Hang In There

"I see clearly now. And I still love her."

Two voices share this episode. One is inside the story, young, hopeful, learning what love is supposed to feel like. The other is watching her. Quietly. From a place of hard-won clarity. Not to warn her. Not to intervene. Just to witness her with the tenderness she always deserved.

What follows is an intimate journey through survival, from the earliest moments when something inside her knew,...

"You weren't silent because you approved. You were silent because you loved me."

Walking into a small entryway. Physically and emotionally exhausted. Carrying bags, holding onto dogs, trying to hold onto the kids. Trying to hold onto myself.

And you just… made room for us.

In this episode I write a letter to my parents. To the people who loved me through something they couldn't fully see. Who stayed available even when they did...

"It can disrupt what you have. It can damage it. It doesn't erase what was real."

There's a photograph I think about sometimes.

All of us at the end of the driveway. Shorts and smiles. Not a care in the world.

I didn't know then how much would change. How quietly it would happen. How one day I would look back at that photograph and try to remember what easy felt like.

In this episode I write a letter to my siblings. To the ones who wer...

"Something in me began again. And this time, I wasn't imagining it. I was living it."

For years, she dreamed of a different life while lying on a basement floor.

Someone kind. Someone steady. Someone she could trust. Someone who would love her children. She could see it. She could feel it. And then reality pulled her back- up the stairs, mask on, keep going.

She had no idea that life was already on its way.

This episode is a love story...

"You felt 30 years old when you were only 10. And I am so sorry."

In this episode, a mother writes a letter to her children. To the ones who grew up inside something they didn't have words for, but felt in their bodies every single day.

The hospital room where everything went quiet. The birthdays, the snickerdoodles, the car rides that felt safer than being home. The holidays that felt heavy. The stairs where little ears heard things...

"If it could happen to me, it can happen to anyone." - Dr. Christine Cocchiola

In this episode, your host sits down with Dr. Christine Cocchiola, one of the most trusted voices in the field of coercive control, for a conversation about something so many survivors know deeply but struggle to explain. The words were never lost. They were taken.

The house where the rules keep changing. The child who learns to listen for footsteps. The a...

A message to the survivors who are still living inside abuse- You are not forgotten.

This episode of Hang In There is dedicated to the survivors who are still living inside abuse.

To those who cannot safely leave yet.
To those who cannot speak yet.
To those who are doing everything they can just to make it through another day.

If you are listening quietly, please know this: you are not alone, and you are not forgotten.

Survivors ...

"From the outside, it can look like someone simply went to work. They showed up. They did their job. They made it through the day."

In this episode, you are walked through one ordinary day as a trauma survivor, hour by hour, from the moment your eyes open at 5 am to the moment you pull into the driveway.

The scanning before getting out of bed. The checking inside the car before getting in. The three shots of espresso just to function...

"I'm nearly 50 years old and only recently allowed to work on myself."

This episode explores one of the most profound questions a survivor can ask: "Who am I now?" Not who I had to be. Not who I learned to become in order to survive. But who I actually am.

It reflects on the person who existed before, carefree, fearless, fully alive, and traces how that person didn't disappear. She adapted. She learned to stay small, question herself...

"I'm so tired of him slipping into moments that should be mine."

This episode explores what it can feel like when a buried memory surfaces without warning, pulling a survivor straight back into a moment the brain had hidden just to make functioning possible.

It explores what freezing looks like in those moments. The urge to cross the room and comfort someone. The silence that follows. The panic attack that comes later in the dark.

It ...

"Are you listening?"

This episode is different. It is not a story. It is not a clinical explanation. It is a direct appeal, spoken on behalf of survivors everywhere, to the judges, lawmakers, attorneys, and every person whose decisions determine the safety and futures of abuse survivors and their children.

It explores the cost to survivors when the system doesn't listen. What PTSD actually looks like in a courtroom. What happens when...

"I'm looking at pictures of you for the first time in years and my heart is racing. My chest is tight. I'm shaking. I've spent less than 10 seconds looking."

This episode explores how a specific voice and a specific band became one of the most powerful PTSD triggers a survivor can carry, not because of who the artist is, but because of the environment their music once filled.

It walks through every physical sensation of a PTSD trigge...

"Have you ever wished there were no holidays at all? No long weekends? No extra time at home? Because extra time at home means extra time with the person hurting you?"

This episode explores the hidden reality of the holidays for abuse survivors, why domestic violence incidents rise by as much as 20% this time of year, why extra togetherness brings dread instead of joy, and why leaving during the holidays is often the most dangerous ...

"You're never backsliding. You're always higher in elevation than when you started."

In this episode, your host welcomes Tara Floersch, a licensed clinical social worker and trauma specialist at Conscious Healing Counseling in Minnesota, and the therapist who built a unique collaboration that brings therapy directly to the Alexandra House shelter.

Tara breaks down the neuroscience of trauma in plain language, why triggers feel like t...

"You do not know what loneliness is until you have encountered a narcissistic relationship in your life."

This episode explores why narcissistic abuse is a universal problem that crosses every culture, country, and community, and why the patterns are always the same regardless of where you live.

Shweta Nema, corporate professional, survivor of narcissistic abuse, author of Unmasking the Evil, and global advocate, breaks down the key ...

"18 children were murdered in 20 months in one state. 15 of them were already in the system."

This episode explores one of the most urgent and least understood realities facing abuse survivors: what happens when family court becomes another tool of control.

Christine, owner and coach of Leto Advisors and Advocates, shares her journey navigating an international custody battle across two US states, being accused of Munchausen by proxy...

"I didn't even know I was in an abusive relationship until I found a shelter. Nobody was telling me. I couldn't explain it myself."

This episode explores what domestic violence shelters actually do, and why emergency housing is a band-aid, not a cure.

Jenny Green, Housing and Supportive Services Director of Alexandra House, walks through what transitional housing, case management, and ongoing support really look like for families sta...

He told her she would never leave that house unless it was in a pine box.

In this episode, your host welcomes her very first guest- award-winning performer, comedian, singer, songwriter, and playwright Maryann Maisano. Known for turning life's heaviest truths into something relatable, honest, and even funny, Maryann brings both heart and humor to one of the podcast's most powerful conversations.

Maryann shares the story of her sister...

"I have makeup on. I know what's coming."

This episode opens with one of the most powerful moments in the podcast, putting on mascara as a quiet act of defiance, and the stare that followed. No words needed. No rule was ever spoken out loud. And yet the consequences were immediate.

It explores exactly what coercive control is, the isolation, the monitoring, the micromanagement, the financial abuse, the gaslighting, and explains how i...