Do you have betrayal trauma symptoms? Did any professional that you went to help you understand that you are a victim of emotional and psychological abuse?

If not, you’re not the only one. Attend one of our Betrayal Trauma Recovery Group Sessions to join a community of women who can validate and support you.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"></figure>

Most Professionals Miss Betrayal Trauma Symptoms

Tragically, family, friends, clergy, and therapists further abuse victims. When they don’t recognize that betrayal trauma symptoms are caused by emotional and psychological abuse and sexual coercion.

 “That was the hardest part of my betrayal trauma symptoms. I felt like I was screaming, waving my arms for help, going to everyone I could think of, from clergy to therapists, and no one helped me.” Anne Blythe, Founder of BTR.ORG

Women With Betrayal Trauma Symptoms Are Victims Of Abuse

Many women in our community share that they did not understand where the betrayal trauma symptoms were coming from. They thought it was from the discovery of their husband’s infidelity or pornography use, and it was. But they didn’t know that his infidelity and pornography use signaled that he was emotionally and psychologically abusive.

To know if you’re a victim of emotional abuse, take our free emotional abuse quiz.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"></figure>

What Are Common Betrayal Trauma Symptoms?

Wondering if you are in betrayal trauma? Here are a few of the most common symptoms:

• Grief


• Numbness


• Rage


• Depression


• Insomnia and other sleep issues


• Difficulty eating or overeating


• Anxiety


• Terror


• Paranoia


• Headaches


• Body aches and pains

At Betrayal Trauma Recovery, we understand how to help you heal from betrayal trauma symptoms.

Enroll in The Betrayal Trauma Recovery Living Free Workshop to determine your husband’s true character.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"></figure>

Transcript: The Truth About Betrayal Trauma Symptoms

Anne: I have Kathy or Justice Jones on today’s episode. She is a justice advocate who promotes outside the box solutions. And best practice responses to families living under the chronic oppression of abusers and counter-parents. I invited her here because the truth about betrayal trauma symptoms is that domestic abuse causes betrayal trauma symptoms. So we need to discuss domestic abuse and how professionals are missing it. Especially betrayal trauma professionals.

They’re not identifying the betrayal trauma symptoms as responses to emotional and psychological abuse, and sexual coercion. So we’re going to talk about that today.

Welcome Kathy.

Kathy: Thank you for having me.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"></figure>

Anne: Listeners to my podcast who have experienced this understand on a deeply personal level. How the entire system does not understand emotional and psychological abuse and sexual coercion. And the continued abuse post separation or post divorce. So let’s look at the system as a whole, including court professionals, therapists, all the people involved.

When you say trauma responsive professionals, do you mean people who actually really get it or people who just say they get it? And can you also talk about the difference between those two things?

Kathy: Yes, certainly.

The System’s Failure To Recognize Abuse

Kathy: I’ve been hearing the code word “trauma informed” probably for about 10 years in national conferences and the like. It quickly became apparent to me that just because you’re trauma informed, it doesn’t mean you’re responsive.

It doesn’t mean you take the knowledge imparted to you and actually work towards the benefit and healing of the survivor. Meaning that if you’re a trauma informed professional, trauma informed is not enough. Even in your good intentions, you may be acting in ways or putting the survivor in situations that actually aggravate or re-traumatize that victim.

Anne: From my perspective, there are so many so-called “betrayal trauma therapists.” Or even pornography addiction recovery therapists, or other therapists who say they’re trauma informed. But they don’t understand anything about abuse and abuse dynamics. And so their counsel to the victim with betrayal trauma symptoms ends up harming the victim more.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"></figure>

Kathy: So the first story I have for you is eight years ago. I worked at my local domestic violence crisis center, and was invited to become part of a local mental health program. Part of their invitation was so that I could inform their practices to do domestic violence related issues better than what they knew. It was a real opportunity for me.

And the first training I provided for these folks, they were wonderful people, but it became clear they did not know enough about domestic violence, counter-parenting, and just any issue related to family violence.

Lack Of Training In Domestic Abuse

Kathy: So I was compelled to ask the question of the 15 people in the room. They had well over 300 years total of real time practice working with families, and they could only come up with maybe 15 hours of domestic violence or family violence training. And that included their college career. And I was horrified.

Anne: That’s very typical, or even less than that.

<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"></figure>

Kathy: Even less than that. I committed myself that day to making sure this particular practice got a lot more training than they had. In fact, they asked me to do a training session for mental health practitioners across the state of New Hampshire. But still, it was not enough to address the dearth of information that goes into the programming for mental health practitioners. Another eye opening incident.

I was conducting a retreat, and we asked the participants, there were about 24 of them in the room.