This episode is about why everything feels harder, louder, and more urgent during the holidays when you’re navigating high-conflict divorce or co-parenting with a controlling or volatile person. Why situations that felt barely manageable in October suddenly feel explosive in December. Why your body feels like it’s bracing for impact every single day. And why so many parents reach a breaking point and say, “This can’t wait until January.”

I break down what’s actually happening beneath the surface—how time pressure, court slowdowns, holiday schedules, dysregulated kids, financial stress, and relentless communication collide all at once. How the holidays become a tool for control rather than connection. And why this season so often pushes already-burned-out parents into survival mode.

I am well aware this episode is coming after the Holiday season. I am sorry I could not get it out before!

Support the show

*Please Note: there is a long intro that explains my services. If you do not want to listen, just fast-forward 5 mins past. This intro will be changed in future recordings to be shorter. I am not paid to record this podcast and it is a free offering. Offering my work is the only way I can sustain the podcast*

Join the Patreon: https://patreon.com/Youarenotcrazy

*New Course*: Unhooked: Map the Cycle of Abuse in your Relationship

Website: Emotional Abuse Coach and high-conflictdivorcecoaching.com
Instagram: @emotionalabusecoach
Email: jessica@jessicaknightcoaching.com

{Substack} Blog About Recovering from Abuse

{E-Book} How to Break Up with a Narcissist
{Course} Identify Signs of Abuse and Begin to Heal
{Free Resource} Canned Responses for Engaging with an Abusive Partner

I unpack a viral TikTok that has been shared hundreds of thousands of times—and why its message is far more dangerous than it first appears.

On the surface, the video presents itself as “relationship advice” about how women can keep men happy. In reality, it reinforces coercive control, sexual entitlement, and the idea that women are responsible for regulating men’s emotions, egos, and loyalty—often at the expense of their own boundaries, bodies, and well-being.

I break down:

• How this type of content subtly trains women to doubt themselves
• Why framing women as a man’s “peace” is a red flag, not a virtue
• How sexual coercion gets normalized and disguised as intimacy advice
• The link between these messages and trauma bonding
• Why “respect,” “appreciation,” and “affection” become tools of control in abusive dynamics
• How women are conditioned to abandon themselves to keep relationships stable

This episode is direct, emotional, and unapologetic. It is not about attacking men. It is about naming narratives that groom women to tolerate neglect, emotional abuse, and coercion—while being told they are the problem.

Support the show

*Please Note: there is a long intro that explains my services. If you do not want to listen, just fast-forward 5 mins past. This intro will be changed in future recordings to be shorter. I am not paid to record this podcast and it is a free offering. Offering my work is the only way I can sustain the podcast*

Join the Patreon: https://patreon.com/Youarenotcrazy

*New Course*: Unhooked: Map the Cycle of Abuse in your Relationship

Website: Emotional Abuse Coach and high-conflictdivorcecoaching.com
Instagram: @emotionalabusecoach
Email: jessica@jessicaknightcoaching.com

{Substack} Blog About Recovering from Abuse

{E-Book} How to Break Up with a Narcissist
{Course} Identify Signs of Abuse and Begin to Heal
{Free Resource} Canned Responses for Engaging with an Abusive Partner

In this episode, I’m sharing a simple end-of-year practice I’ve returned to every year since 2017—one that has nothing to do with resolutions, goals, or fixing yourself.

It started in a yoga class on New Year’s Eve, during a time when my life was quietly falling apart. I was deeply depressed, circling the truth that I needed to leave my marriage, and trying to survive day to day. The exercise was simple: two cards. One for the year you’re leaving. One for the year you’re stepping into. Not achievements. Not intentions. Just words.

I’m walking you through how this practice helped me tell the truth about what a year actually felt like—longing, fear, disconnection, grief—and how naming that reality grounded me instead of shaming me. When you’ve lived in abuse or survival mode, your inner compass gets scrambled. Your nervous system isn’t thinking about the future. It’s trying to stay safe. So when people ask about goals or resolutions, everything can freeze.

This practice doesn’t ask you to know the future. It asks you to tell the truth about the present.

Here is the Substack link: https://open.substack.com/pub/jessicaknightcoaching/p/instead-of-resolutions-i-do-this?r=1ecj9w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Support the show

*Please Note: there is a long intro that explains my services. If you do not want to listen, just fast-forward 5 mins past. This intro will be changed in future recordings to be shorter. I am not paid to record this podcast and it is a free offering. Offering my work is the only way I can sustain the podcast*

Join the Patreon: https://patreon.com/Youarenotcrazy

*New Course*: Unhooked: Map the Cycle of Abuse in your Relationship

Website: Emotional Abuse Coach and high-conflictdivorcecoaching.com
Instagram: @emotionalabusecoach
Email: jessica@jessicaknightcoaching.com

{Substack} Blog About Recovering from Abuse

{E-Book} How to Break Up with a Narcissist
{Course} Identify Signs of Abuse and Begin to Heal
{Free Resource} Canned Responses for Engaging with an Abusive Partner