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Real Talk with Lisa Sonni: Relationships Uncensored
Real Talk with Lisa Sonni: Relationships Uncensored
Author: Lisa Sonni
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© 2026 Real Talk with Lisa Sonni: Relationships Uncensored
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This is the podcast your abuser doesn’t want you to hear.
Hosted by relationship coach and abuse recovery educator Lisa Sonni, Real Talk pulls back the curtain on toxic and abusive dynamics, romantic relationships, familial, and friendships. This is the raw truth no one else is saying out loud. No sugarcoating. No “just leave” advice.
Just real stories, real insight, and real talk—so you can finally feel seen, not silenced.
43 Episodes
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Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! You were never “too sensitive.” You were surrounded by lies repeated so often they started to feel like truth. Abuse is rare. Women lie. Men and women do it equally. None of these are facts, and believing them keeps you stuck questioning your own reality. In this conversation, Lisa sits down with Brent McLearie, creator of the “These Are Not Facts” series, to dismantle the narratives that quietly protect abu...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! Sexual entitlement isn’t “a relationship issue.” It’s a belief system. It’s the mindset that your body comes with the marriage, the title, the ring, the label, the contract, the “needs.” It’s the idea that your availability lives on standby, no matter how he treats you, no matter what your body feels, no matter what your nervous system is screaming. This is a rare solo episode, but you’re not listening to me alone. I’m reading three ...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! In this episode of Real Talk with Lisa Sonni: Relationships Uncensored, Lisa speaks with Angela Van, CEO of Family Court Corner, about the realities of divorcing and co-parenting with an abusive or highly destructive partner. Angela shares lessons from her own ten-year custody battle—one that reached the Supreme Court of Canada—and explains how she now helps survivors navigate divorce, custody disputes, and post-separation abuse. The...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! Couples therapy is not the place to sort out coercive control. Full stop. But I also get why women end up there anyway, because when your relationship is messy, you’re trying to name what’s happening. Is it stress. Is it trauma. Is it aggression. Is it abuse. And when you’re living inside it, it can all blur. I sat down with Dr. Marina Rosenthal, psychologist, couples therapist, and sex therapist with a background in trauma psycholog...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! For years, women have been told they’re codependent. Too attached, too emotional, too responsible for everyone else’s feelings. And a lot of you have worn that label like proof that something is wrong with you. So I brought on Terri Cole, licensed psychotherapist, boundary expert, and the voice behind “high-functioning codependency,” to talk about what this word actually means, how it gets misused, and why it can erase power, co...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! The Manosphere isn’t “just podcasts.” It’s a curriculum teaching men how to destabilize, dominate, and call it leadership. If you’ve ever sat across from a man who suddenly started talking about “alpha” energy, final decision-making power, or how you “owe” him sex… you’re not imagining the shift. Something changed…and it likely wasn’t you. In this conversation, Lisa sits down with Rafael Gomez, host of Women on Men, to expose...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! Most women don’t stay because they’re naïve. They stay because they believe he’s just immature. He’s still growing. He’ll change. He just needs insight. But what if he understands exactly what he’s doing? Lisa sits down with Dr. Les Carter of Surviving Narcissism to dismantle one of the most dangerous myths survivors cling to: that abusiveness is just immaturity. They unpack the difference between someone who lacks skills and someo...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! “Everybody’s a feminist… until a woman chooses to be a tradwife.” That line gets thrown around like it ends the conversation. It doesn’t. It starts it. Not all stay-at-home moms are oppressed. Not all traditional marriages are abusive. But when a woman gives up financial independence in a system built on patriarchal entitlement, the risk shifts, and pretending it doesn’t is how women get trapped. Lisa sits down with Lisa from The A...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! You’re not “bad at asking for help.” You’re exhausted from carrying everything and being told it’s your fault. In this conversation, Lisa sits down with author and creator Laura Danger to name what so many women are living with but struggling to explain: weaponized incompetence. Not the harmless “oops, I forgot,” but the pattern of strategic failing, defensiveness, and avoidance that forces women to overcompensate emotionally, mental...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! “If it was really abuse, you would’ve left.” That lie has kept countless women silent and blamed for something that was never their fault. Psychological abuse is designed to confuse you. In this conversation, Lisa sits down with trauma therapist and survivor Chelli Pumphrey to expose why so many women don’t recognize abuse while they’re in it. Together, they unpack attachment theory, personality “supe...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! You’re not “too sensitive.” You’re reacting to a system that teaches men entitlement and then calls women dramatic for pushing back. If accountability feels like a constant uphill battle in your relationships, there’s a reason. In this conversation, Lisa sits down with Lex, a psychotherapist and male creator who’s willing to say the quiet part out loud. Together, they dismantle the myth that women “don’t take accountability” and name ...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! From the outside, it looks like a happy marriage: smiling photos, family dinners, and church events. Inside the house, it is a completely different story. Lisa is joined by survivor turned coach Sarah White for an honest conversation about the quiet, hidden abuse that lives behind the image of the “good relationship.” Together, they unpack why so many women stay silent, protect the man hurting them, and convince themselves that what ...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! If you have ever thought, “I just need him to understand”, the truth is, he already does. Lisa is joined by therapist and survivor Aishia Grevenberg for a raw, no-nonsense conversation about why abusive men do not change through communication, therapy, or better explanations. Together, they dismantle the comforting myth that he is confused, emotionally unaware, or just needs you to say it differently. They explore why abusive men co...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! Abusers do not just lie. They build entire realities that feel safer than the truth. Realities where doubt keeps you tethered, confusion feels normal, and leaving feels unthinkable. If you have ever felt like you were trapped inside a story you could not escape, this conversation will land deep. Lisa sits down with psychologist and author Dr. Alan Godwin to unpack how abusers construct false realities through isolation, narrative con...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! You’re not crazy for thinking therapy would help. You were taught that relationships can be “fixed” if you just try harder, communicate better, or show more empathy. But when you sit beside someone who thrives on blame, chaos, and control, therapy doesn’t heal the relationship, it becomes another weapon used against you. Dr. Peter Salerno, psychotherapist and expert in personality pathology, joins Lisa to dismantle one of the m...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! You didn’t “miss the signs.” Your brain protected you from them. That’s not stupidity, it’s survival. Dr. Jennifer Freyd, the researcher who coined the term DARVO and “betrayal blindness,” joins Lisa to unpack the psychology behind why survivors don’t see abuse while it’s happening. Together, they break down how the mind hides danger to preserve attachment, why love and dependence make leaving so hard, and how abusers exploit...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! You can’t love a narcissist hard enough to make them change. And loyalty isn’t the cure — it’s the trap. In this powerful conversation, Lisa sits down with psychologist and narcissism expert Dr. Elinor Greenberg to dismantle the fantasy that love or faith can “fix” someone who refuses to see themselves. Dr. Greenberg breaks down why narcissists don’t collaborate in therapy, how “reluctant obedience” can masquerade as progress, and wh...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! Control doesn’t always look like control. Sometimes it looks like care, protection, or “respect.” That’s what makes coercive control the most dangerous form of abuse because it hides in plain sight. Dr. Christine Cocchiola, clinician, survivor, and one of the world’s leading experts on coercive control, joins Lisa to expose the playbook every abusive man uses. From “I just don’t like your friends” to “I’m only trying to protect you,”...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! Therapists hear what people say in marriage. Divorce lawyers see what people do when it ends. And what they see tells the truth about power, control, and the quiet games that keep women stuck in “high-conflict” divorces. Lisa sits down with family lawyer and content creator Justin Lee to expose the patterns behind the myth that “women ruin men in divorce.” They unpack how abusers weaponize the court system — dragging out cases, ...
Send Lisa a question for her to reply in a future episode! “Abuse isn’t gendered.” That phrase gets thrown around every time women speak up. Yet, it’s not true and it’s not harmless. Lisa sits down with Rebecca Pacheco, Education and Development Manager at Embrave: Agency to End Violence, to break down why gender can’t be removed from the conversation on violence. Together they unpack the difference between domestic violence and gender-based violence, the patriarchal systems that sust...



