Welcome to Betrayal Trauma Recovery, BTR.org. I'm Anne. I'm sure you remember what it was like when you were searching for help, maybe for your husband, hoping to find the right program or therapist. That's why I started podcasting. I supported my husband through seven years of pornography addiction recovery and not one therapist during that time told me I was experiencing emotional

and psychological abuse and sexual coercion. I didn't want any other woman on the planet to be in

the dark. If you're like the majority of my listeners, you're experiencing the type of abuse that's

invisible and difficult to wrap your head around. Your husband is using porn or having

affairs or lying to you, and you're getting the same bad advice about how to improve communication

or your relationship. If you need support from women who totally understand, check out our daily

group session schedule at BTR.org slash group. We'd love to see you in a session today. One simple, anonymous way to help spread the word

is to click, follow, or subscribe to the Betrayal Trauma Recovery podcast on your favorite

podcasting app. While you're there, every five-star rating helps make this podcast more visible

and will help save other women from getting the wrong kind of help, like a couple

program that will make this type of abuse worse. For those of you who follow or subscribe to this

podcast, thank you so much. Your support means so much to me. I have a member of our community

on today's episode. Leslie is a successful doctor who was caught in the throes of a horrendously abusive

relationship. All of our listeners get that. One of the purposes of having her on the podcast today

is to talk about how abuse does not discriminate and how difficult it can be for even successful

or well-spoken women. And all of you were like that. We maybe didn't recognize it because

we didn't identify as victims, but also no one else would identify as a victim. And so we really

want to dig into that today. So welcome, Leslie. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. I hope that

my story is able to help others. There were many dark times that I never thought I would get to the other

side. But here I am. Not only surviving, I am thriving. Like you, now that I'm really thriving,

the podcast sounds so much different than it did when I started. So if those of you who are listening,

if it's a little bit difficult or you're like, don't talk to me about the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm never going to feel good. My life is over. Leslie and I have been there. I just want to acknowledge that many of our listeners will just be like, oh, I don't want to hear that. That's not possible for me. I agree. I lost myself so much within that whole abuse of relationship.

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