to get access to every course Dr. Greg has created, plus the opportunity to participate in Integrated LIVE’s - weekly, Mentor hosted Q&As covering topics like boundaries, communication, trauma, forgiveness, and more!

• Join the waitlist to be notified about our next Open House to learn more about the new CPMAP certification!

Contact us! Have a topic or a question you would like Dr. Greg to address on the podcast? Want to give some feedback about this episode? Email us at beinghuman@catholicpsych.com - we would love to hear from you!

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