Emotional abuse recovery in Colorado Springs
Emotional abuse rarely leaves a mark you can point to, which is part of what makes it so disorienting. You second-guess your own read on things long after the relationship ends.
I'm Sarah Post Massey, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Colorado Springs, and this work is about rebuilding trust in your own perception, not just processing what happened.
How I treat emotional abuse
I draw on EMDR and Internal Family Systems to work through both the specific memories that still trigger you and the broader pattern of self-doubt the relationship built.
We start with a baseline assessment, so you have a concrete measure of where you're starting, and check it again as we go.
What emotional abuse looks like
Constantly replaying conversations, unsure if you're remembering them right
Apologizing reflexively, even when you've done nothing wrong
Difficulty trusting your own judgment in new relationships
A nervous system still braced for criticism that isn't coming anymore
Confusion about whether what happened to you "counts," because there's no bruise to point to
Is therapy the right thing for me?
Therapy tends to fit if you're out of the relationship, or recognizing the pattern while still in it, and you're ready to do more than just talk about what happened.
If the relationship involved trauma from childhood as well, therapy can help you overcome what you experienced.
Questions about emotional abuse therapy
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No. Most of my clients doing this work are already out of the relationship. The work is about rebuilding what the relationship undermined, not about managing an ongoing dynamic.
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No. This is individual work. If you're in a current relationship with conflict you want to address together, couples therapy intensives are a better starting point.
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PostScript is a private pay practice, so we’re out of network with insurance providers and Medicaid.