When a marriage ends, most people think the hard part is letting go of the other person. But for so many, the real work is learning how to let go of who they became inside that relationship.

In this powerful episode, Karen McMahon sits down with Dr. Kristin Davin, licensed psychologist and founder of Reflections From Across the Couch, for one of the most honest and illuminating conversations the Journey Beyond Divorce podcast has ever had about codependency. Not as a label, but as a survival strategy that once kept you safe and is now quietly keeping you stuck.

If you were the fixer, the peacekeeper, the emotional glue, the responsible one, or the one who carried the relationship, this conversation was made for you.

Karen and Kristin trace codependency back to where it actually begins. Not in your marriage, but in the first chapter of your life. In the family where you learned to read the room, make yourself small, and earn your safety by taking care of everyone else. They explore why those patterns feel impossible to break, why the fear of abandonment drives so much of what we do in relationships, and why the person so afraid of being abandoned is often the very person abandoning themselves most deeply.

They also get into the truth about boundaries that nobody says out loud. That setting them is simple in theory and terrifying in practice. That the pushback you get when you finally start enforcing them is not a sign that you are doing it wrong. And that the resentment so many people feel toward their ex is often misplaced anger at themselves for saying yes when every part of them wanted to say no.

If you have ever wondered why the same thing keeps happening to you, why you keep attracting the same kind of person, or why letting go feels so much harder than it should, Kristin offers something rare in this space. Not just insight, but a genuinely compassionate and practical path forward.

You don't need to become someone new. You just need to come home to who you were before you learned to disappear.

Connect with Dr. Kristin:

• Email: [email protected]
• Special gift for JBD listeners: Use code JOURNEY25 for 25% off Dr. Kristin Davin's interactive workbooks on codependency and boundaries at reflectionsfromacrossthecouch.store
• Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/drkdavin/?next=%2F
• https://www.pinterest.com/drkdavin/

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Book a Free Rapid Relief Call: http://rapidreliefcall.com
• Free Divorce Support Network Gift: https://divorcesupportnetwork.com/jbdpod