Beyond the Statistics

A relationship can look calm from the outside while quietly teaching you to ask permission for your own life.

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics, Ingrid Dutton sits down with author Eva Levina to explore coercive control, emotional abuse, and the slow loss of independence that can happen in an abusive relationship—even when there are no visible signs of violence.

Eva shares how patterns of control developed over decades of marriage, why she didn't fully recognize what was happening while she was living inside it, and the moment her marriage suddenly ended. She also opens up about the medical crisis that followed and what it was like to face her former partner again during divorce while her nervous system was still trying to recover.

Ingrid and Eva examine some of the less visible signs of coercive control, including financial abuse, public humiliation, gaslighting, controlling everyday decisions, and gradually conditioning a partner to seek permission. They also discuss reactive abuse—what can happen when someone is repeatedly pushed until they finally react, only to have that reaction recorded, reframed, or used as evidence that they are the problem.

For survivors navigating separation or divorce from a controlling partner, Eva shares what she learned about documenting abuse through texts, emails, photographs, and timelines rather than relying on memory alone.

The conversation also turns toward recovery: allowing yourself to grieve without staying trapped in grief, rebuilding self-trust after years of questioning your own judgment, and learning to listen to your instincts again.

Finally, Eva shares the story behind her memoirs, Death Is No Reason to Stop Living, and the kintsugi-inspired symbolism of rebuilding something that has been shattered—not by hiding the cracks, but by putting the pieces back together with something stronger.

If you've ever wondered whether controlling behavior "counts" as abuse, why you stopped trusting yourself, or how to find yourself again after coercive control, this conversation may help you put words to what you've experienced.

Eva’s Links:

https://www.evalevinabooks.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61592752586262&mibextid=wwXIfr&rdid=lCjrixT52TVIB5lN&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2F1LCNnwaKhb%2F%3Fmibextid%3DwwXIfr#

https://www.instagram.com/evalevinaauthor?igsh=MTl1ZDhsNDlxZnkxbQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

https://www.tiktok.com/@eva.levina4?_r=1&_t=ZT-98V2mLGyuJK

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

What happens when domestic violence leaves few visible marks—and the systems you turn to for help believe the wrong person?

Dr. Sandra Evers joins Ingrid Dutton on Beyond the Statistics to share her experience of psychological violence, coercive control, sexual coercion, financial exploitation, isolation, threats, and institutional harm.

Sandra was a respected professor, published author, and trusted professional. None of that protected her from abuse.

She describes how control developed gradually, how she learned to become “nicer” to keep the peace, and how a threat involving “the perfect murder” changed everything. When she eventually ran for help, she says she was sent back.

Her story then took another devastating turn. Sandra was labeled bipolar, forcibly admitted to psychiatric care, medicated, and subjected to ECT despite a known brain injury.

In this conversation, Ingrid and Sandra discuss:

• Psychological violence and invisible domestic abuse
• Coercive control and the slow erosion of autonomy
• Sexual coercion and financial abuse
• Threats, isolation, and credibility attacks
• Institutional abuse and systems that fail survivors
• Sandra’s “green rabbit” analogy and professional priming
• The difference between “coercive control” and “psychological violence”
• Trauma-informed responses to domestic violence
• Healing after psychological and institutional trauma

Sandra’s story challenges the idea that domestic violence is always visible—and raises an important question about what happens when an abuser’s credibility becomes more powerful than a survivor’s reality.

Dr. Sandra’s Links: 

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/dr-sandra-jtm-evers/

https://www.sandrajtmevers.nl/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-sandra-jtm-evers-106209347/

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

How do you end up apologizing for the very thing that hurt you?

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics, Ingrid Dutton is joined by Catherine Anne Castillo, a nurse and relational trauma clinician, for a conversation about trauma bonding, emotional abuse, DARVO, gaslighting, and the psychological manipulation that can make you question your own memory, judgment, and identity.

Catherine begins by clearing up one of the most common misconceptions about trauma bonds. Trauma bonding isn’t two people connecting over shared trauma. It is an attachment that can form between a person and someone who harms them through repeated cycles of abuse, relief, affection, and reconciliation.

Together, Ingrid and Catherine unpack how these relationships can begin with an almost uncanny sense of connection. They discuss mirroring, empathy fishing, love bombing, and the “trap of exceptionalism”—the belief that this relationship will somehow be different because you are different.

Then comes the shift.

Catherine explains DARVO—deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender—and how blame shifting and gaslighting can leave survivors defending themselves instead of addressing what was done to them. They also explore intermittent reinforcement, sleep deprivation, and why survivors can find themselves continually chasing the person they thought they met at the beginning of the relationship.

The conversation also turns toward recovery: recognizing patterns, rebuilding trust in your own perceptions, finding your voice again, and understanding why a relationship built on control can only remain stable when one person becomes smaller.

Catherine also shares how poetry became part of her own healing process and led to her book, In the Darkness of Shards: Poems from a Broken Place.

If you have experienced emotional abuse, coercive control, gaslighting, narcissistic abuse dynamics, or the confusion of a trauma bond, this conversation puts language to experiences that can be incredibly difficult to explain.

Catherine’s Links:

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/catherine-anne-casti/

https://beacons.ai/caecastillo

https://www.instagram.com/caecastillo__/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherineaec/

https://www.amazon.com/Darkness-Shards-Poems-Broken-Place/dp/B0DRDT83YW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=SQLL1WVOJ9MU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.IqOvjZxqfPHWYtqxnJ1nNtNkU2tsUJFhSNtpUkricpzLD4M_fP6pBH6UPacHord-.-NfHWvRX7VGaxHgviC24Eh3h46kjdDAuzFYFMvvVZeg&dib_tag=se&keywords=Catherine+Anne+Castillo&qid=1791895690&sprefix=catherine+anne+castillo%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

Human trafficking can feel distant—until you see the patterns, the people being targeted, and the routes traffickers use to move them.

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics, Ingrid Dutton sits down with Laura Parker, CEO and co-founder of The Exodus Road, to go inside the realities of human trafficking intervention, sex trafficking prevention, online grooming, and sextortion.

Laura shares how she and her husband went from teaching and pastoring to working alongside law enforcement, going undercover, and eventually building an international anti-trafficking organization.

What does human trafficking intervention actually look like? Laura explains how teams identify potential victims, gather evidence that law enforcement can use, navigate the risks posed by organized crime, and build trusted partnerships with local authorities. She also takes us behind the scenes of leading an anti-trafficking nonprofit, where the need is enormous and resources are never unlimited.

The conversation then turns to a growing threat facing children and teens in the United States: online sexual exploitation.

Laura explains how online grooming and sextortion happen, why young people are being targeted, and what parents and educators need to understand before a crisis occurs. She also introduces Influenced, The Exodus Road’s prevention education program designed to help families build practical digital safety skills.

This conversation goes beyond awareness to examine what intervention, prevention, and meaningful action against human trafficking can actually look like.

Topics include:
• Human trafficking and sex trafficking
• Anti-trafficking investigations and intervention
• Online grooming and child exploitation
• Sextortion of children and teens
• Digital safety for families
• Working with law enforcement
• Human trafficking prevention
• Survivor-informed anti-trafficking efforts
• The Exodus Road
• Influenced prevention education

Laura’s Links: 

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/laura-parker/

https://lauraparker.org/

https://x.com/theexodusroad

https://www.instagram.com/iamlauraparker

https://www.youtube.com/theexodusroad%20

https://www.facebook.com/TheExodusRoad/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-parker-223677112/

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

“Look at that little enemy of God.”

That single sentence captures the shame and fear Hollyanna grew up with as the fourth generation of her family inside a high-control religious group.

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics, Ingrid Dutton sits down with Hollyanna to talk about religious trauma, cult recovery, coercive control, and what happens when a system demands obedience at the expense of identity.

Hollyanna describes growing up in an environment where questioning could be dangerous, information was controlled, critics were discredited, and leaving could mean losing everyone you knew. She shares what happened when she ultimately walked away—including being cut off overnight and watching the group reshape the narrative about who she was.

The conversation also examines why people stay in high-control groups and why leaving is rarely as simple as deciding to walk away. Ingrid and Hollyanna explore the parallels between cult dynamics, spiritual abuse, coercive relationships, and other systems that use fear, isolation, shame, and identity suppression to maintain control.

Then they turn to what happens after leaving.

Hollyanna discusses the effects chronic stress and identity suppression can have on both the mind and body, her study of human behavior, body language, and movement, and the approach she developed called biocoding. She explains why recovery may require rebuilding trust not only in your own thoughts, but in your body.

For anyone navigating religious trauma, cult recovery, spiritual abuse, coercive control, shunning, or life after a high-control group, this conversation offers language for experiences that can be incredibly difficult to explain.

And perhaps one of the most important skills for the road ahead: learning to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Hollyanna’s Links: 

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/hollyanna-vellichor/

https://hollyannavellichor.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-anna-7737652b2/

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

What happens when a podcast conversation ends—but the questions don’t?

Beyond the Statistics explores domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, legal abuse, healing, survivor advocacy, and the systems that impact survivors. Week after week, those conversations lead to more questions, more ideas, and topics that deserve more than a single episode.

So I created a place to keep them going.

In this special bonus episode, I’m introducing the Beyond the Statistics Community, a new membership community on Patreon for survivors, supporters, advocates, professionals, and listeners who want to go deeper into the conversations we begin on the podcast.

I’ll walk you through the three membership levels—The Circle, The Conversation, and The Table—and some of what we’re building together, including:

• Beyond the Episode — live Q&As and conversations with previous podcast guests
• Beyond the Book — live discussions with authors
• Roundtables — conversations bringing multiple experts and perspectives together
• The Stacks — a library of recorded Community events
• The Community Room — a private monthly gathering centered on conversation, connection, privacy, and safety

The Community isn’t only for survivors. It’s also for the people who support them, professionals working in these fields, advocates working to change systems, and listeners who simply want to understand these issues better.

Beyond the Statistics isn’t changing. New podcast episodes will still be here every Wednesday.

We’re just making the table a little bigger.

Join the Beyond the Statistics Community:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/BeyondTheStatistics

The statistic is only the beginning. Behind every number is a story worth telling. Every story has a voice worth hearing. And every voice has the power to remind someone else: You are not alone. 💜

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

The most chilling cult stories aren’t always about strangers. Sometimes the cult is your last name.

Stella McCormick, author of Deliver Us from Mother: Faith, Fear, and the Family Cult That Broke Me, joins Ingrid to share what it was like growing up inside what she now recognizes as a single-family cult—an extreme fundamentalist Christian home shaped by isolation, fear, unquestioned authority, and punishment disguised as discipline.

But Stella didn’t always recognize her childhood as abuse.

Years later, after surviving a military sexual assault and beginning therapy during an overseas deployment, one unexpected question from her therapist forced Stella to reconsider everything she had been taught was normal. What followed was the painful recognition of childhood trauma, a lifetime spent in survival mode, and the realization that younger siblings were still living under the same control.

Stella and Ingrid explore the intersection of religious trauma, coercive control, spiritual abuse, and domestic violence—and how the same tactics can appear across each: isolation, gaslighting, love bombing, fear, and control.

They also discuss mental health stigma in fundamentalist Christian environments, panic attacks, medication, faith deconstruction, and the BITE Model developed by Steven Hassan, which finally gave Stella language for what she had experienced.

Because sometimes recognizing abuse means questioning the very things you were taught never to question.

In this episode: religious trauma, coercive control, family cults, spiritual abuse, high-control religion, the BITE Model, fundamentalist Christianity, childhood trauma, military sexual assault, domestic violence, faith deconstruction, and trauma recovery.

Stella’s Links: 

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/stella-mccormick/

https://linktr.ee/stella_mccormick

https://www.instagram.com/stellamc_author/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HC75GCK6?lv=shuf&bestFormat=true&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_WQ6B7SKA7PY3XCJX710Y&channelId=704&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_WQ6B7SKA7PY3XCJX710Y&plpRedirect=mhFallback

https://www.tiktok.com/@stella_mccormick

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

You can leave an abusive relationship and still feel like your body is bracing for the next threat. Panic, numbness, hypervigilance, physical symptoms, and a nervous system that won’t seem to settle can leave survivors wondering why they don’t feel “better” yet.

In this episode of Beyond the Statistics,  Ingrid sits down with Dr. Lisha Antiqua, a survivor who works in trauma recovery and somatic healing to talk about healing after abuse, somatic trauma, and nervous system regulation. They explore why trauma can remain in the body long after the immediate danger has passed—and why recovery involves more than simply understanding what happened.

Dr. Lisha explains the role of fight, flight, and freeze responses in trauma recovery and shares her Amazing You Method, which begins with establishing safety before rebuilding identity, self-trust, and boundaries. Ingrid and Dr. Lisha also discuss approaches including talk therapy, EMDR, EFT tapping, hypnosis, and timeline work—and why no single technique creates a perfectly linear path to healing.

They also explore:

• What somatic trauma can look and feel like
• Why survivors may remain hypervigilant after leaving abuse
• How chronic stress can affect the mind and body
• Where to begin when early recovery feels overwhelming
• Rebuilding identity after an abusive relationship
• Learning to trust yourself and your boundaries again
• Survivor’s guilt and the question, “Why did I survive?”
• Why healing from trauma is rarely a straight line

If you’re rebuilding your life after domestic violence, experiencing PTSD or CPTSD symptoms, or trying to understand why your body still reacts as though danger is present, this conversation offers a different way to understand recovery.

Dr. Lisha's links:

https://www.beyondthestatisticspodcast.com/guests/dr-lisha-antiqua/

https://yourownuniversity.com/

https://open.spotify.com/show/4e44ybpvHVwCW3HIqdrfym?si=JBiSaB1CThqkJkFJamCK2Q&nd=1&dlsi=e88daef379e54c6d

https://www.instagram.com/yourownuniversity

https://www.facebook.com/DrLishaAntiqua/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlishaantiqua/

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

When the person causing harm holds a position of power, the barriers survivors already face can become even more complicated.

In this special Beyond the Statistics conversation, Ingrid Dutton moderates The Pulpit and the Badge: When Power and Authority Go Wrong with Norma Peterson of Document the Abuse, Neil Schori of Called to Peace Ministries, and Bruce Bieber.

Using the stories of Mica Miller and Stacy Peterson as a starting point, they examine what happens when domestic abuse and coercive control intersect with positions of power—particularly within churches and law enforcement.

The conversation explores spiritual abuse, coercive control, officer-perpetrated domestic violence, institutional betrayal, the “blue wall,” stalking and technology-facilitated abuse, and how charisma, professional authority, and public reputation can make abuse harder for others to recognize.

They also confront some of the questions survivors hear most:

Why didn’t they just leave?
Why didn’t they call the police?
Why didn’t the church protect them?

You’ll hear why leaving can be an especially dangerous time, how trauma can affect decision-making, and how patterns such as DARVO and the Power and Control Wheel can help us understand abuse beyond individual incidents.

Most importantly, this conversation moves beyond awareness to advocacy: What needs to change when the systems survivors are told to trust are connected to the person causing harm?

Resources discussed include independent victim advocacy, Called to Peace Ministries, Document the Abuse and the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233).

Beyond the Statistics is a survivor-led podcast dedicated to sharing the stories behind the numbers and examining domestic abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, and the systems surrounding them.

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe

 What happens after you tell your story—and the people from your past start responding?

Tricia Gray returns to Beyond the Statistics to talk about what happened after publishing her memoir, A Lotus Legacy. Readers across the country began connecting with her story, but so did people from the Louisiana hometown she once ran from—including people who remembered the day her mother died.

In this conversation, Tricia and Ingrid explore healing after domestic violence and childhood trauma, what survivors may need after someone finally says “me too,” and why telling your own story can be both freeing and deeply vulnerable.

Tricia shares how responses to her memoir led her to create the Bloom framework and a 48-page guided journal designed to make healing feel practical and approachable. She explains why there is no such thing as “perfect journaling,” how isolation and silence can shape survivors, and why compassion matters more than judgment.

The conversation also confronts one of the most persistent questions asked about domestic violence: “Why didn’t she leave?” Tricia and Ingrid discuss survival mode, motherhood, the realities that can keep victims trapped, and why judging a survivor’s choices without understanding the circumstances misses the larger story.

They also explore inner child healing, Ingrid’s experience with EMDR, the importance of support systems, and what can happen when survivors reclaim their stories before someone else tells those stories for them.

Because there is always more to the story.

This podcast is intended for mature audiences. Some listeners may find the content distressing as episodes may include discussions of violence, human trafficking, and other forms of abuse, including emotional, psychological, sexual, financial, and physical. In many cases, names have been changed to protect those involved. Please note that the statements and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect my own.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need immediate support, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or texting START to 88788. If you're outside the United States, crisis resources are available at BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com/GetHelp.

Connect with Beyond the Statistics:

🌐 Website: https://www.BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast.com
💜 Join the Beyond the Statistics Community: https://www.patreon.com/BeyondTheStatisticsPodcast
📧 Email: [email protected]
📱 Follow on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and X: @BeyondStatsPod

If today’s conversation meant something to you, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode. And if you’d like to continue the conversation beyond the episode, I’d love to have you join us in the Beyond the Statistics Community.

Every story shared helps another survivor know they are not alone.

Music: Tim Crowe