A note before we begin: this episode includes conversation about domestic violence and coercive control. Please take care of yourself as you listen, and pause anytime you need. 🤍

There’s a kind of confusion that can live inside a relationship, especially when everything looks “fine” on the outside. You’re functioning, achieving, holding it all together… but inside, something feels tight, uneasy, or off.

In this episode, Lauren Dry is joined by Cat Dunn, an award-winning Online Business Manager, mentor, speaker, and founder of Life After I Left podcast and speaker events. Cat shares her lived experience of domestic violence, including emotional, financial, and digital control, and why it’s so easy to minimise what’s happening when there’s no obvious moment you can point to and say, this is abuse.

This is an honest, grounded conversation about self-trust, nervous system wisdom, and the slow work of naming what’s real, so clarity and ease become possible again.

You’ll hear us explore:

1. How domestic violence can show up without physical harm (emotional, financial, and digital control)
2. Why “it’s not that bad” and “at least…” thinking can keep you stuck
3. Intuition vs hypervigilance, and how your body tells the truth
4. Compromise vs coercion, and what repeated shutdown can signal
5. How safe support and community help you rebuild self-trust, one step at a time

Resources & Links:

🛜 Learn more about Rise into Regulation™, the skillset for connection, communication, and Nervous System safety in modern marriage

📲 Follow Lauren on Instagram @lauren_dry

Connect with Cat Dunn:

1. Website: catlouisedunn.com
2. Instagram: @catlouisedunn
3. Life After I Left: IG @lifeafterileftpodcast Podcast: Life After I Left

If something in this episode opened something up for you, share it with someone who might need it, leave a review, or send me a message on Instagram. You don’t have to hold this alone.

Big love,

Lauren X