A Catholic’s Guide to Recognizing and Recovering from Domestic Abuse

I'll soon be offering my book, Don't Plant Your Seeds Among Thorns, to paid subscribers

(Annelies Geneyn / Unsplash)

After a multitude of requests for updates on the book project I’ve been working on, as well as recent suggestions from my clients, I’ve decided to offer several chapters of Don’t Plant Your Seeds Among Thorns: A Catholic’s Guide to Recognizing and Recovering from Domestic Abuse to all paid subscribers.

Topics covered in my book include:

• The basics of intimate partner violence: It’s not just physical! This chapter includes a full description of red flags, patterns, toxic attitudes and behaviors. I cover information on the abuse cycle, the characteristics of those who use abuse and coercive control to manipulate relationships, and signs that you may be in an abusive relationship.

• Covert, passive-aggressive abuse: Why it’s so difficult to detect and why it’s one of the most insidious forms of manipulation.

• Verbal attacks and covert physical abuse: Name calling and other emotional attacks, gaslighting and psychological manipulation, and using physical violence against inanimate objects (punching holes in walls, breaking items, etc.) as a means of abusive threat.

• Isolation in toxic relationships: Why isolation is so damaging, and why abusers strive to isolate their partners in order to gain a greater level of control.

• Violating the marriage bed: Sexual abuse and coercion.

• Biblical misconceptions: What Ephesians 5:22 and other difficult Bible verses truly mean.

• To stay or go: Opening yourself to God’s will for your life.

• If you’ve left: Divorce and annulment within the Catholic Church

• Can they change: How to recognize true change versus the “love-bombing” or “hoovering” stage of the abuse cycle.

• Grief, healing and the triumph of recovery: Grieving and forgiveness, inner healing and spiritual renewal, including ways to create a healthy support system.

• Quiz: Are You in an Abusive Relationship?

• Finding support within the Catholic Church

• How to create a safety plan

If you have any questions about how to upgrade your subscription to paid, hit the “Subscribe now” or “Subscribed” link (even if you already subscribe for free), or check out this Substack Help article. And as always, please feel free to reach out in the comments section or by sending me a direct message.

Through the Roses of Tepeyac Intimate Partner Support Group (offered on Hope’s Garden), I’ll be including a full interactive experience as each section of the book is released. This includes Q&A opportunities, discussions with other readers, and more!

“A lover is simply the one who seeks what is profitable for the beloved: so that if any are not pursuing this, even if he makes ten thousand professions of his love, he is actually more hostile than any enemy."

(St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13).

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