Welcome to Betrayal Trauma Recovery. This is Anne. I have a woman named Isabel on today's

podcast. She has been walking the path of healing from childhood sexual abuse, narcissistic

abuse, betrayal trauma, and marital rape for years.

In February of 2019, just months after her three-year divorce was finalized, she experienced

a miraculous healing of the chronic pelvic floor dysfunction

that was a result of sexual trauma and had caused debilitating pain for nearly 20 years.

She has experienced firsthand the healing power of creativity and now works as an expressive

arts facilitator. She feels called to share her creative talents and the wisdom she has

gained from her journey so that other women may

experience hope and healing as well. Welcome Isabel. Thank you Anne. It's good to

be here. So Isabel is a little nervous. I'll just put that out there for everyone.

So let's start with your story is Isabel. The part of my story that has led me to

where I am today and being on this podcast would begin when I was six years old. My uncle sexually

abused me Christmas Eve at my grandparents home. And as I've been walking

through the healing from that, as well as from the trauma in my marriage in my adult life, I have realized that it was that event, that moment in time that disrupted the healthy development of mind, body, and spirit.

And I realized that it was at that moment also that I was not just told the lie. I was told it by his words and by his actions that love is pain, that love and pain are synonymous they go together and I can see now how believing

that set me up for not recognizing abuse in the future.

I'm so sorry about your experience.

When you get in a relationship with your husband,

did you recognize his behaviors as abusive at first, or were you still sort of in that

mindset that love hurts?

I think that that was my, you know, what I know from like years and years of therapy and EMDR therapy, what my therapist

...