Relationships & Recovery
Exploring how trauma, emotional abuse and difficult relationship experiences can affect the way we connect with others—and how healing can help rebuild trust, boundaries, self-worth, emotional safety and the ability to experience healthy, fulfilling relationships.
Explore how conditional affection, financial withholding and public generosity alongside private neglect can affect self-worth, emotional safety and recovery from controlling relationships.… Read More The Bare Minimum: When Love, Affection, Generosity and Even Basic Kindness Become Transactions
Children raised in abusive environments often carry deep emotional scars into adulthood, leading to unresolved anger and a desire for revenge against their abuser, particularly a parent. This anger can strain family relationships and perpetuate cycles of trauma. Healing requires acknowledgment, boundaries, and sometimes professional support to break free from the past.… Read More Healing Family Trauma: Letting Go of Anger Toward Abusive Parents
Imagine a school where children aren’t only taught how to solve mathematical problems, read books and pass examinations. Imagine a school where they are also taught how to understand another person’s feelings. How to recognise fear behind anger. How to notice when somebody is withdrawing. How to listen without immediately judging. How to disagree without… Read More What If We Taught Empathy as Seriously as We Teach Mathematics?
Love should never require you to ignore your instincts. Whether you’re dating for the first time in years, rebuilding your life after abuse, or simply wanting to make wiser relationship choices, these questions can help you slow down, observe patterns, and make informed decisions. No single answer proves someone is abusive—or that they are safe.… Read More A Relationship Safety Checklist: Questions Everyone Should Ask Before Committing
Every person has a story. Some stories are filled with adventure. Others are filled with love. Some are marked by extraordinary success. And some are stories of survival. If you have lived through trauma, abuse, loss or adversity, you may have wondered whether your experiences are worth writing down. The answer is yes. Not because… Read More Why Writing Your Story May Be the Most Healing Chapter of Your Life
There is something deeply healing about sitting around a table with people who genuinely love you, laughing until your face hurts, sharing old memories, making new ones, and realising that this is what life was always meant to feel like. For many years, I forgot what that felt like. Abuse doesn’t just take away your… Read More Gratitude for a Life Reclaimed
The next message you receive could be from your child. Your sister. Your brother. Your best friend. Your neighbour. Your partner. Your parent. Or someone who has spent weeks building up the courage to ask for help. Please don’t dismiss them. Don’t ridicule them. Don’t tell them to “get over it.” Don’t assume someone else… Read More Before You Ignore a Cry for Help… Think Again
People often ask me when I’m going to write my book. My answer is always the same. I’m waiting for the divorce to be finalised. For a long time, I simply wasn’t ready to write it. After decades of living with abuse, my priority wasn’t telling my story—it was healing from it. Trauma recovery takes… Read More Waiting for the Final Chapter Before I Write the Next One
My daughter and grandson will be staying with me for some time. My home is my sanctuary—a place of safety, healing, and peace after years of trauma. The neuroscience of trauma shows that recovery depends on creating an environment where the brain and nervous system no longer have to live in a constant state of… Read More My Home Is My Sanctuary
People often ask what it’s like to leave an abusive relationship. They imagine dramatic moments. The shouting. The arguments. The obvious acts of abuse. But recovery is often found in something much quieter. It begins with a simple sentence. “I will never do that again.” I will never again pick dirty towels up from a… Read More The Things I Will Never Do Again
